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 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.

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. 🙂

Dance Company Update |Dreams That Glitter

Look what my fabulous friend Amy made! Isn’t she clever?;)

I just got some rather exciting news…. I got into the school dance company! I’m so happy and can’t wait to start rehearsals on Tuesday! I don’t think my audition went quite as well as it could have to be honest but I guess that doesn’t matter because I got in as long as I keep working hard and put lots of effort in. I’m getting a copy of the video of my solo from the audition from my teacher, I forgot to take in my memory stick earlier in the week and then my teacher wasn’t in, so hopefully I’ll get hold of that on Tuesday and post it here if I can bare it. Hopefully there’s an improvement at least in the performance side of it from the other video I posted from Sunday. I’ve just realised this now means on Tuesdays I’m going to be in school over 9 hours from 7.15 – 4.30…. that’s not a nice thought. Trampolining at 7.15, I then have PE and Dance in the day and then dance company after… I shouldn’t complain though should I?! With the help of coffee and some kind of energy filled foods I’m sure I’ll get through it all. And then probably an early night. Anyway, we’re working towards a show in December called ‘Night at the Movies’ and we’re doing pieces from the Matrix and Slumdog Millionaire, so it should be good!

A bit of a ballet update here while I’m at it… Pointe is going really well, I can actually do things without clutching onto the barre for dear life, hooray! My friend Maisie (I’ve mentioned her a few times before) has started ballet and been coming to the Inter Foundation class I do before pointe, and she’s doing really well so yay for that too! And my teacher is clearly already considering her a favourite which is always a bonus. 😉

Ok I think that’s it for now… Happy Friday! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend. 🙂 xxx

Dance Company |Dreams That Glitter

I was in two minds whether to upload this or not but thought what the hell I may as well, and also it’s a good thing to have as a comparison to any future solos I guess. This is my choreography to Lissie’s Go Your Own Way for my school dance company audition which is on Tuesday, I choreographed in about a couple of hours and have tried to practice it as much as possible… I don’t think this video is the best I can do it but hey ho. Feel free to let me know what you think!