Summer school

Last week, I went to my second summer school- it was local, and just ballet, for three hours a day. Our teacher, Miss Judith, was so wonderful and enthusiastic- but soooo strict and meticulous over our technique!!! On the first day, we had been in class for over half an hour, and had only done plies, tendus and glisse at the barre. And wow, I had no idea that three simple exercises could be so wonderfully complex when considered in intricate detail- Miss Judith explained exactly which muscles to use to increase our turnout range, and corrected things that id never even considered; such as the positioning of the arm in 5th, or using the inner thighs to give stability in releves.... I also liked how on some of the days, before we began barrework, we did some floorbarre and Pilates exercises, to strengthen the core muscles. The actual classwork was easy (except for a few advanced steps- jetes battus or double pirouettes to arabesque!), but it allowed for a lot of focus on artistry, and purity of line; the style was how I imagine it would be at White Lodge- very refined and graceful, with a lot of emphasis on strength, and immaculate technique! It was hard work but so worth it- I think it helped me improve a lot, I'm even more determined to go to full-time ballet school so I can dance every day!!!! Hope everyone's having a great summer xoxo

BTUK Summer School

Heyya! I'm really sorry I've not blogged in ages! Anyway, last week I was at Ballet Theatre UK's Summer Course- it was Amazing!!! There was a lot of pointework, which I found quite challenging- I ached so much after the first day!! To be honest, it did make me wonder wether I'd ever be able to cope with full-time ballet school, and I felt like giving up. But then, I thought back to Associates on Sunday, and the wonderful sense of achievement I felt in the adagio exercise, when my teacher said to me "Yes! That has improved a lot!" I know that it would be impossible for me to live without dance, there's just something irresistible in striving every day to improve, to express the music through strength and grace..... At summer school, we learnt the pas de trois solos from "The Snow Queen" and also the Waltz of the Flowers from Alice in Wonderland. I loved how dynamic and creative the choreography was! The other girls on the course were all Amazing dancers so I felt kind of intimidated by them, but they were really friendly and talkative which was lovely. I really enjoyed the classes taught by dancers from the Ballet Theatre UK company, I learnt a lot about performance technique! At Associates in July, we received our reports- my musicality mark wasn't as good as I would've liked, so summer school was a great opportunity for me to focus on that, and make sure that I showed the connection between the music and movement. Also, the contemporary and Jazz classes were great fun, I've not really done much Jazz before but it felt good to dance in a different way to ballet! I hope everyone is having a great summer, I'm off to the leisure centre now for swimming, yoga and gym :D

A silent battle

I haven't mentioned it previously, but it is part of my story that I am not ashamed of so I won't hide it any longer- for the past 4 years, I have been battling anorexia nervosa. It started simply as a quest to be perfect, to get in to the Royal Ballet School. It didn't matter-to me- that my physique wasn't right; if I was emaciated they would think I was beautiful, and accept me anyway. Of course, they didn't- but by then, the damage was done, I had convinced myself that being emaciated was the only way to succeed in ballet. The whispers in my mind became overwhelming, controlling and dominating, forcing me to skip meals and lie to my parents. Anorexia made me weak, and nearly killed me- at times, forcing me terrifyingly close to taking my own life. Anorexia is probably the reason why I couldn't hold my developpe in adage, why my pointework lacked strength, why I couldn't think clearly to recall the enchainements- no wonder the School of Ballet Theatre UK didn't think I was strong enough to cope with vocational training. Anorexia has stolen my chance this year, which is why I need to fight it, compliment my ballet with hours of yoga and Pilates, to make sure I am strong enough next year to go away to vocational school. My first choice of school would probably be Ballet West in Scotland- seeing that it is 400 miles away, my parents need to be able to trust me to take care of myself!!!!! But on a more serious note- if any young dancers reading this are going through something similar to what I did, if you think you might have an eating disorder, please ask for help. I know it can be difficult to tell your parents, but if you need someone to talk to I'm always here for you, my email address is dancingdreams25@googlemail.com, I will help in any way that I can x

Audition!!

On Sunday, I had my audition at the School of Ballet Theatre UK. When I arrived at the audition, everyone was stretching and warming up; that was then I realised, each of these girls wanted a place just as much as I did, success is never guaranteed in this harsh industry. The class was led by Elisabeth Haslam, the ballet mistress of the Company, with a panel of judges; Chris Moore and Tania Matos, who I already knew from Associates, as well as four other people I didn't recognise. Throughout barre, I focused on artistry and musicality, carefully articulating my feet on each tendu, smiling warmly at the judges. The exercises were quite complex, but easy to learn and joyous to dance.
In the centre, we were given a complex sequence of adage, which, to my horror, I managed to mess up quite spectacularly; my ability to balance seemed to have utterly deserted me. I felt so embarrassed, yet determined to maintain composure.... The next little catastrophe was in the battement tendu, which involved a single pirouette. Midway through the pirouette, I realised- everyone else was still in demi plié. Oh bugger. I wished the earth would swallow me up- but nope, I had to keep going. In the pirouette enchainement, I noticed that number five, a pretty girl in a blue leotard, landed neat triple pirouettes on nearly every turn. Oh, great.


Being number 14, I was glad to be in the last group to dance, as it gave me more time to learn the combinations- however, I only managed the triple pirouette to the right, not left... By this point, I felt utterly despairing, humiliated and so disappointed in myself. The grand allegro was very pretty though, lovely to dance :) Then, we had to take off our shoes & roll up our tights so they could see our feet. Demi plié facing front, then tendus. Left, right and middle splits. Pointe shoes on. Uh-oh. Pointe shoes?!! No one had mentioned that pointework would be involved- I had instinctively thrown the first pair I could find- which happened to be very dead- in my bag just before leaving home. Dancing in dead shoes is not good at all. Managed to survive the pointework section without falling flat on my face....


The next class was contemporary, and it went a lot better than the ballet class!!!!!! The dance was so beautiful and expressive :) there was one slightly scary moment though when Chris said 'okay. Same dance, now reverse it and start on the left.' To my shock, I actually managed to work it out! :) After contemporary, we had a physio assessment and interview; being number 14 meant I was last, so I had a very long wait!!!! The other girls were lovely and talkative though :) I think the physio went well, its hard to tell really because I didn't know what each of the strange tests was looking for!!! The interview was probably the easiest part- just babbling on about how much I love dance, dance is my life, etc etc!!! Now, the longggg wait for results, only time will tell.......

Little Mermaid

Last week, i went to see Ballet Theatre UK's Little Mermaid. it was so awesome, the costumes and choreography were amazing! the Company are so inspiring; seeing Clair, the teacher from Associates, dancing onstage, was so wonderful. All of the dancers were phenomenal; Sarah Mortimer was so beautiful as the Mermaid, her technique and musicality are divine :) And Natalie Cawte was stunning as the Prince's bride! i chatted to Chris, the Artistic Director, after the performance, which was lovely- he mentioned that the Company have 85 performances, across the UK, woah that's amazing!!! i feel super inspired for the School audition next week!! (i am really struggling to focus at academic school recently, all i can think about is dance, it is my world.....)

Associates

Last Sunday I had Ballet Theatre UK Associates- it was awesome, Clair Corruble from the Company taught class & solos :) we recapped the Swan Lake solo from last time- on demi pointe instead of pointe, to focus on the artistry and quality of the steps. It is a lovely solo :) I'm feeling confident about my audition for Ballet Theatre UK's full time school, which is in March :) Also, if you have Facebook, please like/share my page; https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=493742164035647&m_sess&viewtype=public

Associates

Yesterday at Ballet Theatre UK Associates, Clair Corruble, Principal with the company, taught class and solos. Her teaching style was very different to Tania's- in particular, she encouraged us to do a perfect single pirouette as opposed to the daring but messy attempts at triples or quadruples that Tania adores. Some of the steps, particularly the grand allegro, got very complex; starting upstage left, right foot devant; releve 5th, fie assemble, temps de fleche (a step i had never heard of!!) glissade en avant, saut de chat (i think- a grand jete with the back leg in attitude, landing in attitude en fondu??) heading back to upstage left, step into a jete entrelace, assemble en tournant, coupe chasse pas de bourree, glisade, jete! Then, sissone, sissone (now, what next? Her beautiful French accent got slightly confusing- Did she say 'passe'? or was it 'Vassi', which i vaugely remember reading is a similar step to a fie?)i ended up substituting in a third sissone, as i felt that the epaulement was wrong for a fie- surely i should've been facing en face instead of croise..... into an assemble battu! We began solos with a pointe warmup. in the centre, Clair set the same pirouette enchainement that we had done en demi pointe; temps lie en avant, release front foot, coupe tombe chasse pas de bourre en diagonal, releve to 4th, prep, pirouette, rotassion, en dedans pirouette, demi detournant, three quick pose turns into a fiesty little set of chaines! Easy enough on demi pointe, but on pointe....???!! We then learnt the Pas de Trois Variation 1 from Swan Lake. it was beautiful- even if I definitely wasn't!! So many repeated one-footed releves, then a diagonale of allegro which left me looking truly pathetic. To our horror, Clair asked us, at the end, to dance the whole solo, in pairs. That would've been fine, had the Artistic Director of the Company not then walked into the studio. I danced it- badly, exhaustedly. I have never felt so embarrassed in my whole life- I am pretty certain he was looking at me thinking, 'Ew. What is that?!' I felt like pleading that my pointework is normally quite strong, and the variation was far harder than anything I had ever tried en pointe- instead, I smiled sweetly at him, and determinedly resolved to myself that i would be a lot more perfect next time....