Ballet Central Diary

Verity's May Diary

Dear Diary

We are now well into the Ballet Central tour and all is good so far. Last time I mentioned that we were about to perform at the Linbury, Royal Opera House which is one of our most prestigious venues. It was really cool to perform in such a nice theatre and to dance on a big stage.

A couple of days later we peformed in Hertford which was just a day venue and then we were off to Abergavenny in Wales for three days. It took us about four hours to get there on the coach and although it wasn’t very comfortable I managed to sleep most of the way. The theatre was really sweet – the stage was pretty small and had a slight rake but it wasn’t too bad. Next was Bracknell, which was another day venue. There were a few cast changes and I danced Song to St Andrew for the first time which is the pas de deux that was created by David Nixon. As it was my first performance of the piece I was quite nervous but it went smoothly and I really enjoyed it.

The next tour venue was the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield. This was another 4 hours away on the coach and this time we stayed in a Travel Lodge. We were shocked when we got to the theatre and saw how steep the rake was. Class on stage that day was a bit of a battle trying to find our centres and get used to the rake, but by the time we had done all our rehearsals and it came to the performance we no longer noticed it. Again the performance went very smoothly despite the steep rake. After the get out that night we all went for a drink in the local pub they were very hospitable and made us free sandwiches!

Yesterday we arrived back from Newtown in Wales. We left from school at 4pm and didn’t arrive at the hotel in Newtown until about 9.30 that night. At the hotel it was bingo night! So once we had all been allocated our rooms we went and had a game. The prize money was very good, £15 for a line and £65 for a whole set - not bad, hey! It was a good laugh and Rodrigo won £15.

The next day, I was up at seven and after being served a very good breakfast we piled on the coach and headed to the theatre. I really liked this theatre – it was seven rolls of dance floor and no rake! I had quite an important show that night as I was dancing the trio from Simple Symphony and The Brontës for the first time, so I was a bit worried. The show was good except that in Sense and Innocence I smacked heads with one of the other dancers, it hurt a lot and I thought I was going to pass out, but of course had to carry on. It happened so fast and nobody else even knew or noticed that it had happened, so I suppose that’s good.

On Tuesday we are off again for 5 days this time to Grantham, Wakefield and Hexham. We have three shows in a row so I’m guessing we are going to be very tired when we arrive back on Saturday.

Verity

Richard's May Diary

Hello, it’s that time again! Well, it’s not so long since I last wrote so this entry should be pretty short and sweet.

Continuing where I left off…when we got back from Abergavenny, I then travelled back to my home in Theydon Bois because it was the start of the Jewish festival of Pass Over, it was really nice to see my whole family again.

Our next tour date was a week away so we had plenty of time to change around the casts and polish up the pieces for Bracknell. Bracknell was a great venue, it had a big auditorium and a good size stage plus we had a sell out audience. I had a bit of a surprise when an old friend of mine turned up out of the blue. I’d worked with this guy about seven years ago with English National Opera. By chance, Annie, our costume designer had done an opera project with him and invited him to see Ballet Central. It’s a small world, isn’t it!! It was great to see an old friend and talk about the different paths we’d both taken.

Later that morning I was one of five dancers chosen to lead a workshop with a group of kids from the local dance school. We had a great time teaching them some of our rep’ and helping them create some of their own movement material. The performance that night went really well – there was a great atmosphere both on stage and back stage plus we got a fantastic response from the audience.

We had a couple of days off and then we were on the road again, this time heading for Chesterfield. We stayed in a Travel Lodge and I was a bit annoyed because I ended up sleeping in this pull-out thing on the floor which we called the ‘dog bed’. The Pomegranate Theatre had a major rake, which was fun, and we heard that it was haunted!!!! The night before the show one of the girls hurt her wrist and went to hospital to get it checked out. Luckily it wasn’t broken but we had to recast a number of pieces, this meant I had to quickly learn a section of ‘The Numbers Game’ so I could fill in while one of the girls was doing a quick change. It was quite nerve-racking for me, but the audience were none the wiser and we gave another great show.

I said this entry would be short but it turns out I had quite a lot to say. So the next tour takes us back to Wales, to Newtown on Thursday. I’m sure there will be plenty to write about next time.

Richard.