Ballet Central Diary

The Gala (and not much else i'm afraid)...

I will begin my latest addition to the world wide web by painting a picture for you all. Date 19th April 2008, time 8:36pm (roughly), venue Lindbury Theatre Royal Opera House. There I am, standing in the wings dressed as Prince Charming, a Lindbury auditorium packed with some of the most important people in the dance world, a musical genius at the piano waiting to play live music and Brenda is on stage kneeling down, face in hands. I had a little moment, a kind of conversation in my head that went a little bit like this 'TOM, YOU MUPPET, WHATEVER YOU DO DO NOT BALLS THIS UP!!!!'...and then the music started. How i got to that stage i will never really know, i am just a lad from Brighton that loves performing, the director of the Royal Ballet Company was out there for crying out loud, no pressure then she sees Carlos Acosta dance pretty much every day. If I am honest theres not much you can do at that point, a part of me wanted to pick up Chris the stage manager and plonk him on the stage, he could improvise he would be great, however I then realised that this was the whole reason i started dancing and the whole reason i wanted to be a professional. I closed my eyes as i always do when Feeney starts the music, took a deap breath and stepped. This, as they say, was it.

I was well aware that this was probably the biggest and most important show i had ever taken part in. The Ballet Central gala performance is always held at the Opera House and the staff pack no punches in letting us know just how important it is. We had had 4 shows beforehand, Ilford, Crawley, Cambridge and Chelmsford all of which had gone pretty well but we knew that would be no consolation if we mucked this one up.

I had already done Matthew Bourne's Cygnets in the first half which had gone quite well. I was really chuffed to have been chosen to dance it, it's a dream of mine and, even if it never happens again, at least i got wear the costume. It is a short piece and was over quite quickly so i had been buzzing to get back on that stage and do Cinderella.

If I am going to be totally honest with you it ceratinly wasn't the best we have ever done it but the feeling was incredible, the buzz the adrenalin, you just cannot get it anywhere else. The presage at the end was a bit disappointing. I am not sure where it went wrong but it was the only time it had not worked perfectly. Brenda ran , I bent my knees and pushed but she did not get all the way up there straight away. Fortunately the adrenalin took over and i locked my arms but it was a shame, my parents and friends told me they did not notice it was different but we were disappointed, we both felt like we had let people down a bit.

Overall though my two pieces and the show overall went well. The Boss was pleased and Bruce Sansom (director of the school and overall ruler of pretty much everything) spoke to the company and said it had gone very well.

Overall a success then, thats it for now as a Jazz rehearsal beckons, a lot more has happened but i'm banking on Rym and Brenda to elaborate in the next few weeks.

Speak soon

Tom

Posted by Tom Conlan at April 25, 2008 04:38 PM