Ballet Central Diary

Photos!

Here are the photos I promised sorry!!

View image
A group of us stood outside Central on our last day :(

Becca, me and Charlotte B in our jazz costumes!

Lucy B and Julia in their Moving on costumes

Julia and Leonne in their Grad outfits

The whole year on stage after our Graduation!

Bye!!

This is it, my last diary entry! I’m at home now, Julia, Leonne and I moved out of our flat on Monday. It was horrible saying bye to them; we’ve lived with each other since June of 1st year so we’re all going to fee like we’re missing a bit for a while. Graduation was fun, I didn’t perform my solo the best I could have and I can’t say that I enjoyed it but the party after was brilliant. David Nixon also gave a very inspirational speech, putting Julien and I to shame! I was really nervous before hand but once we got started it was fine. Plus I could see all the people in the audience and I knew them all so I ended up feeling quite relaxed! In the last week we had some classes and then I choreographed a piece for the Garden party so we used spare time to do that. The garden party went really well and the weather was beautiful, it’s such a nice way to end the year (my piece got a commendation and I won a years subscription to the Dancing Times which will definitely come in useful!!) Then a lot of people stayed down after we had finished so that we could all spend some quality time together and we had a brilliant week. On the Monday Julia and I went to the British Museum during the day and in the evening went to Wagamamas to say bye to Laura and Dario :( Then on Tuesday Lucy B, Stephen, Rachael, Eddie, Jenny, Lucy D, Leonne, Julien, Julia and I went to Brighton which was loads of fun, we all went swimming in the sea, it was SO hot!! We did lots more through out the week, and it was such a brilliant way to say good bye. It has been so strange but I think that we’re all ready to move on and start our new adventures. I know that we will keep in touch and it’ll be interesting meeting up with people in years to come and seeing what they’ve been up to. I still haven’t got a job but I’m going to keep auditioning so hopefully something will come up. There is certainly a difficult time ahead and it’s going to be hard to stay focused and motivated but I’m determined to give it my best go! Thank you for putting up with my diary entries which are always too long, I’ll leave you with some photos of the last few weeks! Bye xx

p.s the photo thing isn't working, i'll try again later!!

The End is Nigh!

Well, here we are in my final week ever at Central! I can't actually believe this is happening to me! The last few weeks have been so crazy and busy, but now that it is cool down week it is so wierd to actually have some free time.
I had a brilliant time last week in the Bloomsbury. The school performances were fun, because I was just dancing Moving On, and this left us lots of time to have fun and spend time together backstage, an unusual luxury as we are generally all in four or five pieces. The last two Ballet Central performances were great, but so sad. When Eriko, Kozue and I got off stage from our last ever Corsaire, we all promptly burst into tears and did not stop for about an hour! Doing Corsaire has been such a wonderful challenge, and it has brought the three of us so close, helping each other through the technical and mental challenges of dancing the piece. Everyone was so emotional!
Sunday brought the terrifying graduation day- I was so nervous! We had to do our solos in the morning for the degree assessment, and then again for our friends and family in the afternoon. I danced Lise's Act Two solo from La Fille mal Gardee. In rehearsals all week it was not going too well, as I couldn't fouette, but the performances went really well, though I was too nervous to enjoy it. The reception afterwards was so good, free champagne and good friends, and I got to wear my new outfit! I got to see old teachers from past years and everyone was so lovely and enthusiastic about all of our solos. We had our own after party at Printworks in Farringdon, which was hilarious. Had the best night ever and got in at 5 am, perhaps thats why I am tired this week!?
Anyway, I am sure you read in Katherine's diary that I have exciting news, and it is that I have a job! I am starting with NBT on 31st July as Apprentice! I will definately be dancing in A Christmas Carol, touring during November and December, and I finish on 23rd December. After that who knows, but I am so happy to have a job straight from school. It will give me some experience for my CV and I have always wanted to go to NBT, so it is a dream come true! I intend to work my socks off and make the most of the great chance that I have been given. I'm moving up to Leeds in two weeks, living with Rob and Charlotte (who is going to Phoenix). It has only just hit me, just how much time I will be spending with Rob! (Only joking!)
Anyway, that's about it from me, it has been a wonderful year, and one in which I have challenged and pushed so much, but have had an absolutely fantstic time. Thanks to all my teachers, and the staff at Central, and now I am going to stop beofre this starts sounding like an Oscar accceptance speech! Farewll readers!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Well slap my face and paint me red, it has been a long time since I last wrote one of these and here we are in the graduation week.
I feel bad for not sharing the experiences of Scotland (ah the joyous homeland) and Bridport, the venue-on-sea where we went on a daytrip to Lyme Regis which was very exciting.
I haven't mentioned Frome and the miles of cabling, or meeting Royalty at Bracknell. That one needs explaining and may well get me executed. Never mind. Haven't mentioned our decoration of the changing rooms, watching the world cup in Crawley and the enormous oranges of Epsom.
All this will come in time, but for now my head's full of graduation.
It's very strange to finish in the Bloomsbury with the rest of the school as I still remember 1st and 2nd year there so clearly, so it's like a flashback to the start again- what we used to think, our expectations and what we hoped for in the future. Now with the prospect of leaving so imminent and after having done so many performances the year, it brings it all back and shows how much things have changed (and how they've stayed the same).
It's been a hard year and a break sounds wonderful, but leaving the people that have come to mean so much to me is going to be horrible. I console myself with the fact that everyone has to go through it and they manage somehow, but....sniff.
Had the first performance tonight and the week is crazy with matinees, evenings and rehearsals of Ballet Central pieces and Grad solos (oh dear). With it being so incredibly hot anyway, the lights just amplify it and start to melt the makeup off your face. It's nasty. The audiences are always great though, mums, dads, grannies, grandads, friends, you get the picture.
We had another photoshoot last night and today. Bill Cooper took a few of the dress rehearsal and such is his skill he even managed to make me look half decent in some of them. The secondary call was today and I was awful. After every picture, there was a correction for little me. "A bit bigger please", okay,"more to the left" oh", "late", "late again", "late again". Never mind.
Okay. Shall I leave it here? Need sleep. More to come though...

I'm back!

Sorry about that, college is really busy at the moment. We're rehearsing our Graduation solos at every possible opportunity. Anyway back to where I left off, our last day trip venue was Epsom, the coach journey was fun and we sang virtually the whole way home! It was a good last show; I felt more confident being back on stage and really enjoyed the performance. I can’t believe how near the end of the tour is though, it feels as though I’ve been in a coma for the last couple of months as the tour had only just begun when I got injured and now its ending! We’re all getting really scared about finishing now and are going to miss each other lots, its such a weird feeling as we spend so much time we each other the thoughts of not seeing people for long periods of time is awful! I live with Julia and Leonne so we’ve decided to stay down in London for an extra week before going our separate ways. That way we can spend a bit more quality time with each other and do some last minute sight seeing.

We did the get –in at Bloomsbury yesterday, it was quite a difficult one with all of the equipment having to go through the front doors and in through the auditorium. Not fun when the weather is 30 degrees! It’s going to be a really busy week with performances on Thurs (with the school), Fri matinee (BC), Fri eve (school), Sat matinee (school), Sat eve (BC) and then 2 performances of our Grad solos on Sun. This is with rehearsals squished in between too. On top of this Julien and I have been trying to write the speech for Graduation and I’ve been busy making necklaces to go with peoples dresses. By the end of the week we still need to have enough energy to be able to party until the early hours of Monday morning. Luckily Bill and Elia have given us the day off; I suppose they’ll be needing it too! I am also trying to choreograph a piece for the Garden party but its moving very slowly.

I am really excited about this week and really want to enjoy it, but it will be a rollercoaster of emotions. It will be so strange leaving this environment and venturing out into the big wide world alone. I’m scared, really scared but looking forward to what the next three years will hold. I’ll try to write next week and tell you how the Bloomsbury week went. Go to go, off to a European ballet audition!! Speak soon.

P.S Julia has some very exciting news to tell you!!

The End Is Near :(

Hello again. Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote, nearly a month in fact! It's been all go since then though which was a bit of a shock to the old system at first after the past couple of months being so quiet. I am so glad to be back dancing now, it’s been really tough missing out on the tour and I have really struggled to keep going at times but you do what you have to do and just keep trudging on. It’s all part of the career (unfortunately!) but I’m back performing now which is the main thing. There has been a couple of exciting performances recently… Prince Edward and Princess Sophie came to watch the performance at Bracknell, which was very exciting. Several of us were asked to meet the Prince and Princess before, during and after the show…very nerve wracking. We were briefed on the etiquette: upon the first meeting to curtsey (or bow in the boys case, trying not to head butt them accidentally) and say ‘Your Royal Highness’ and from then on to refer to them as ‘Sir’ and ‘Mam’ - rhyming with jam not arm (??) which of course sounded lovely with my Mancunian accent, not! Princess Sophie is patron of our school and she is a lovely person, Charlotte Brown and I were stood talking to the Princess, Lady Sieff and Bruce Sansom for a fair while and we didn’t feel awkward or at all out of place at any time. The Princess also had a good knowledge of dance and a clear love of the art form and it was interesting to hear her opinions on the programme, a piece that she made an impact on her was ‘Futility/Rendezvous’ Sara Matthews contemporary piece set to the beautiful score of Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’. A thoroughly enjoyable evening proving how down to earth and friendly the Royal Family are :)! Our next performance was Crawley which had a lovely big stage with big wings which is always much appreciated when it comes to Birds especially. The most difficult part of the piece is the running around that the audience doesn’t see! In fact it was in this performance that at the end of the jazz piece I finish on the floor and then during the blackout make my way to the curtain call. It is always a scary journey as after being under bright light it is impossible to see anything, so all you can hear is the noise of people traveling around you. In Crawley as I was just finding my feet and trying to figure out which way was the front of the stage and reaching out for Leonne’s hand when I was hit by an oncoming dancer and knocked to the ground. Panic stricken at the thought of the lights coming up to me strewn across the floor I quickly scrambled to my feet ran into Leonne and had luckily managed to compose myself just in time for the lights! If only the audience could have seen, I am sure they would have been highly amused!!

Oooophs, I have to go we’re rehearsing our solos, and I am a little late…talking too much again. Will be back soon to finish the entry! xxx