Daniel Jones Diary

Sausage England

Still Standing

Rothbart`s face. Photo © Daniel Jones

Just a few more days to go and I will have survived English National Ballet`s Autumn tour of the Snow Queen and Swan Lake. Unfortunately the tour has taken it`s toll on the dancers in the company, and injuries and illnesses have meant lots of casting changes. The reality of a dancer`s life on tour means being able to keep the body healthy and avoiding the flu is as much part of the job as doing daily class and learning the choreography, but it`s not easy.
Traveling, tiredness, stress, and the repetitiveness of the shows can make maintaining overall fitness hard. Personally, the current tour has been especially hard as I have been cast to do the same parts almost every show. I really know what I'm doing, but sometimes doing the same parts so many times can be mentally tormenting, especially when aiming for perfection. Pretending every show is my first ever performance is a trick I often use on myself to keep motivated, although I wouldn`t recommend it to anyone who suffers from extreme first night nerves. It could be dangerous.

Sausage England

The last two months of ballet have taken me all over England. Sadly, despite all the traveling, the theatre and the local High street is about all I see of the Cities. It's a sad fact that most High Streets tend to look the same - the same shops, the same window displays, and the same offers - however, in the centre of Southampton and Manchester there has appeared a new swarm of market stalls. Mini wooden villages that use strong scented cooked sausages to woo customers.

A Sausage Temptation. Photo © Daniel Jones

These big, juicy sausages have been incredibly hard for me to resist - especially on matinee days - but I`ve had to be strong as I can`t imagine dancing with one of them bouncing around inside of me.
I`m looking forward to eating one when the tour is over, and see if they really do taste as good as they smell. Lecker.

Twelve hour days

Next week we have a week of rehearsals at our London base before we start a marathon of 49 consecutive performances at the London Coliseum. While performing The Snow Queen and Swan Lake we have been rehearsing the Nutcracker in the day time. This has meant arriving at the theatre at 10.30am, and leaving the theatre at 10.30pm. Twelve hour days are exhausting, and now that I`m approaching my mid-thirties I`m starting to wonder what it`s like to have a life outside of a theatre.

The place where my Costumes live. Photo © Daniel Jones

Inside a theatre it`s magical but tough, painful but addictive. There are bright spotlights but there is no sunlight. Maybe that`s why I`m feeling so tired? Could it be a lack of Vitamin D? Do German sausages contain Vitamin D?
Maybe not.

Premieres and Pictures

October 11th 2007

Thursday October 11th was not just any Thursday, it was the opening night of Michael Corder’s The Snow Queen, a production that English National Ballet had been working on for many months. Within four days of the opening night we had had six performances of the same show which means, sadly, it’s easy to forget what the opening night actually felt like.
The main difference for a dancer between a premiere performance and all the rehearsals leading up to it, is there are no interruptions, and for the first time we get to feel what it’s actually like to run the show from beginning to end in front of a panel of hundreds of judges – the audience.
My memories of that first show in Liverpool were that of relief. From the moment the curtain rose the audience reacted with cheery applause after each scene, and it was becoming clear to us on stage that there was a sense of excitement in the air.

Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. Photo © Daniel Jones

When the show finally came to an end, the auditorium erupted, and all the hours of rehearsals seemed to have paid off.
There was a party after the performance in the theatre but I couldn’t stop thinking that we had two more performances the next day, so it wasn’t really time to party.
It was a time to feel good though. To know that I’d been part of the creation of another full length ballet made me feel incredibly satisfied.

A Class Photo

Whenever English National Ballet works on a brand new production, photographers that I’ve never seen before suddenly start appearing. One such photographer was Sian Trenberth, who seemed to appear with her camera all over the theatre during our time in Bristol. One evening I headed to my dressing to find a photograph she had kindly given to me which she had taken during our morning class on stage.

Daniel Jones in class at the Bristol Hippodrome. Photo © Sian Trenberth

Looking at the photo, I realised I couldn’t remember seeing her taking the photograph, and I noticed she had caught me in a deep ballet trance that I throw myself into for at least an hour, six days a week.
Am I on my leg? Am I on my full three quarter pointe? Am I arching my back? Is my supporting leg really stretched or can I stretch it a little bit more? Am I on the music? Am I doing the right exercise?
One, or possibly all of the thoughts above, were going through my head at the time the photo was taken. It makes me wonder how many dancer thoughts actually go into putting on a new production like the Snow Queen – I actually don’t have time to think about it as since we opened the Snow Queen we’ve already performed Swan lake and soon we’ll be doing the Nutcracker. Ballet life really is a busy life.

Wireless Theatre News

The New Theatre in Oxford offers a wireless internet connection in the dressing room. Please can all theatres follow this example so that I don’t have to sit in an internet café and force myself to drink overly priced coffee that I don’t really want in order to keep in touch with the world, and read ballet.co…

Final rehearsals of English National Ballet's new production - The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen

English National Ballet is now just days away from the premiere of Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. We have completed well over three hundred hours of rehearsals and the choreography is finally complete. The next giant step will be when the company heads up north to Liverpool and we put on the costumes and see the sets for the first time.
It's been incredibly hard work for all involved. This is my third new production of Michael Corder's that I have been involved in, and like the previous two,Cinderella and Melody on the Move, there is lots and lots of dancing for the whole company.
Saturday was the first time that the dancers ran the whole ballet from beginning to end and the athmosphere in the studio was electric. Daria Klimentova, Fernanda Oliveira and Yosvani Ramos lead the cast as The Snow Queen, Kay and Gerda. All three of them seem to be on fire in the studio as they are pushed to the edge in what is looking like a wonderful ballet for the company.

Rehearsal of Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. Daria Klimentova and Yosvani Ramos. Photo © Daniel Jones

Rehearsal of Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. Yosvani Ramos and Daria Klimentova. Photo © Daniel Jones

Rehearsal of Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. Fernanda Oliveira and Yosvani Ramos. Photo © Daniel Jones

Rehearsal of Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. The Courtiers. Photo © Daniel Jones

Rehearsal of Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. Daria Klimentova and Yosvani Ramos. Photo © Daniel Jones

Rehearsal of Michael Corder's The Snow Queen. Daria Klimentova and Yosvani Ramos. Photo © Daniel Jones