New York Trip

As if the tour wasn't exciting enough.... some of us are heading Stateside to New York City!! From 11th April to 18th April we will be participating in a variety of dance classes at many world renowned centres around New York. As a bunch of aspiring dance artists we will be making sure we are at the theatre to see numerous shows including contemporary dance, broadway musicals and many more! If that isn't enough we will ba taking in as many sights as we can and that includes visiting all the hot spots from TV series Sex and the City! I am really excited to be part of this trip as it will be a great opportunity for us to gain much needed professional experience. This will then build our confidence and help with our perfromance skills, allowing us to progress onto professional employment after graduation in a few months time. I am in the process of arranging a meeting with our new principal Miles, who has proven to be a great supported of the Performing Arts Department already, and Winifred our Head of Performing Arts Department. I have asked them to meet with us to see if we can come up with some fundraising ideas that may help us raise some money for classes and shows over there. As you will be aware the cost of funding this trip are very expensive and we hope that we can raise some funds to put towards classes to help us develop as dancers whilst over in the Big Apple! Will keep you posted on how we get on. :)

Taking Flight 2011

Here's a look at our Taking Flight 2011 flyer that the publicity team worked hard to create! As the tour is next week we are all working really hard to try and promote it as much we can, handing flyers out across Edinburgh and other areas. I am looking forward to the tour as we not only get the chance to perform in Theatres, but we will also be leading some lecture demonstrations in a few Edinburgh based high schools. This gives them the chance to get a taste of what we do on the BA Dance course and also ask questions regarding any of the work they see. We received a tour pack today from our tour manager Catriona and our week is looking very busy so we are going to have to be organised to keep on top of everything! Carole, Susan and I are currently creating costume checklists so that we can keep on top of what the whole cast is wearing for each piece at each venue. We are also washing and altering the costumes to ensure we look as porfessional as we can throughout the whole tour. So if you are free please try gather as many people as possible to come and see the show as it would be a great support for us and really boost our confident for gaining professional work for when we leave in June. Below are the dates and venues we are touring to and be sure to see us in the area with our Taking Flight 2011 hoodies! :)


Tuesday 8th March - 7pm
Rothes Halls

Rothes Square

Glenrothes  

KY7 5NX

01592 611101

Tickets: http://www.attfife.org.uk/

Wednesday 9th March - 7.30pm

Howden Park Centre       
Howden
Livingston
West Lothian                                                      

EH54 6AE

01506 777666

Tickets: http://www.howdenparkcentre.co.uk/

Tuesday 5th April - 7pm

Edinburgh's Telford College

350 West Granton Road

Edinburgh

EH5 1QE

Tickets: http://pass.ed-coll.ac.uk/

 

No Time To Rest!

As the Tour is fast approaching, we are all a bit stressed as we have had some extra things to rearrange in our dance pieces. Unfortunately, Courtnay withdrew from the course last week so that put us in low spirits as she was such a well loved member of the group! The rehersal directors' have been working hard to try and alter the bits in each piece that need to be re-worked. This has been a bit stressful and is taking up a bit of our rehearsal time and causing some of us to panic a bit. Next week will be our only chance to perfect all the pieces... so lots of hard work coming our way! Well it's almost the weekend and I think we will all be resting our bodies with plenty of hot baths to ease our muscles! Hopefully everyone can get a good rest to help get us in the zone for the tour in a weeks time.
Have a look at our Taking Flight Tour page on facebook! -

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Taking-Flight-BA-Honours-Dance-Tour-2011/147723628622290

Busy Times Ahead...

Well it's two weeks until we are on our Taking Flight 2011 tour! We have all been really busy learning some new Rep that we will be performing as well as our jazz and two contemporary pieces. I have just learnt Carole's piece called "Read Between the Folds", I must admit it was quite challenging as there was quite a bit of choreography to learn. I really like the style of movement though and I feel it suits the kind of dancer I am so I'm really excited to be able to perform it some nights on tour. I am slightly worried as I've really strained my lower back, so trying to take it easy and build my stamina up for the tour is difficult! My 21st Century Choreography piece "Algorithm" was picked along with Carole and Yasmin's to take on tour. I'm quite nervous for this as I've had to add in more dancers and rehearse the piece in such a short space of time.... hopefully it will be alright on the night!

As well as performing as a dancer on the tour, I along with Carole and Susie are also in charge of the costumes. This job involves a lot of preparation, including washing ALL costumes for the 6 pieces, making adjustments or repairs if needed as well as box and store them until the week of the tour. Luckily I have a car which has helped transpor the costumes home with us but it is quite a lot to do. It has helped with my organisation skills as I am having to ensure we have everything in place to make sure the show runs as smoothly as possible!

Keep posted for an update of the venues we will be performing in, hope you can make it!

16 Stories

As you all know the Performing Arts Department has now been renamed PASS... I have attached a few photos of the great new sign we now have in the Department. I had an amazing time working with the other 15 performers and I am certainly going to miss rehearsing with them every day. The idea of the show was to bring 16 performers together both actors and dancers. It was based aroud our own individual stories of how we got to where we are today. A show full of laughter and tears as we each shared our stories through voice and dance. The show was a great success and I am so proud to have been a part of the whole process. I have learnt a lot about myself and some new skills from the others. I have done things I never thought I was capable of before this experience. My confidence has grown and I've met a lot of great people along the way. Had so much fun and I'm so glad I went along to the audition, even though I was scared at first!

<<<< A few of us before the opening show :)

BA Update...

Well so far we have performed 3 nights this week in our 'First Footing' show. We were all able to perform Lisi Perry's contempory piece as well as Laura's Jazz piece which was a great contrast for the show allowing us to perform both styles which was fun. We were all pretty tired after the shows as some of us have been busy with rehearsal for another show that is due to be performed in the new theatre next week. The show is being directed by Chris Kidd and Scott Johnston and it's a collaboration with us dancers and some of the HND acting students. I must admit to begin with I was really nervous about the process as it involved acting as well as dancing and I haven't really had a lot of acting experience. It's been a challenging process but also very rewarding as we are all learning from each other's strengths and everyone has made me feel comfortable which has helped with the acting parts.