EYB: The Sleeping Beauty

As mentioned before, I’m performing in the Stevenage EYB production of The Sleeping Beauty at the Gordon Craig Theatre 15-17th October. We had our first rehearsals this weekend, 2-8pm yesterday and 12-6pm today, pretty intense hours, but things are finally underway! Since the audition in June and casting day in July, it seemed like such a long wait, but it’s finally begun… I was a mix of excited/nervous yesterday as I really didn’t know what to expect schedule wise, but now after two days I have to say it’s actually less exhausting than I expected! I’m not saying it’s easy at all, but the sessions vary from 45 minutes to 1hr 30, and I was pretty much expecting them all to be 1hr+ with fewer breaks than we’re getting. Not that I’m complaining – or saying it’s a walk in the park!

We’re split into three groups for a warm up class at the beginning of each rehearsal after a meeting with parents. Class lasts for roughly 45 minutes, with a relatively long barre before moving into the centre for pirouettes, adage and allegro. It’s been so long since I had 45 minute classes it’s amazing how fast it goes!

Yesterday we then went straight in with an hour session en pointe learning the dance for Act 3. I’ve been cast as a Guest, there’s about 20 of us, the majority en pointe (including myself) and some on flat, who are basically the corps de ballet, so we’ll be on stage during all three acts for a lot of the time and hopefully have quite a bit to do.

After a costume fitting for the prologue we had another hour or so carrying on, and then at the end of the day we all come together in the main hall and perform the sections that have been learnt in the order of the ballet so that we get used to the sequence of everything and at the same time get to see what everyone else has done as well. Obviously in between all that we had a few breaks as well, varying from 1 hour to 15 minutes.

Today was similar, starting with class as normal and then recapped what we did yesterday before adding on. I have to say by the end of the first hour spent en pointe my feet are struggling a bit! I’ve been en pointe for about 3 years now, but I’m only used to spending half an hour a week doing syllabus exercises, the majority of which are at the barre which isn’t a whole lot of use now! I’m fairly confident my feet are going to get a lot stronger very quickly doing this! However, I’m yet to get a blister which is an amazing achievement, it’s just the throbbing pain on the tips of my big toes I’m dealing with.

Today we learnt the whole prologue as well which is almost the whole cast on stage together at the Christening.

So that’s the first weekend over! We don’t have another rehearsal until the 25th and then we’re straight in with Friday 4-8:30, Saturday 2-8:00, Sunday 12-6:00… wish my toes luck please. And my brain, for attempting to remember all the choreography during the 3 week break!! I can’t wait to go back already 🙂

My Week In Pictures |Dreams That Glitter

I wanted to write a short summary of my week so here we go… On Monday I had a revision day, and that makes it sound like I had a productive working day but actually I just did a few pages of notes and got bored, but I guess I can say I’ve officially started revising now?

On Tuesday I went down to London for the day on my own for an audition (I got there and back successfully without being mugged or getting lost, go me) and it was quite a fun day, it was a good experience at least. I got the letter back today and unfortunately I didn’t get into the course but whatever…

On Wednesday I went to Nottingham, which I’ve been wanting to do for a good few years now. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the hometown of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and if you don’t know who they are by now then go and find out before you continue reading. I’m serious. Me and my friend got dropped off at the National Ice Centre and we met up with a twitter friend who is over from New Zealand which was lovely. From there we decided to walk to the TnD estate because why not? I’ve always wanted to visit it and I’m glad I got the opportunity too. However, I do recommend if you’re going to walk 5 miles then don’t wear shoes that hurt because by the end of it your feet will be cut up and walking will prove to be difficult. Anyway we saw all the signs and took pictures and got a couple of strange looks from the people who lived there but we can’t be the only ones to do that… It was worth all the walking anyway, and we had to get the bus back to the rink. We then skated for about an hour before returning home, and I had a really nice time there. I really like Nottingham and I can’t wait to go back!

On Wednesday evening I went to my friends house for her birthday which was on Tuesday and that was fun, we had a joint cake made by two of our friends which is in the collage, and it tasted really good.

On Thursday I went to see Divergent at the cinema which was amazing! I’ve read the books and they’re one of my favourite series and because I love the books so much the movie was a disappointment in places but overall I really enjoyed it and totally recommend. After that I went out for an early birthday meal with my family which was really nice.

Friday was my birthday and I had a really good day, my mum dragged me along to her fitness classes (she’s an instructor) and made me wear a birthday banner and then got everyone to sing happy birthday…not embarrassing at all… After a quick trip to tesco to pick a cake and buy a few other bits, I had some friends over and I don’t really know what we did exactly but we had a good time!

So that brings me to Saturday and I went shopping with my mum which is always amusing, we just end up laughing at the most horrible clothes we can find.

I appreciate this post is mostly personal ranting about my life and I don’t know if you guys like these kind of posts but let me know either way!

Lauren x

Audition – Go Your Own Way |Dreams That Glitter

For those who asked me to post it, here’s my actual dance audition video. Let me know what you think… I messed up a couple of times I’m not sure if you can tell, I missed a bit at the beginning because the music wasn’t turned up, and had to improv a little after the cartwheel… That’s all. 🙂

CAT Auditions|Dreams That Glitter

So although this all happened a few months ago, I wanted to keep a record of it here anyways because I feel that it’s relevant to my dance ‘journey’ if you will. Of course it would have been better if I’d written about it back in February/April when it actually happened, but hey ho. Basically, if you don’t know already the National Dance CATs deliver accessible, non-residential, professional training programmes for young people aged 10 to 18 years who demonstrate exceptional potential in dance. The ‘exceptional potential’ part of that sentence I find really intimidating… I found out about the dance CATs on tumblr while scrolling through the dancer tag, and I went on the website (http://www.nationaldancecats.co.uk/) to find out more. The programme is funded by the government depending on your personal financial situation, and how much you pay towards the course depends on what your household income is. I found out that I would qualify for a full grant, and looked into auditions etc.

There was a taster day during February half term, which I told my mum about and she was surprisingly supportive of it and decided it would be a good experience to go and find out what it was all about, and make a decision whether I wanted to audition for the programme or not.

When we got there, after signing in we were led to the lecture theatre and sat through a presentation which gave all the information you needed to know, most of which I’d already found out online, and a chance to ask any questions. We then had a tour of the building (The Place in London). Then there was a two hour contemporary/ballet/creative class which I was a bit nervous about but it wasn’t so hard that I couldn’t do any of it, which was what I was worried about. It was challenging but a really good experience.

I went back to school and told my dance teacher about it, and she knew what it was, and was keen for me to audition for it, and told me to keep her posted on it. I had to submit a second application to The Place for the audition, and I heard back quite quickly saying the audition would be on 3^rd April. There was somewhere between 30-40 girls in the same audition as me, and there was three different dates, and three different auditions on each day, so there was a lot of competition, and there was very few places available. So I wasn’t getting my hopes up too high. Everyone was about 14-15 years old, give or take a year. It was the same process as the taster day, ballet technique class, contemporary where we were taught some repertoire, and then some creative work where we had to make up our own phrase and perform it in groups a few times so they could get a good look at everyone. There was about five different people watching so it felt a bit intimidating, but the main thing was to look as confident as possible even if you were freaking out on the inside. Nobody really spoke to each other when we had a chance to talk and a break, there was just this awkward silence because we all knew we were competing for places against each other. I came out feeling relatively positive, there’s always room for improvement but I didn’t feel like it had gone desperately bad. After that all I could do was wait, and it seemed like an age before I found out anything.

I got a letter back from them on the 2^nd May, which considering we were told 6-8 weeks to wait, was pretty quick I guess. I didn’t get the place (which you probably gathered or I’d have posted about it before now), and the letter went on about how they thought I showed potential and should definitely carry on with what I’m doing, but I apparently wasn’t ready for the scheme. I also got told to build more confidence and performance experience.  I wasn’t really expecting to get the place, even though there was that slight glimmer of hope that I might, but it was my first audition for anything, so I’m not too disappointed. The annoying thing is that there’s nothing really around this area for me to do other than where I’m dancing now, and I guess to look out for the odd audition, and although its super easy to get to London from here, it can be pricey so… I’m not sure. But I’m glad I went to the audition and tried anyway, because it was a good experience and I learnt a lot from it either way.