Rambert Intensive: Day 4|Dreams That Glitter

10:00-11:30 Contemporary

Today we did a different contemporary class with the teacher we’ve been having for Choreography – Estella. It was nice to do a different class and mix it up a bit, it’s interesting to see how many different directions a contemporary class can be taken in my different people. This was kind of more ‘traditional’ with some floor work to warm up the back and legs and then some phrases standing in the centre, some corner work and then finally we learnt a phrase which was to be added to our choreography piece.

11:45-1:15 Repertoire with Luke – Terra Incognita

We carried on with the repertoire from yesterday and it’s really intricate with lots of small details that make it look so much better when you get them spot on. We watched Luke perform the piece full speed and it’s literally like at least triple time to what we’ve been doing, it’s insane! It was really inspiring to see it done properly though and gave us a more of a clear idea of what we’re aiming for.

2:15-3:45 Choreography with Estella

Choreography was quite intense today, we finished our piece which is about 5 minutes, incorporating the new phrase from this morning and adding repetition and new formations/direction etc. It’s coming together quite nicely! I did something to my foot though, I think it came from doing lots of floor work in a crouch position and using my feet to push off of in a demi pointe position… I’ve iced it and hoping for the best – I want to be able to dance tomorrow!!

4:00-5:00 Ballet

So after the foot incident I probably should have taken it easy in ballet if done it at all, but me being me insisted on doing it in my pointe shoes. At that stage the actual pointing and flexing motion didn’t hurt at all, but it is a bit now, oops… I didn’t do any releves on pointe or anything just some balances at the barre mainly, but even doing tendus in pointe shoes works your feet so much harder than wearing soft ballet slippers. I really enjoyed the class though!

So tomorrow we have a contemporary class with Kate again, and then rehearsals for both pieces of rep (here’s hoping I can remember what we did at the beginning of the week!!) and the choreography, before our sharing with the advanced group – I can’t wait to see what they’ve been doing and the difference in standard between the two groups, I’m really interested in how much of a difference in ability there is. I can’t believe it’s the last day tomorrow already, it’s gone pretty quickly!!

Rambert Intensive: Day 3 |Dreams That Glitter

Day 3

This morning you could tell everyone was feeling it a bit at this stage! Especially if you’ve gone from not doing much at all the last few weeks or months to suddenly intensive training for 6 hours day, it puts a lot of pressure on the body. Tonight I came home and put my feet in an ice bath, stretched and used the foam roller for about an hour or so, hopefully that will do the trick and ease the aches and pains tomorrow…Still all good fun though!

10:00-11:30 – Contemporary with Kate Mummery

This class was pretty similar as the first two days again. We started off with a bit of a massage session in partners which warmed us up and relieved a bit of tight or stiffness and woke up our bodies, followed by a mini contemporary/yoga session. We then added onto the phrases we’ve already learnt which included more floor work (more bruises) which I enjoyed as if there’s one area I’m worse at it’s definitely floor work, just making it look smooth and effortless is not at all easy for me, especially when transferring the weight into the hands in various ways. I’m sure there was something else I was going to mention about this class but it’s getting late and my brain is totally frazzled – maybe it’ll come back to me!

11:45-13:15 – Repertoire with Luke Ahmet – Terra Incognita

We started learning some new rep today with a different teacher from the company from the last couple of days. It’s completely different from the last piece we learnt that was quite balletic, fluid and elegant, the phrases from Terra Incognita are more unusual and quirky. It was fun to pick up and we learnt so much in the session! We’ve already started putting it together as a piece which we will perform as a whole group at the end of the week, and we’re going to learn some more material and clean it up tomorrow.

14:15-15:45 – Choreography with Estela Merlos

We’ve got more of a piece coming together in this session now, the phrases are being performed by different groups within our group, and the piece starts with the structures we ‘built’ yesterday, with transitions added in – so it’s like a structure has been made and then we all crumble to the ground to represent a disaster, and then we rebuild into the next huge structure where we’re all relying on each other to stay up, then we crumble again and repeat, I think it looks quite effective. We’ve added some group work into it as well including some lifts which will look good in the end. One more rehearsal tomorrow and we should have a nice little piece to show!

16:00-17:00 – Ballet with Antonette Dayrit

We were also lucky enough to have a pianist for this class as well which is much nicer than doing the exercises to a CD like I’m used to. Not having a musician for class all the time makes you appreciate the experience a lot more when you get the chance though. The class was a general level as there was lots of mixed ability in our group, a few people never having done ballet before. I was a bit sceptical as to whether I’d have the energy for ballet at the end of the day, having finished off with a nice bit of relaxation the last couple of days, but I found that the hour actually went super fast and almost didn’t seem long enough. We did quite a long barre and then moved into the centre for an adage, centre practice, pirouettes, pirouettes from the corner, a couple of petit allegro exercises and a couple of allegros travelling across the room to the finish with. Tomorrow I’m going to attempt the class in my pointe shoes and see how that goes! I haven’t done a huge amount of pointe other than the Intermediate syllabus so I really want to work on strengthening my feet in them – English Youth Ballet is going to be a killer with all those long rehearsals en pointe I think.

Rambert Intensive: Day 2|Dreams That Glitter

Day 2

10:00-11:30 – Contemporary with Kate Mummery

We did a very similar class to yesterday, building on some of the exercises we did yesterday. We’re slowly adding in more Cunningham specific exercises, today we did pulses which is like sit ups but standing up. I found that really interesting, at first it just feels weird and like it’s not doing much, but once you get the correct range of movement and alignment you can really feel it working the abdominals. We did the phrase we did yesterday and worked it out on the left and then performed it in smaller groups which was nice to be able to use more of the space and to watch everyone else. Oh and I forgot to mention yesterday – we have a musician for this class who plays different rhythms on various instruments, it gives a different feel to the class and it’s refreshing to work in that way rather than with the same set music from an iPod.

11:45-13:15 – Repertoire with Hannah Rudd – The Strange Charm of Mother Nature

We learnt another phrase from this piece which I really liked as well, so once we’d learnt that we recapped the phrases we did yesterday and then got into groups (there’s quite a wide range of ability within the group so the groups we got into were kind of based on how well people were picking it up so we could go at a speed we were most comfortable with) and in those smaller groups we got into formations and went from one phrase to the next, almost like putting together a mini piece. This is what we’ll be performing in the sharing on Friday.

14:15-15:45 – Choreography with Estela Merlos

I have so many bruises from this session! Floor work is the enemy. We started off with a bit of partner work and went into some contact improvisation playing around with counter balances. We then took this on a larger scale and created three big structures including everyone in the group, using each other to balance in a variety of different positions on different levels. We then recapped the phrases we did yesterday and then learnt a new phrase which again included floor work, and it’s quite fast! I’m enjoying it though. I always find this session the hardest as it’s the one after lunch, so I’ve just sat down for an hour, eaten and seized up!

16:00-17:00 – Yoga/Pilates

This was more yoga than yesterday, it was challenging but much more of a steady pace compared to yesterday, and had a lot more stretching which was lovely. We did a section of passive stretching in partners, it’s amazing the difference it makes having someone apply pressure to parts of your body and the effect that has on the stretch you’re doing, it feels wonderful! We finished off with a relaxation session which was much needed. After two days of finishing with a relatively gentle session, I think finishing off the day with ballet tomorrow and Thursday is going to a be a bit of a shock to the system!

So that’s two days down, three to go! I’m covered in bruises and ache a little, I came home today and made friends with the foam roller (if you don’t have one, you need one – I have this one and this one). We’re doing a different piece of repertoire tomorrow so will be nice to mix things up a bit! Here’s hoping I don’t forget everything we’ve learnt from today…

Rambert Intensive: Day 1|Dreams That Glitter

So this week I’m doing a 5 day intensive at Rambert! I’m going to attempt to write a post about each day, so here goes. It’s an adult course and it’s split into two groups: Intermediate and Advanced, I’m doing the Intermediate. I’d never been to the studios before today and would just like to mention how lovely they are! They’re all wonderfully lit by natural light, high ceilings and lovely flooring, really nice to dance in!

10:00-11:30 – Contemporary with Kate Mummery

The day started with a Cunningham based contemporary class, which was a bit different to what I’ve done before but followed the regular structure of a technique class working through a series of exercises using more of the body and travelling more, working into the floor as we got warmer, eventually learning a short phrase which I think we’re building onto/adapting as the week goes on.

11:45-13:15 – Repertoire with Hannah Rudd – The Strange Charm of Mother Nature

I really enjoyed this session; I think it was my favourite of the day. I couldn’t find a link on YouTube for the rep but I might not have been looking hard enough so I totally recommend you give it a search! We were shown a clip from the work and then we learnt three phrases, which I really liked. They were quite technical and we didn’t dance them at full speed (the whole piece shifts a lot, and the music is fairly abstract but all of the movement is very speedy), I particularly enjoyed the balletic style to some of the movements. We performed them in smaller groups at the end and went from one phrase to the next continuously which was nice, and were given plenty of opportunity to go through all the details and ask questions as we went along which was really helpful, the class wasn’t too fast paced but I feel like we achieved quite a lot over the hour and a half.

14:15-15:45 – Choreography with Estela Merlos

I didn’t know what to expect from this class; whether we’d be taught more choreography or have to make up our own or whether it would be like improvisation. We did a simple warm up and then learnt a short phrase which mainly consisted of arm gestures, it was really specific and the movements had to be exactly on the counts, which isn’t always the case with contemporary dance. We then learnt a development of this phrase which contained the same movements but made them bigger and travelled more in the space, adding in more leg movements. Finally we learnt a third phrase based on the idea of falling so used a lot more floor work, which was really interesting, a lot of the moves I hadn’t done before and wouldn’t have thought of using them in my own choreography but is something I probably will  now incorporate in the future. These three phrases are being put together to form a piece which we are working towards for the end of the week, when we will have a sharing with the Advanced group so we can see what everyone’s been up to!

16:00-17:00 – Yoga/Pilates

This was a really nice class to finish off the day with. I think there was a bit more yoga than pilates, and I didn’t really know what to expect, I think a lot of people assumed that it would be the ‘easy’ class because Pilates and Yoga seem to be associated with older people I’ve realised? But I think some of the exercises were challenging, particularly the speed of the yoga flows we were doing. At the end of the day it’s quite easy to just want to curl up on the mat and have a nap! I do quite a lot of Pilates as my mum actually teaches it, and I wondered if there was going to be a difference between ‘general public pilates’ and ‘dancer pilates’ and there wasn’t really.

I think that’s it for today! I have also purchased the new Rambert t-shirt and hoodie which are both really lovely and soft. I have a similar day tomorrow so hopefully I’ll remember to post about it…

A Night At The Movies |Dreams That Glitter

It occurred to me that I only posted about my solo (how selfish) last week, so I wanted to do another post as a general summary of the whole show. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that it had a movie theme in previous posts, but some of the other numbers included The Matrix, Jai Ho, a medley of about 10 different movie soundtracks including Grease, Chicago, Mamma Mia etc. There was also a James Bond routine, West Side Story and a Dirty Dancing finale (yes, they did the lift).

All ready in our Jai Ho outfits

All in all I think the show was a big success and I really loved doing it, even with all the stress of trying to remember everything.. It was so much fun and I really don’t think two nights was enough, I’d have loved to do it all week! I’m glad we had more than one though like there’s been in the past, because then you at least have another chance to do better than the time before and there’s not as much pressure to do everything to absolute perfection on the one night. I think everyone is five times more nervous on the first night too, and after that you can relax ever so slightly because you know it will go ok. 

We also performed the Matrix number in assembly every day after lunch to each different year group and I still haven’t really decided whether it was fun or embarrassing. Considering we were wearing rather unflattering disco pants which caught the lights in all the wrong places and displayed even minimal VPL, it was quite enjoyable and I would be willing to do it again… The worst one was definitely doing it in front of my own year group because it was people I knew and although we were hidden behind dark sunglasses we were pretty distinguishable when we turned up to last lesson ten minutes late and with our hair all slicked back into french plaits (I did mine and Maisie’s every day at lunch, I got rather pro at it by the time Friday came along).

I think that’s just about all I’ve got to say about that! On Friday and Saturday I’m doing another dance show which contains mine and Maisie’s ‘Two Pieces’ choreography and we’re doing Jai Ho with only 5 of us (there was 15 in the show) which I’m looking forward to I suppose, but I have to say I’m a bit gutted I’m missing the last ballet classes before christmas to do it.

Flashdance Solo |Dreams That Glitter

Apologies for my rather lengthy absence on here recently… I’ve come to the conclusion that blogging is just not my thing. I don’t have the motivation to write regularly enough or write interestingly enough to attract even a nearly significant amount of readers that aren’t my friends that know everything I’m writing about anyway. This isn’t to say I’m going to completely give up with this blog because when things happen I do like to sum it all up in a post and share it with whoever is willing to listen to me ramble on halfheartedly, but I’m not going to stress out if I haven’t done a post for a whole week, I’m just gonna write whenever a) I have something interesting to talk about and/or b) I have the time and patience to write everything out. It doesn’t help that I have a temporary phone at the moment so I don’t have the wordpress app and I had to delete it from my iPod because the memory on it is still getting progressively worse I swear.

Anyway. Moving on.

This is my solo that I choreographed myself for the school dance show ‘A Night At The Movies’. My teacher asked me if I’d do a solo quite a while ago and I agreed slightly hesitantly after a few seconds consideration, assuming that there would be at least a couple of others in the year above that would also be doing one. I found out on Monday at the dress rehearsal that it was in fact just me on my own, and all the other numbers were group ones. That did panic me slightly because I think it put more pressure on me because I was now ‘that girl who danced on her own’.

If I had got to it quicker and choreographed it a little earlier so that I had more time to practice it and make sure I definitely knew every single step inside out (I finished it last Sunday – cutting it a bit fine) then I think it could have gone a bit better but overall I’m quite impressed with myself because I got up and did it in front of everyone even though it was pretty nerve wrecking. There’s probably no way I would’ve done that last year.

Anyway here’s the video from last night, feel free to comment and let me know what you think…

Flashdance |Dreams That Glitter

Please bare in mind this is my first rehearsal and I hope it will look better than this when I’ve practised it for a couple of weeks! This is only a small section of what I did, probably the best part of the video as it went a bit dodgy towards the end. And sorry about the blocks piled up blocking the mirror, it was the only way I could record it… but I wanted to share anyway. Thoughts please!

What A Feeling… |Dreams That Glitter

My dance teacher kindly reminded me yesterday I was supposed to have choreographed my solo for the show by now and asked to see it, and of course I hadn’t even decided what music I was using really. I was really tempted to change my choice from Flashdance to El Tango de Roxanne just because I really like that music, but at some point I’d told my teacher I was thinking about Flashdance and she wrote it in the program, so I wasn’t going to be awkward and change my mind last minute. So anyway, she said I had until Friday to show her something, cue panic mode. How do you choreograph an entire 3-4 minute dance in just a few days?

Quite easily, apparently. I went in there today after school, I think it was just after 4pm, and mum said she’d pick me up at 5.30pm, which I didn’t think was a lot of time and didn’t expect to get all that much done, but I surprised myself. I only have 3 bars of 8 left to choreograph, and then a whole lot of rehearsing and perfecting. I started by watching the final dance from Flashdance for inspiration and copied the movement as closely as I could for the first 30 seconds or so, adapting it slightly to suit me. After that I just kind of improvised until I got something I liked, then kept going through the song over and over doing the same thing. I’ve got the whole start section that goes into the first verse, then the chorus and a linking section in the instrumental bit (which I sneakily stole – well not really since I half made it up anyway – from what we did in Dance at school). It then goes into the second verse where I did half of what I did in the first verse reversed on the opposite side, and then comes the bit I’m missing. Then it’s the chorus again followed by another little section, and that’s it! The dance is 3:19 altogether so I think I did quite well to get the majority of it done in quite a short time! 

I did record it but I won’t post it now because it’s not a great video… but when the choreography is finished and I have the energy to perform it flat out (it involves a lot of jumping and rolling on the floor – I have about a million new bruises) for recording purposes I shall do and will put it up here like I’ve done for others. 

I realise this is quite a lengthy post about one bit of choreography but oh well haha! I just wanted to write a little update and share that with you all. 

PS I’ve just decided I’m going to upload a short clip of the video baring in mind it’s not great but I just wanted to post it so I can compare it to the final piece later on. So that will be to follow shortly 😉 

Roxanne |Dreams That Glitter

So after a productive day choreographing (well, Maisie did most of the hard work really, oops) I’ve come home and watched Strictly and now I’m yet again sat wondering what I’m going to do for my solo. I have about 2/3 weeks to have it choreographed and perfected and that’s a tad scary considering I have next to nothing done… The only specification I have to meet is that the music has to be from a movie.

My initial idea was Flashdance… and I stuck with that for a while and decided I was going to learn the actual choreography as much as I could and just improvise on the bits that were too advanced etc, but I never actually started it. Then the other day Rule The World by Take That came on the radio and I started picturing choreography in my head and then I remembered it’s the Stardust soundtrack and that I could use it. Different from Flashdance – which I’d have to make really bright and bouncy and perform a lot – this was more ‘up my street’ and I’d probably find it easier and more comfortable to choreograph and perform a smooth, lyrical dance.

Earlier, I had my iTunes on shuffle and El Tango de Roxanne (from Moulin Rouge) came on and I was again picturing choreography in my head. I thought maybe I could do something to that, but I don’t really like the lyrics so I decided to find an instrumental version (this is the one I downloaded – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tadYB7Yp9_0&list=HL1384037247) and for the past half an hour I’ve been coming up with little bits of choreography for it in my head and in the little space I have in my bedroom (I’d have a little more if I felt productive enough to do some tidying). This track again is very different to either of the other two I was deciding between though, but I really like it because it’s so strong and distinctive, and it’s very varied meaning I could potentially have some smooth lyrical sections but there’s also a lot of staccato beats in there which stand out and make it more interesting. So now I’m leaning towards this song more and I really wish it wasn’t really late right now so I could go to the studio and get started on putting something together… I can’t really even go tomorrow because I have an entire art project to finish by Monday that I put off today.

The video above is my main inspiration for this dance now… even though I could probably never dance like her in my dreams. But hey ho.

Group Contemporary Dance – Two Pieces |Dreams That Glitter

Had quite a productive day today… Me and Maisie spent just under 4 hours in the studio finishing our piece for a Christmas dance show in December and here’s the results… it still needs a bit of polishing up but we got it done and I’m quite pleased with it! Let me know what you think! X