Ballet Central Diary

It begins

Dear Readers (anybody?),
welcome to my first Ballet Central weblog. I hope my little contributions are in some way entertaining.
This week has been very eventful. It started with us getting ready for our first date of the tour. I had been madly rehearsing my pieces, one of which (Cinderella pas de deux) I had been thrown into because of injury and was still feeling a little scared about it all right up to the first night. In the event my partner and I managed to pull it together okay (barring a little mishap on the final lift) and I suppose it helps that it's a piece that I have loved since first seeing it on a Central School of Ballet open day.
My other big piece was 'Rendezvous' the first of two solos choreographed by Sara Matthews and is inspired by a WW1 poem by Alan Seeger ('I have a rendezvous with death'). The second (if you are interested) is inspired by the Wilfred Owen poem 'Futility', (Move him into the sun...). I really enjoy dancing Rendezvous. It's partly the sheer challenge of the movement and the fact that since it is largely in silence, you have some degree of control over the pacing and dynamics, but also that with such emotive subject matter, there's a lot of opportunities for interpretation.
So the first performance was pretty good from all. "A good place to build from" is how it was referred to and I suppose that's about right. It should just keep going up and up- come and see it twice, decide for yourself. He he.
We had an excellent audience at Ilford; very appreciative and it was nice to experience that. Thanks to all.
In other news I signed my first professional contract today. After school is over it's off to Leeds and into some real paid work with Northern Ballet Theatre. I'm very excited about it all, but it's pretty scary. I've never even been to Leeds before. One very beneficial part of finding out that I have something after graduation is that it removes some of the pressure from the year. At least I don't have to worry about doing more auditions and can just work on improving and doing the best that I possibly can in the tour. Should be fun. I'll let you know.
This brings my entry to a close. I have to get some sleep as I'm busy filling in for other injured dancers at the moment- it's a hazard of the job.
Until next time,
Robert

Katherine's First Entry

The tour has started!! I cannot believe it, before I came to Central I saw the Ballet Central 2003 performance, I was in so much awe of the performers and now 3 years on one of those performers is me. I have thoroughly enjoyed my training at Central and honestly believe that I could not have had a better preparation for life or a professional career in dance. Prior to training at Central, I firstly attended a local dancing school from the age of 5. I have always loved to dance and perform and this was encouraged by my teachers from a young age. Then after doing the 1998 season with the National Youth Ballet my love for dancing and primarily ballet was confirmed and it was from this point on that I knew that all I wanted to do was dance. I then moved dancing schools to increase my classical training, as it was this I wanted to focus on more. I learnt a lot of valuable information from different teachers and will be ever greatful for the effort that they put in to help me achieve a place at a full-time vocational school. One of the best days of my life so far was when I gained my place at Central, although I knew a lot of hard work was ahead I was also certain that I would enjoy it, and I certainly have!

We have been working on the repertoire for the tour since September and at first the heavy rehearsal schedule was a shock to the system! After a while you start to get a little bit more used to it, although at the end of some days the only thing you want to do is sleep! We've already learnt a lot about life in a company (which is essentially what this tour is all about) from working with choreographers including the prestigious Michael Corder! I was very scared at first when he came to rehearse us but he is lovely and I've really enjoyed working with him and on his piece 'St Paul's Suite'. We've also learnt about different aspects of the technical side of things including lighting, wardrobe and even how to lay the floor! I'm on the wardrobe team which is fun, plus we can start the get out during the show so our work load is nicely spread out.

The get-in at Ilford was exciting as everybody was really looking forward to opening night so there was lots of jokes and laughter. Then the technical rehearsal was ok, but they're really tiring and the run throughs of each piece didn't go too well. I was really scared for the dress rehearsal as the rest of the school was coming to watch... a much more critical audience than my family! However, thanks to some much needed adrenaline the rehearsal went really well and I enjoyed it a lot!! The next day we all felt tired and consequently the dress rehearsal was awful, I was dreading the performance and just hoping that it would go ok. Then at the half hour call Bill, our artistic director, asked us to meet in the green room, he gave us a pep talk and a rose each (!!) which brought back all of my excitement and made me ready to perform. The performance was great, I enjoyed it so much and luckily everything was fine, except one tumble that managed to go unnoticed by some members of staff and audience!! The audience were also really responsive which helped our confidence lots. We did the get out really quickly and were home by 11.30, although physically exhausted we were too excited to sleep and stayed up talking about the performance! I'm looking forward to the next leg of the tour so much. Kendal and Liverpool are my home venues so lots of family and friends are coming to watch and they are always so encouraging and appreciative!

Julia's First Entry

Hello, the tour has only just begun but I thought I would come on and introduce myself! I have been at Central since first year and I cannot actually believe that the Tour has arrived. We have all been building up to this moment for so long but now that it is here I feel like it's crept up so quickly! I trained first of all at a local dance school near to my home in Wokingham, before moving to learn with Susan Robinson in Surrey. I have always wanted to be a dancer and my absolute dream would be to be able to get a classical job for when I graduate. However, now that auditions are upon us I'm feeling a lot more anxious about the whole thing! (More of that later!)
We had our opening night on the 15th at Ilford. The theatre is a really nice size and we had lots of room backstage to spread out. We did the get-in on the Monday which was fine. I am on the sound team, but so far it seems like we don't have to do much compared to everyone else! We had technical and dress rehearsals on the Tuesday which went really well, then another dress rehearsal on Wednesday afternoon. This rehearsal was disasterous! I think that because it had gone so well the night before and because we were tired it just all fell apart. The costumes for one of the pieces literally fell apart(!) but were frantically fixed by our amazing wardrobe mistress Annie in the nick of time. However, after some stern notes and encouragment, everyone pulled themselves together for the evening.
In the opening performance I dance in St Paul's Suite, Coppelia, Le Corsaire, Moving On and Going South for the Winter (usually referred to as Birds). It went really well! I thoroughly enjoyed dancing St Paul's because the music is so beautiful and you just get carried away. I always find Swanhilda fun to dance, particularly acting with all the others girls whom I am really good friends with in life too! Corsaire is a nerve wracking but exciting experience and Jenna's is great fun, although apparently I didn't point my feet at all! Birds was fine and provided an energetic end to our first show. It is a big piece so I don't think we will ever have enough space but we coped well! Everyone was on such a high after the performance and we all clubbed together really well to do the get-out. Apparently we will get faster and faster as time goes by, and our aim is to get it done in twenty minutes! Got a bus back to school and then the lovely bus driver agreed to drop us off just outside our flat in Angel which was much appreciated as my legs had slightly seized up by this point. Fell into bed and before i fell asleep I momentarily appreciated that I did not have to get up at 5am, travel somewhere else, and do the whole thing over again - this tour business is going to be tough! That said, I can't wait for the next one!

Introduction to 2006 Ballet Central Weblog

A huge welcome to the 2006 Ballet Central weblog students:
Katherine Hollinson, Julia Davies and Robert Phillips.

There will be words from the students shortly but we are kicking off with pictures of them in action. And you will be able to see them in action yourself as they tour the UK in a show that is always well received.:
Ballet Central Tour Details

Our students at work...

Julia Davies
© Patrick Baldwin

Katherine Hollinson
© Patrick Baldwin

Robert Phillips
© Patrick Baldwin