Ballet Central Diary

North and South

am writing this sitting on a train speeding south. One night in my new flat in Leeds turned into two after some catastrophe near Doncaster led to National Rail cancelling all trains going to London on a Sunday night. As you can imagine, there were many unhappy Londoners in Leeds yesterday.
It has been a while since my last entry; time marches on relentlessly and now there is only a month left until graduation. We have done two day trips recently- Hertford and Bury St Edmunds, as well as a visit to the south-west.
The tour to the west country was really fun. A show in Taunton, then two in Bridport (a historic and essential stop on every Ballet Central tour), and then finishing with a show in Frome.
Taunton was characterized by the pub next door to the Travel Lodge, which is always greeted with glee as we alight from the coach because it means a good dinner and a pleasant, sociable evening. There was a slight crisis, because unfortunately, there was a sudden injury the day before we went to Taunton, so the whole programme was changed at the last minute. This meant people had to step in; Becky had to come on tour to do Choice, I had to do Cinderella, and so Amy had to replace me in Steps- nobody minds though- its always sad when someone gets injured, and we all did what we had to do to get the show on.
I will always remember Bridport by the unique challenges that this venue poses- but I had a great time there and would have loved to have stayed. The stage was really small and a funny shape- there was a little alcove at the back. The main problem was the darkness though- it was pitch black on stage and we all felt as though we were dancing with our eyes shut. This meant people were jumping into walls, having problems getting in and out of wings and general havoc ensued in the dress rehearsal. We have a bit of a Thing, as a group, with dress rehearsals. For some reason, they are always really, really bad. Everything that can possibly go wrong normally does, and I think we must sometimes drive Bill to distraction with worry about the mess we could potentially make of the show. But somehow, the show always happens at least, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. As Bill put it after our Bridport dress, 'Ballet Central have been coming here for twenty five years- we want it to be twenty six.'
In the end, the show was good, I think having the dressing rooms backing onto the wings and stage and having to be absolutely silent during the show made us really focus and concentrate.
At this venue, instead of staying in a hotel, we stayed with host families. It was so amazing to see these people so willing to share their homes with us, and it really made this tour an experience. I stayed with Sophie and Chelsea with a couple called Cynthia and Jason and we had a great time. Their house was so lovely (just like the sort of place i want when i grow up!) and they gave us lovely homemade soup after the shows and croissants for breakfast which is surely something that happens in dancer's Valhalla.
On our morning off (!!!!!!) we went to the beach nearby. It wasn't a particularly hot day, and it was a bit of at trek, but when we saw the sea and the sandy dunes, it was completely worth it. The panorama of the sky was very powerful that day, and closer to home, the surrounding countryside is ruggedly beautiful. There is a quality of light peculiar to that part of the world which makes you feel as though the scene is not quite real- as if it could disappear at any moment.
We left Bridport early on Saturday morning, amid sighs of regret from the shopaholics among us- the market was just setting up. The town is packed full of great little shops where a few of us had picked up some vintage bargains, and it would have been worth a browse round the stalls- maybe next time!
Frome was Laurel's home venue, so the audience was really appreciative and the theatre was really nice. I felt that Cinderella went really well at this venue- it is always a lot easier on a big stage because we really have to push it- run further, make everything bigger; and for some reason this really has an effect on me emotionally. There were parts of it that are a bit of a blur, and I think Tom was a bit disconcerted by some of the spontaneous details I added in the passion of the moment. It was far from perfect, but there comes a point when you have to leave those worries and inhibitions somewhere else, to be dealt with tomorrow, and that was the point I reached on stage at Frome.

We leave for the next tour tomorrow, going to Wakefield and Hexham. From the rolling hills of the Summerland to the blustery North- traversing the kingdom in Roy the ex-racing driver's coach, with a DVD on the player and the patchwork of fields passing by, has actually turned out to be quite fun.

I am Tired!

The waiting is over, I have finally entered a new weblog. It has been a long time since my last one and since then there has been a whirlwind of activity, so much so that Ryms 5000 word essay couldn't even fit it all in. I do not really know where to start. Since the Linbury we have danced at 10 different venues (Bracknell, RADA, Canterbury, Chipping Norton, Grantham, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Taunton, Bridport and Frome) and 7 of these venues were while on tour. All of the theatres have posed us with different challenges and all have been a rite laugh.

The first, Chipping Norton was a teeny weeny stage but the audience were fantastic. I danced Arabian, Jazz and Cinderella all of which I absolutley love although having read Rym and Brenda's blogs I know they have told you all about the show so I will go into detail on another wonderful aspect of the tour...living in a pub! 2 Snooker tables, great food, loads of games on the itbox (our favourite of which was Caesars palace) and generally a lovely country atmosphere. After losing our last 50 pence on Caesars Palace (Cheers Nick 'theres only 6 ducks in the pond' Peak) and having destroyed Doug (lighting designer) and Chris (Stage manager) at Pool me and Ruan retired to our room to watch Derren Brown, what a night! The shows went very well and we all found a place in our hearts for the little dog that roamed around backstage.

Our next tour was Grantham, Shrewsbury, Hereford which involved no pubs (boo!) but 4 nights in 3 different Travelodges the last of which had a lovely cocktail bar (yay!). The only disappointing thing was the that Hereford did not sell very well, which I believe has been the first time this year, still the theatre was stunning and we had a very good response. I did find it amusing to read Rym talk about the tension on tour, something which I, as always was completely unaware of. The girls often make us lads laugh with their ballet gossip and rivalry so I will certainly be going upstairs in a moment to find out if I missed anything particularly interesting, its a shame it will all be finished with now, they will all be friends again and I will have missd it, dammit!

Our most recent tour was Taunton, Bridport and Frome. In Taunton we stayed In a lovely Premier Inn rite opposite a pub(yay!). It wasn't quite as homely or characterful as the one in Chipping Norton but the deal or no deal and wordsearch games on the itbox kept us occupied for a good few hours. I must apologise to Jamiel, Nick and Ruan for going against their wishes, selecting box number 5 and losing 10 pounds, for some reason the consolation prize of 16 pence was ironically not much of a consolation. As is Ballet Central tradition, in Bridport we stayed with host families. Ruan, Long and I stayed with a lovely couple named Penny and John who on night one cooked us pasta and fed us strawberries, gave us some cereal and a full english in the morning and made a fabulous stew the next night along with numerous glasses of wine, cups of tea and coffee and juice. John even took us for a saturday morning drive around Bridport, at which point we saw Jamiel and Nick walking towards the theatre. Now I am not going to lie to you the thought of ambushing them came into my head probably less than a second after I saw them innocently poking a beatle in the grass. Ruan, not suprisingly, was thinking the same thing and John pulled over and watched as the silent countryside was pierced with one of the girliest squeels imaginable from Nick and a full blown cry of fear from Jamiel which was followed by a leap in the air and a dive to the floor covering his head... quite possibly one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

The theatre in Bridport was by far the strangest we will face this year. The stage was small and with a strange alcove and the lights for the stage perched beautifully....in the dressing rooms. Yes not a word could be said during performance as you were never more than 5 feet away from the wings, it was interesting to say the least. I found the funny side of it, most people understandably didn't yet we got on with it and after probably the worst dress rehearsal in history we actually pulled off a pretty good show. The Jazz particularly went down superbly with whoops and cheers from all angles of the theatre. My Mum and Dad were there again as always and are quickly closing in on the record of most performances seen ever in the history of Ballet Central.
We finished with Frome, which was a lovely theatre and again we had a fantastic audience, before trecking back to London and arriving at one o'clock in the morning. After an eventful cab journey back to my flat (I left my phone in the cab only for Jamiel to sprint back down the road and dive back into the moving vehicle to retrieve it) I finally got in at half past one, woke up my flatmates Goz and Matt(Ballet Central blogger from last year) and watched rubbish tele until half 4 in the morning.

That is undoubtably it for now although I am sure I have left things out and have probably made my traditional spelling mistake. Not quite a match for Rym but I feel like I have been sitting in this chair for eternity. I definately wont leave it as long as last time before i write my next one just for the simple reason that I physically could not write one more word.

Speak soon

Tom