Ballet Central Diary

Ballet Central 2005: Verity's first diary

Dear Diary,

Hello! Or should I say, Gday! This is my first diary entry so let me tell you a bit about myself…

My name is Verity Jane Hopkins, I’m 18 years old, 19 next July. I was born in Australia and I moved to London about a year and a half ago to join Central School of Ballet. I started out dancing when I was about 6 years old just at a local dance school on the Gold Coast. I think I was about 15 when I decided that I had to be a dancer and started to take it more seriously. You’re probably wondering why I left the wonderful Aus for gloomy London - I’m actually asking myself that same question! No, I decided to come to Central after taking part in an audition tour of UK and European ballet schools when I was 16. I realized that there were many more opportunities in Europe and that travelling and seeing other parts of the world was something that I really wanted to do – as well as dance, obviously.

I love living in London, but it wasn’t so easy leaving my family and moving half-way across the world when I was 17. But I did and now here I am, a third year student preparing for the Ballet Central tour.

I share a flat with three other third year students just across the road from school, which is very handy. We all get on really well, which is also handy – means that there aren’t too many dramas!

We are all busy learning and rehearsing pieces for the tour and so far they are going smoothly and looking good. We have just about finished a piece with Stephen Pelton which we have been working on for a few months. It is a fun piece to dance and I really like the music, not sure what it’s called but I’ll let you know. (Talking Heads, ‘Houses in Motion’ – Ed.)

I’m looking forward to Christmas, although I wont get to spend it with any of my family (sniff, sniff). But I’m sure I’ll have a great time and probably have a few too many mince pies, naughty me! Until next time, Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

Verity xx

Verity Hopkins
Photo: Patrick Baldwin. Click to enlarge.

Ballet Central 2005: Richard's First Diary

Dear Diary,

Hi! My name’s Richard Bermange, I’m 20 and I was born in Essex. I’m in my 3rd year at Central School of Ballet and at the moment we’re all working hard on the rep’ for the Ballet Central tour next year.

I started dancing when I was about eight so I’ve been doing this for nearly 13 years now. I started at a little ballet school in my village and then went to a bigger school in Harlow before starting at Central School in September 2002. I’ve had a great time at Central and I’ve made some great friends here, it’ll be a sad day when we graduate in eight months time. When I graduate in July, I hope to get a job in a Classical Ballet company, so I’m just starting to audition for companies in the UK and Europe.

This week at Central we’ve been working with Cathy Marston on a new work for our tour. It’s a really challenging piece but it’s a lot of fun working on it. Cathy is creating a pas de deux on me so my arms are really aching at the moment! She said it’s good for me and some day I’ll thank her! She’s really nice to work with.

Well that’s about it for my first Ballet.co diary entry. I’ll write again in the New Year, with news about auditions and how the tour is going.

Richard

Me!
Photo: Patrick Baldwin. Click to enlarge.