Ballet Central Diary

Ashley's March diary

Hey guys hope everyone is well and looking forward to Easter holidays, because I know I am. I’ve been really busy since I last wrote with rehearsals and starting the tour.

Rehearsals have been getting a lot tougher and people are getting tenser before the beginning of tour, me included. After the Preview performance here at Central School, we were told that we would have another one the following week, as well as performing excerpts from the tour at an Open Day for hopeful new students. This meant more performance practice for us which was gratefully received but turned out to be quite a tough week.

The following week was the beginning of tour and everyone was very exited. We arrived at Epsom early on the Monday morning ready to do our first full get-in as a company. Everyone is assigned different task such as wardrobe, lighting, sound etc. I was appointed to lighting, which is great fun. This involves everything from setting the lights up to helping to get the lights in the right place (focusing). After the get-in we went back to school and continued rehearsing. The following day we were in the theatre for the whole day and had a dress rehearsal that the whole school came to watch. This was a really good experience as it was the toughest and best audience we would have! our peers can criticise every wrong move, but also give us a lot of support. After the dress rehearsal I had a great buzz and couldn’t wait for the tour to start for real.

The next day everyone was very tired but this soon changed when we got to performance time and there was a real feeling of excitement. The performance went well that night and since Epsom we have performed in Norwich, Chelmsford and a seven-day tour of the north of England.

Unfortunately I did not go on the 7-day tour because I had my RAD Solo Seal examination. I took this on Wednesday 31st March and found out a few days ago that I was successful! I also got to the final of the NBT audition I went to and am just waiting to here from them. Anyway I think that is all that has happened this month so I’ll be off and I’ll keep you all informed.

C u soon, Ash

Christie's March Diary - the tour begins

Hello again to all readers! The end of March has come about so quickly, I can hardly believe how much I and the rest of the Ballet Central Company have already achieved.

At the very beginning of the month I travelled to Nottingham to perform once again with Northern Ballet Theatre in Swan Lake. The first performance was on the 2nd, which was my 19th birthday! I took some of my presents up with me to open in the morning, as class wasn’t until 12.30 that day, a welcome change to the earlier starts at school.

It was strange once again being with the company and taking class on a raked stage. However, it’s amazing how as a dancer you learn to adapt to your surroundings and the dancers around you.

As the week progressed I felt far more relaxed and settled within the company, a complete change from those nervous first days back in January. As the curtain came down on the Saturday performance I felt a wave of sadness, as it was my last performance with the company, as well as a great sense of achievement and satisfaction!

Back at school – preparing for the tour!

Once back at school everyone was as busy as ever. Although the tour didn’t officially start until March 17th, Ballet Central put on previews and in-house performances at school, in preparation for the opening night. By this time I’d missed seven weeks of rehearsal time and had a lot to catch up on.

With the first performance coming up at the end of the week I had even less time to rehearse than I’d thought. However, I found that the preview performances were far better preparation for me, as they taught me how I react under the pressure of performing to an audience. I became aware of any mistakes that I made and leant how I react to nerves.

The tour finally got under way in Epsom on Wednesday 17th March. It was an exciting and nerve-wracking time as we began to feel like a real company as well as a team. Part of what made us work as a team was having to do the ‘get-in’. The whole company was divided into groups who helped in different aspects of preparing the theatre for performance. I helped in wardrobe, which involved unloading and unbagging costumes, washing them and hanging them by the name tags with whom they belong. With everyone helping to get things done, the get-in can be done quite quickly and brings the whole year together. Working in wardrobe can be quite fun, although I’m not over-keen on washing the boys socks for David Bintley’s ‘Scottish Dances’!

Ballet Central then went out on the road for the first time, performing in four venues over a week. Our first venue, Kendal, was definitely the most memorable for me so far, although for the wrong reason, as I didn’t get to perform! However, I did discover that I’m very badly allergic to something that I’d eaten that day, although I’m not sure what yet! I began feeling unwell during class and started to feel shaky as the afternoon went on. As we were rehearsing the pas de deux from Vespri, I knew that something was definitely not right, but continued anyway and made it into the wings. Just as I stepped off stage I fainted and can only remember waking up to hear people talking and gathered around me. I ended up waiting in the accident and emergency department of Kendal’s local hospital after taking a ride in an ambulance!

I did manage to make it back to the theatre though just in time to watch the 3rd act of the performance.

In between touring I went to another audition for Northern Ballet Theatre. I felt more nervous than I thought I would, probably as the outcome meant so much to me. We were told that we would be contacted within 2 weeks of the audition, which meant we would find out from them at the beginning of April. Although I came out of the audition feeling fairly happy with how I’d done, I was up against so many other talented dancers all hoping for a contract, so I wasn’t sure of what the outcome would be.

On Friday 2nd April, the Ballet Central coach arrived back at school and we began the tedious job of unloading the van. Just as I was feeling the affects of being on tour, tired and lethargic, I received a phone call. I went really pale and shaky as you do when you answer an important phone call that you’ve been waiting for. It was NBT calling to say that I’d been offered a contract starting from the summer. I was so thrilled that I started crying, as I also felt so relieved. This day was made even more memorable as it was the fourth anniversary of my Nan’s death. I know that she would be so proud of me, which makes all the hard work seem even more worthwhile.

Brian's March Diary - Auditions and First Tour

Hi again. It's been an incredibly busy month. I have just got back from my first long tour, to four venues in the north of England. I have also auditioned for Northern Ballet Theatre.

The audition went very well and I was pleased with my performance in it. First we did a warm-up and them class with David Nixon - he was very giving in the audition and I was pleased that he took it more like a class, giving us corrections and helping us to better ourselves. I was quite excited when I got through the first round, and into the repertoire class. We were taught the Black Swan Mens Duet from the company's new production of 'Swan Lake'. It is a technically difficult piece but a great joy to dance. Then we were taught a short pas de deux section from 'I've Got Rhythm', and a really fun Swing dance from their 'Midsummer Night's Dream'.

A week later I found myself packing clothes, food (lots of food!) and some dance gear, and getting on the coach for the 7 hour Drive to Kendal in the Lake District. The journey was pretty uneventful with most of the coach sleeping, reading or playing cards. We arrived in Kendal in the early evening and found we were staying in a hostel just next door to the theatre. This was very nice as it meant we could get up much later than we could usually. Kendal is a beautiful town and we were able to look around it on the Sunday as we had the day off. While some of the company made their way to Lake Windemere, I went walking to Kendal Castle and out on to the country lanes around the town.
The performance itself was very good although one of the girls (Christie Duncan, my fellow diarist) fell ill and we had to fill her place, which meant some last minute changes and a bit of running around during the performance. To be continued.....

Well Concluding from the above. It was on to Huddersfield, and another show. Huddersfield was pretty standard we all knew what we were doing and apart from some minor cast changes (this time planned), it was a repeat of Kendal. It was a flying visit, only being there for one day, the next morning it was off to Chesterfield, and a little shock, our first raked stage!!
This did make for some fun on and off the stage as we all ajusted to the feeling of not having our feet flat on the ground. The performance here was not bad I was dancing David Bintley's "Flowers of the Forest" which to begin with I was very nervous about performing. There is one section in the Pas de Deux where we had to perform two sets of double Sissonnes, a step wich I grew to hate, for a few weeks as it took so much practice and in the end I was dreaming about them!

The next day it was on to Manchester, and to a huge stage (by our usually small standards). We were all really happy to be able to use so much space. Usually we have to reduce most steps. I was really pleased to be performing Dracula again as I had not perviously on this tour. I love performing this part as I can really sink my teeth (pardon the pun) into the acting and character aspects of it.
I had some friend watching, and going out front to see them after the performance to find out what they enjoyed makes the hard work all the more worth while. However harder days were yet to come....

Sarah's April Diary

Hi Everyone!!
As you all may know, our Ballet Central tour opened two weeks ago, which was a great success. We were all excited about the opening night and the prospect of all our hard work over the past 2 months finally paying off. I danced the tennis girl solo from Gillian Lynne's 'A Simple Man', which I thoroughly enjoyed and it was amazing to finally dance it on stage.
After practising something for so long in a studio, it feels fantastic but a bit ‘alien’ when done on stage because the atmosphere, and the environment is so different.
Nevertheless, we had a great time! My mum came to watch the show and she said we all looked so professional.
Not only did I enjoy the performing side of the tour, but it was a great learning experience to do all the work that puts the show on the stage. This includes putting the floor down on the stage, rigging the lights, sorting the costumes in wardrobe and organizing “front of house”.

On 25th March, we performed at the Civic Theatre in Chelmsford. This was another day venue which went really well. I was ecstatic to find out that I was to dance the pas de deux role in 'Scottish Dances from Flowers of the Forest as well as my Tennis Girl role in 'A Simple Man'. 'Scottish Dances' is a fantastic and dynamic work choreographed by David Bintley which I enjoy dancing so much. The pas de deux is such a wonderful role to dance - you can really express yourself through the music and choreograpy.

I attended the audition for Northern Ballet Theatre on 21st March. This was my first audition, and so I was quite anxious to see what it was going to be like, but I ended up having a great time! We had ballet class with the Director, David Nixon, and at the end he called out the numbers he wanted to keep behind for another class. I was overwhelmed when my number was called out!! (along with three other girls and three boys from Central). In the final, there were about 15 boys and 15 girls. We learnt repertoire from David Nixon’s 'Swan Lake' - the girls learnt “Big Swans” and then we teamed up with a boy to dance a pas de deux from “I’ve got Rhythm”. I haven’t heard from NBT yet, but hopefully it won’t be too long now!.....

In the meantime, I’ve been at school rehearsing new roles for the tour and planning other auditions for companies.

Until next time, goodbye and once again I am so pleased to be sharing this most exciting part of my life with you!

Sarah