October 2008

Hi Again

Well, Wolverhampton over,  the end of a long hard summer and a short breather before finishing the year off. Wolverhampton was another big cast and once again they were a noisy one (right from the audition) but as the parents were pretty much the same I guess I cant blame them too much. I did point this out at the photo call and I think someone actually booed me - yeah, go me! The standard was very high as always with a lot of students returning for their 2nd or 3rd time and I think we had the most number of people on point ever. One piece of advice to students who are going to do something like EYB at the end of or immediately after the summer break, it is not a good idea to do nothing for the rest of the break. All physical disciplines require you to do a lot of work on your own outside of your set training. Do a barre, put on those point shoes once a day, it saves a lot of pain and plasters later on.

We had a few dramas as well, one little girl fell ill during the 1st night so another girl had to step in in the middle of the show without any rehearsal which is another good example of the importance of understudying! During the parents show at the school Emma Child - one of the Waltz of the Flowers girls- went over on her foot during the dance and although was in a lot of pain finished the run through. When we looked at her foot afterwards we thought (and hoped) it was just a sprain but said it would be a good to get it checked. It turned out to be a small fracture which was devastating for Emma as she thought she would have to miss the shows! Eventually the doctor gave her permission to make up her own mind whether she dance on it or not so she braved the pain and went on with the show. With a lot of smiling and good use of the upper body (something else we are always going on about) nobody could tell she was in pain or not on point, a true Trooper!

Wolverhampton was also our newest principal Lorien’s debut with EYB as the Nutcracker Prince partnering Emma. They both did very well and will now be continuing their partnership into Giselle as Oli will not be available for Hastings. I’m always joking that there is no “shallow end” in EYB, Lorien’s reply to that was that if The Nutcracker Prince was the deep end then Albert in Giselle must be the high board and is a good job he likes heights! He is a very welcome addition to the company.

At the certificate ceremony in Wolverhampton commendations went to Geena Bennett (Clara) for a professional performance, Eve Crawford (Lead Flower) for smiling, dancing full out and enjoying her dancing, Charlotte Woltynski (Lead Flower) for working hard and getting up from a fall on stage, Laura Martayn (Madam Bonbon) for her clear mime, the Flowers as an ensemble group and the Arabian Girls for lovely arms and strong interpretation.

Junior prizes went to Francesca Kennedy (Chinese and Party Child) who stepped into a Sweet at the last minute during the show and Georgia Curtis (Snow) for good intelligent work who stood in for a Reed-pipe at the Parents Day performance. The Senior Prize went to Jabari Braham (Mouse King/Spanish/Jig) for good strong work and technical improvement.

I have had messages from Georgia Curtis, Rosie Poppitt, Megan Lacey and Taela Yeomans-Brown from the Wolverhampton who will be appearing together in dick Whittington, Georgia Bould who is now at White Lodge and appeared in Swan Lake with the Royal Ballet, Lisa Elston who appeared in Northern Ballet Theatre’s production of “A Tale of Two Cities” in Sheffield, Olivia Cope who is now at Elmhurst, Caitlin O’Farrell who appeared in NBT production of “The Nutcracker” and Rory Layton who is now on the PVP course with Elmhurst.

It has been very gratifying to meet so many past students in the audience at recent venues, some travelling quite long distances to come and support us. Many thanks to them. Well a short letter from me this time, keep your news coming in and keep working hard.

Dominic