Rambert Intensive: Final Thoughts|Dreams That Glitter

I’d like to begin by saying I miss being at Rambert already, it felt really weird not going back again yesterday, I think I’d just got used to the hectic nature of it all and travelling into London every day. It took me about an hour on the train but it was a direct route so it wasn’t too bad, luckily my station is right at the beginning of the line so I didn’t have to fight for a seat, getting a seat was more of a concern on the way home though when I just wanted to collapse! Commuting is kind of exhausting but I actually quite liked having that quiet time on the train at the beginning and end of the day.

Since this was only my second summer intensive I didn’t have a whole lot to compare it to, and the one I did last year was a youth one for ages 11-18 so had a very different feel to this one which was an adult course, there was a much wider range of ages as I think the youngest was 16, all the way up to 30+. It was interesting how different the tone was working with older people of different ages although we did quite similar things as to last year. First off, there’s  a lot less drama with adults I think; there’s no whiney 12 year olds!! I think with a group of adults as well there tends to be more barriers put up with ourselves as the older you get the more self conscious you are and you have more fear of trying new things and being around new people, whereas younger people generally adapt easily and are up for trying anything they seem to just throw themselves into it. I’m not saying no one had any confidence or anything because that’s not the case at all and there were some very talented dancers in the group but it’s just a completely different vibe to a group of young people.

Another difference is with the youth group, the majority of dancers participating are there because they want to become professional dancers and go into a performance career, and there can almost be a sense of competition. With this course however it was such a mix – there was some people already in dance training, some doing A Level, some there for pure enjoyment just dancing as a hobby, there because they just really love to dance. Some had little dance experience while others had years under their belt; it was a diverse group it was really nice to work with such a range of people and we all helped each other through it.

This brings me onto friendships… Most people’s main priority on the course was obviously to soak up as much information as possible, to work on themselves as dancers and performers and improve as much as possible in the short space of time. A few people knew each other before and came in groups and others knew no one and sort of kept to themselves. Back to the confidence thing, why are adults so much worse at making friends and putting themselves forward than kids? Between that and being exhausted and very concentrated on food during our breaks, everyone was generally quiet and didn’t talk to each other a whole lot really. It wasn’t until the last couple of days when we started talking more, so I guess if the intensive had been longer we would’ve made more significant friendships! It was still nice to get to know everyone though and we’ll keep in touch through Facebook.

As I mentioned before – there was two groups an Intermediate and Advanced; ultimately it was up to the individual which path they chose but the Advanced was generally dance graduates, professionals or those in full time training, and the Intermediate dancers had not been dancing so long, there more for pure enjoyment and for themselves than working towards a career in dance. As with anywhere there was a clear divide between the two groups and we didn’t really mingle between groups a lot but I did manage to talk briefly with a few of them and it was interesting to hear about the wide range of backgrounds the dancers came from. Had I chose the Advanced route I think I would definitely have found it challenging, the material they showed during the sharing looked absolutely amazing, however I don’t think I would’ve struggled so much I’d have changed groups, although a lot of the dancers in that group were very technical and expressive I think I would’ve learnt a lot being with them and would have enjoyed the challenge, maybe I’ll do that next time? I imagine each group of dancers would be different though in terms of standard.

To conclude, if you hadn’t gathered by now I had an absolutely wonderful time and would jump at the chance to do a course like this again. The level of training we received was brilliant and it was a privilege to have the chance to work with Rambert company members; truly learning from the best. It was tough at times and definitely a challenge but I’ve learnt so much – I really enjoyed having classes with a range of teachers as you get to experience the variety of teaching styles and each of them has a different vision of what they want you to get out of the experience.

Finally, here’s my list of tips to take with you to any intensive:

1. Be open to anything! The more open minded you are, the more you can learn and the more you’ll take away with you. Don’t be confined to what you’re used to and respect different people’s methods of doing things.
2. Eat little and often. It definitely took me a couple of days to gauge how much to eat so as to feel full fuelled but not like you’re going to throw up in the class after lunch! You have to eat properly, food that will give you energy. Most days I had: toast for breakfast, some fruit in the morning break, pasta/rice and salad at lunch, a cereal/protein bar and mixed nuts for afternoon break, and a good dinner when I got home.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or put yourself forward. If you don’t understand something, ask. If you missed part of the phrase, ask. If you have an injury and need another option, ask. This is so important! Don’t just skip over something if you don’t understand it, the teachers don’t mind you asking questions as they want you to succeed and understand everything.
4. Drink lots of water! If you’re dancing for hours at a time, keeping hydrated is super important otherwise you’re probably going to pass out or get a horrible headache. Drink lots!!
5. Get plenty of sleep. If you don’t get enough you will definitely feel it the next day when you’re trying your hardest not to yawn at the barre. Your body is being put under a lot of pressure and a lot of energy is required, you can’t do your best and get the most out of every class if you only had 4 hours sleep.
6. Look after your body! I highly recommend you get a foam roller or a massage ball or something similar. I used the foam roller every evening for about an hour when I got home and it made such a difference to how my body felt. Listen to your body and look after it to prevent injury. I also found an ice bath for my feet particularly soothing half way through the week. Hot/Cold showers also feel really good afterwards!

I think that’s about it…. I hope this post wasn’t too long/boring, I just wanted to share everything in one go. I’m not going to lie I’m quite impressed with myself for keeping up with these blog posts all week, it’s been a really nice way to document and evaluate everything! If anyone else has done a course at Rambert I’d love to hear about your experiences 🙂

Rambert Intensive: Day 5|Dreams That Glitter

Final day!!

We started with contemporary with Kate again this morning; it was nice to have her back, all the phrases came flooding back…kind of!! We did all the phrases we’d learnt with her on the right and left in smaller groups once we’d done some warm up exercises. Trying to get energy out of us was proving to be a bit tricky by this point of the week… but once we warmed up we got back into it I think! We then learnt another new phrase and did a mini task – to take 12 movements from anything we’d done in her classes over the week and put them together to make our own phrases in groups of 2 or 3 which we then performed to each other. Fantastic way to start the day!

After our break we had rehearsals for the sharing that was this afternoon. We had half an hour on each – both pieces of repertoire and then choreography. We recapped and cleaned everything and set formations and ran everything start to finish with a few minor changes here and there. Estela changed a bit of the piece so that I didn’t have to do the section that hurt my foot yesterday, even though it felt a lot better today she said it was better not to take the risk which was the best idea.

At lunch there was a few nerves going around in preparation for the sharing, I went over to the National Theatre area to meet my friend Willa who I met at Bluewater 2 years ago (!!) and it was so great to see her! Even if I was extremely gross and sweaty! It was again finding the challenge of eating enough to fill my stomach without feeling like I would throw up when I starting moving again, I think I’ve just about got the hang of it! Plenty of smaller snacks throughout the day works much better than trying to eat a ‘meal’ with only 1 hour off dancing.

So before the sharing began we had about half an hour to do some final preparations do everything one more time. We performed The Strange Charm of Mother Nature rep first, then Terra Incognita, and finally our choreography piece which has a really happy, chilled vibe and is just really about enjoying ourselves, the music was quite upbeat and fun as well, I certainly enjoyed it (I hope that came across). I wasn’t really nervous at all as it didn’t feel like a ‘show’ as such, it was just sharing what we’d been working on over the week and considering we’d achieved all of that in just a few days was enough of an accomplishment, it didn’t need to be perfect.

We then had the opportunity to watch the Advanced group’s work, which was absolutely amazing. I will have to try and look up which pieces they studied because I really liked the phrases they did, and they seemed to have put a lot more together than we did I think! There were a lot of dancers who were either in the middle of their training or had dance degrees etc in that group so the standard was pretty high, they all did really well. *claps*

So that’s it!! The week has gone so quickly and I think I’ve just got used to the routines of everything and settled in, I think today everyone started talking to each other a lot more and seemed more relaxed and like we knew each other. I didn’t even ache that much today! I could definitely get used to doing that all the time! And I definitely want to do more Rambert Intensives.

Tomorrow I think I’ll do a general review post of the whole course and everything I’ve learnt!

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.