Monday 23rd January 2017 –
Today Sarah wasn’t very well so she didn’t come into college. She gave me the email address to one of her friends who does a club on Acrobatics so that I would be able to ask her some relevant questions to my essay topic so that I have another view based on the question and topics within the essay. As we weren’t dancing today, I went to E0.29 and did some more research on my essay question because all of the research is in for Wednesday.
Tuesday 24th January 2017 –
Choir this morning was really enjoyable. We first warmed up with the regular vocal warm up techniques that we do. We then went through the ‘The Rainbow Collection’ which was the song that we learnt 2 weeks and considering that we haven’t been through it, everyone has been through the melodies on their own accord and it sounded really good when we were singing as a group. There were a few things that we needed to adjust, the timing more so but other sections of the piece went over multiple times.
Hello Clare,
I have been given your email through Sarah Berrington. I am currently studying musical theatre at West Suffolk College and my project is to write a 2,000 word essay based on a topic that I have an interest in. I am a gymnast and have been training for over 10 years now and in my essay I am comparing the differences between Gymnastics and Acrobatic Dance. I was wondering whether you could possibly answer these questions, it would help me very much. Thank you! Jessica.
- What physique is needed for an Acrobatic Dancer?
- How much money on average would a professional Acrobatic Dancer gain a year?
- What is the hardest movement to execute as a dancer? Acrobat?
- When did you find your passion for this sort of dance?
- What do you believe the difference is between gymnastics and Acrobatic dance?
- Would you ever accept a gymnast into your classes? Would they be a good candidate for your classes or not?
Wednesday 25th January 2017 –
Today I had a trip to ArtsEd in London and I absolutely loved it. I had to arrange transport and because I knew that there wouldn’t be a chance that my parents would be able to take me to college for 6:30am I asked Sophie if she would allow me to sleep round hers for the night because she was also going on the trip. Once we were on the coach we travelled for 3 hours which dragged but I got on with looking over my monologues and making sure that I am prepared for the audition that I am having on Sunday 29th for Mandy Ellen Performing Arts College in Kent.
Once we arrived we were split into three groups to observe a lesson in dance that’s happening when we got to ArtsEd. I was so excited. We were given the Tap class to observe and I was so impressed. The students were Year 2’s and they were group X which is the highest set in the year. They were literally incredible and they all were focusing so hard and not a single person messed up or complained. It was such a incredible experience watching those who are living your dream currently. I couldn’t stop smiling because all the rhythms were impeccable. What I also noticed was when the teacher asked if anyone had any problems, not a single one asked for help (even if they needed the help) because they all wanted to be able to sort it out for themselves. Overall, this lesson of one hour and thirty minutes motivated me to want to improve so much more and stop complaining. Although, I do think I’m quite good with behaviour in dance because I am usually so motivated and have so much love and passion for dance that I don’t generally complain about the hard work because its what I want to do in future life for a career.
After this , we returned to the main entrance and meet up with everybody else and discussed what we had all just witnessed. The majority of those there were feeling motivated and had a spark at ArtsEd, but unfortunately not me. I don’t know what it was about the place but I just felt like it wasn’t the place for me. Next, we were given a tour of the building by one of the directors that was auditioning Tom Barber when he went there a few weeks a go. We saw two theatres that they have. One was funded and given to them by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the other was another that was plain black which seats that were able to be moved anywhere. This is so the school are able to be flexible when they do their performances and be creative.
The picture above is the theatre that is funded by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This theatre has everything that would be included in a theatre in the West End.
We were given 1 hour 30 minutes for lunch and so we went in groups of four around London to get some food. I had only £4 to spend because I didn’t think about food so I went to Tesco Express and bought a meal deal and chocolate.
Afterward, we returned to the school and were sent to a room with the director and Gary and we had a hour session asking questions to the director and listening to a few pieces from Faye Smith and Ryan Adams. I really enjoyed how they just went for the monologues and when they were given feedback they went for it again and changed what they thought they had to do to impress the director and do exactly as he had told them to do.
My favourite part of the day was next, we were given tickets for the performance ‘ Titanic ‘ and I absolutely LOVED IT! It was incredible. Literally one of the best shows that I have ever seen. The way they performed the piece with such passion and excellence was intriguing. The songs sounded professional and I honestly, I could see myself doing that and it was really enjoyable. My favourite song was ‘No moon’ it was the song before the interval I think and it was really dramatic and the dialogue was interesting and overlapping of the harmonies was so creative and inventive.
The link below is to my favourite song ‘No Moon’ –
Once the show was finished we got to talk to the actors that had just performed. They gave us tips for the auditions that we are going to be doing which included, ‘Just be yourself, the panel are looking for you. They don’t mind if you mess up with the songs or monologue but they want you to be able to perform.’ another lot of comments that I received which I thought was funny was, ‘Don’t act’ meaning that we should perform as natural as possible.
I also thought that the finale song of the performance of Titanic was incredible.
Thursday 26th January 2017 –
Today we had employability first which I didn’t find interesting at all. I didn’t like how we have to listen to him talking constantly for an hour. Its boring and the majority of the conversations are not even relevant to anything that we need to learn. For example, we were talking about Donald Trump today and I don’t feel like I needed to know about that in a lesson where he is supposed to help teach us life skills.
Later after lunch we had an Acting lesson with Erica which I thought was really productive. We finalised the script for the final time (after editing it 8 times in total). Erica printed off the script for us and we went through what we have already blocked and continued until we had finished blocking the next scene. We showed Erica the choreography that we have got for our Egypt song. Here is a clip of what we showed her. (This is the last verse that we all sang for her. The rest of the song/choreography is the same but we wanted to show her the last verse because we all sing it rather than either just Scott or I)
Friday 27th January 2017 –
Usually this week on a Friday we have audition prep with Lynn, Han and Sarah but instead the timetable has changed and now we are set as Year 1 and 2 MT’s to be with B for an hour. This enables us to learn techniques of singing all together and learn a lot more that what we are already. I honestly think this is such a great change and we will prepare different pieces each week to perform for this class in the morning. I also think its a great idea because the year 1’s and year 2’s haven’t really had much of a chance to really bond so this will be a great opportunity to do so.
Birgitta Kenyon had written out a list of what she wants us all to follow so we can have an efficient lesson rather than her having to repeat everything every session.
Jess Last - Year 2 Musical Theatre 