Ballet Central Diary

Brian's December Diary

Hi, I’m back, and much has happened since last writing. We have continued to rehearse and get ready for the Ballet Central national tour, we have performed at the Tate Britain (for our sponsors, ScottishPower), I have helped with an education workshop in Glasgow, and we are now shooting our production and audition photographs.

At the Tate Britain ScottishPower event I performed in two pieces, the first being ‘Measured Paces’ by David Fielding, the other was a pas de deux from Northern Ballet Theatre’s Dracula.
Both require a lot of stamina and have very challenging duet work, but even these elements are very different, as ‘Dracula’ is for two men, and ‘Paces’ is for six couples. It has been a demanding process getting ‘Paces’ up to standard; the second movement in which I am more involved requires two couples to perform in unison some very advanced pas de deux work. It has also been challenging to work with the Stravinsky score, which is structurally very complicated and requires constant attention.

‘Dracula’ posed other difficulties, including my first taste of wearing a wig! It is quite a scary experience going into wardrobe looking like yourself, and then twenty minutes later coming out and seeing yourself looking ancient, with long grey hair! I really love playing Dracula, the character has so much power and intensity, and I love going on stage and performing it. There are, however, difficulties in playing a character with that power, as I cannot show any strain during the piece. I have also got some praise from my fellow company members when they have seen me perform it, which is a great encouragement and helps me throw myself into it every time.

In the middle of getting ready for the event at the Tate, I was chosen to go up to Glasgow, with five other Ballet Central members to take part in our first Educational Workshop. We performed a short ‘Behind the Scenes’ look at what we do every day at Central School of Ballet and showed some of the tour pieces, and then the rest of the day we spent creating a version of The Nutcracker with the children. I never really contemplated how tiring it would be, having to be enthusiastic all the time, but it was very rewarding to see the end result when the children put on a performance for their parents.

After all this action over the last 4 weeks I am really looking forward to having a rest over Christmas, allowing my body to recover and returning to South Africa for the first time since I came to Central School of Ballet.

Signing off ‘til next time

Brian

Christie's December Entry

Hello everyone!

I can’t believe how quickly the first term of the third year has passed. It seems that in no time at all we have achieved so much as we prepare to go on tour next year. Since my last entry, my schedule as a Ballet Central member has consisted of daily Ballet class followed by continuous rehearsals as well as class in other techniques such as Contemporary Dance and Jazz Dance. The rehearsals have been the preparation of a variety of pieces that were presented for the Ballet Central sponsors, ScottishPower, at a private event.

This event was held at the Tate Britain on the evening of Wednesday 3rd December. It was an unusual venue where the surroundings presented some difficulties. The stage, which was put up in one of the galleries, was set 3ft off the floor with only white tape to mark the edge which felt quite daunting at some points as I was rapidly approaching the hanging museum portraits! The fact that this was our first performance as Ballet Central as well made the evening that little extra bit scarier. However, this gave us valuable experience that we will be able to take with us on tour.

The pieces that we performed included Contemporary Dance, Neo-classical, Classical Ballet and Jazz Dance styles showing our versatility as dancers. I was involved in three pieces ranging from Classical Ballet to Contemporary Dance, which not only required a very quick costume change, but also the ability to switch from one style of dance to another – a further skill which the event has given me the chance to experience. I feel that the whole evening was well received and that this small insight into Ballet Central life has given me a further desire to begin the tour.

This day also offered me other challenges as I took my Royal Academy of Dance Solo Seal examination on the same afternoon. This exam differs from any other as it is presented in front of audience as well as a panel of adjudicators which includes an examiner alongside a professional dancer. The enchaiments and sequences were designed to demonstrate the student as a soloist, which means that although the exam is only short it is very demanding. However it is a true test of nerves and I was pleased that I managed to push myself through it even though I felt physically drained due to the late finish of 10 o’clock on the previous night following rehearsals at the Tate. This has been an important lesson in how to deal not only with a lot of dancing in one day, but also how to keep my stamina and energy levels up so that I can always perform to my best. This is one skill that will help me and will continue to develop as I begin and progress though the Ballet Central tour. I’ll keep you posted as to how the tour preparations continue. Bye for now, Christie

Sarah's December Entry

Hello to everyone again and I hope all is well.

Things have gradually been getting a bit hectic with having so many pre-preparations this month before our tour starts next year. It has been very exciting seeing all the rehearsals for the different pieces taking place and having costume fittings as well. So far I have been cast in three pieces, including ‘Portrait’ by Aurora Bosch and ‘Superstuct’ by Sara Matthews, which has been commissioned for the tour and specially choreographed on the company. I absolutely love dancing these pieces because each one has a different style and character that needs to be portrayed which is essential for a dancer.

‘Portrait’ is a pure classical piece, which is about the idea of holding positions and poses - framing the stage almost as if pictures are being taken of you. Hence the name!!! ‘Superstruct’ is a neo classical piece based on form structure and patterns. Each piece requires speedy footwork and lots and lots of stamina but I am looking forward to see how I develop in my roles and how to make them EVEN better when going on tour with Ballet Central.

Earlier this term a very exciting thing happened - Northern Ballet Theatre’s director David Nixon and Ballet Mistress Yoko Ichino came into the school to audition us for the corps de ballet of their production of Swan Lake. I received the very good news that I would be one of the 7 to be picked as an extra swan. I am absolutely ecstatic and can’t wait to start rehearsals with the company in January. The experience will be invaluable…..

The audition was a special day to remember as our new patron, the Countess of Wessex was invited to view, along with various photographers. She thoroughly enjoyed the audition and on leaving wished us all the best of luck! Well, to my amazement guess what turned up in Hello magazine dated October 28…….? One of the photographs taken on that day with the Countess beaming wonderfully! I was astonished to find myself standing right next to the Countess on her left. I almost felt like a celebrity!

I’m signing off now but I’d like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Sarah Kundi

Ashley's December Entry

Hi guys,

Could this term have gone any quicker? It only seems like a couple of weeks ago when we started the third year (scary). It seems like I haven’t even stopped since my last entry, what with classes, rehearsals etc and I can’t believe we start to tour in a few months. Saying that, we have already done six pieces towards our tour, which we have been rehearsing like mad for a performance we had on Wednesday 3rd December at the Tate Britain.

This event was organised by Ballet Central’s sponsor, ScottishPower, giving us a great start before the tour. As I said, the programme for the performance consisted of six pieces ranging from Ballet to Neo-classical to Contemporary Dance and Jazz Dance. It can prove difficult to change style quickly and it didn’t help with the stage we had – it was put up in one of the Tate Britain galleries and was 3ft high platform with nothing but tape showing the edge, which can be very scary when you’re right near the edge jumping. Other than that it was a great night and I can’t wait for the actual tour to start. I was involved in two pieces in the show. The first being ‘Scottish Dances’ from Flowers of the Forest, which David Bintley gave us permission to perform at this private event (and being Scottish, it was particularly relevant to our sponsors, ScottishPower). In the second I played Jonathan Harker in a pas de deux from Northern Ballet Theatre’s Dracula. ‘Scottish Dances’ uses Scottish themes, and involves wearing a very heavy kilt (not nice to jump in). I found this a great piece as it gives you the chance to basically show off in a very subtle way. This is very different to Dracula when I have to turn into a nervous wreck as I’m being tortured by Dracula. I find this a brilliant role to play, as I have to make everything look a struggle as Dracula is overpowering me, slowly wearing me down. This was a great start to our third year at Central and gave us a brilliant insight to the tour.

Ashley