Ok, so time now to talk about how keeping a personal journal is actually going..? hmm. I'm not gunna lie, I am struggling a bit. As someone who commits a lot of time to different things everyday (dance work, music, stock trading) and generally has a busy schedule, I am really finding it hard to even find time to sit down and write down my thoughts in a bullet point style of writing. The more time that goes past, the easier I am finding it, so I'm hoping this is just a learning curve and that I'll get used to it soon.
After reading through the module handout, I really liked the idea of different styles of journal logging. I did try on my Friday journal post to explore the whole "what if?" way to write as It's not how I usually write and it proved for a very interesting result, largely because I had a rather unusual day anyway so I seized the opportunity to write in a skeptical/ponderous fashion. "What if I'd just left it?" was probably the sentence I pondered over for the longest time after writing my diary entry.
Mostly my personal journal entries are descriptive and evaluative. I read back and a lot of what is written are things like "overall the show went well" and "need to change this lift grip to make it smoother" but I do also like the idea of having a more list based journal input. I am looking at a list of pros and cons on this Friday entry and seeing things like:
- energetic
- immersed
- artistically satisfied
but also:
- nervous
- apprehensive
as I said, it was a very up and down day.
I'm really starting to understand why people do keep a personal journal for the sheer fun of it as it has been nice to read back on previous days and get an insight in to how I was feeling and how my day panned out. My only problem is finding time and documenting throughout the day. I read in the comment section of another blog that someone suggested keeping voice notes on their phone and reflecting on it at the end of the day. I thought this was actually a really useful tool as sometimes I thought to myself "ahh, I have to remember that and put it in my journal" and then I find myself sat scratching my head and driving myself slightly crazy trying to remember that one particular point. Having said that, as I'm sat writing this blog post about trying to remember that specific point, it just came back to me, thanks brain.
From reading the above you can probably tell that I'm still getting to grips with personal journal keeping as well as blogging in general but I think over time it will definitely get easier an I hope that people reading can see it throughout my blogging journey.
Monday, 21 March 2016
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Task 2a: Reflective Practice
So time to start keeping a private journal huh? Not exactly sure how this will pan out for me but I am quite excited about the prospect. As the human brain apparently experiences approximately 50-70,000 thoughts a day.. it might be nice to try and put a few down on paper to reflect back on not only for the sake of my BAPP learning, but for personal enjoyment as well.
So where to begin? Any suggestions? I wonder if I'll end up writing in a different manner to how I write these blog posts. So far I have just been writing as I go and letting everything emerge onto the screen as it leaves my brain but I'm wondering if keeping a personal dairy will help me to become a better public blogger also? My current method of writing seems to be: get everything in my head onto paper as quickly as possible and then arrange it later. I guess only time will tell as my blogging continues.
I'm curious how my attitude towards BAPP will change as I become closer to deadlines or as I feel like I have written a particularly good blog post. Having somewhere to store thoughts throughout a good week or a bad week seems slightly daunting right now, but I think will be very rewarding to read either at the end of the month, or at the end of my whole BAPP course.
As someone who has never kept a diary throughout any point of my life, I am hoping that it is something I will stick with. The only real form of memory keeping I seem have is countless amounts of random photos. For me, I absolutely love stumbling across a photo and relaying in my brain how I felt at that moment, where I was in my life and what proceeded the event afterwards. I've often wondered just how amazing it would be to watch a movie of your own life.. has anyone else thought that too? Perhaps this journal/diary keeping will be the beginning of something I keep doing for the rest of my life, who knows.
I read Bens blog post about keeping a personal journal and completely agreed when he said "It feels strange to work on something that isn't initially for presentation however we are encouraged to use excerpts towards later modules." I think I will have to make an active effort to write regularly in my journal so I can track closely where it takes me throughout the upcoming months and when evaluating it in months to come.
So where to begin? Any suggestions? I wonder if I'll end up writing in a different manner to how I write these blog posts. So far I have just been writing as I go and letting everything emerge onto the screen as it leaves my brain but I'm wondering if keeping a personal dairy will help me to become a better public blogger also? My current method of writing seems to be: get everything in my head onto paper as quickly as possible and then arrange it later. I guess only time will tell as my blogging continues.
I'm curious how my attitude towards BAPP will change as I become closer to deadlines or as I feel like I have written a particularly good blog post. Having somewhere to store thoughts throughout a good week or a bad week seems slightly daunting right now, but I think will be very rewarding to read either at the end of the month, or at the end of my whole BAPP course.
As someone who has never kept a diary throughout any point of my life, I am hoping that it is something I will stick with. The only real form of memory keeping I seem have is countless amounts of random photos. For me, I absolutely love stumbling across a photo and relaying in my brain how I felt at that moment, where I was in my life and what proceeded the event afterwards. I've often wondered just how amazing it would be to watch a movie of your own life.. has anyone else thought that too? Perhaps this journal/diary keeping will be the beginning of something I keep doing for the rest of my life, who knows.
I read Bens blog post about keeping a personal journal and completely agreed when he said "It feels strange to work on something that isn't initially for presentation however we are encouraged to use excerpts towards later modules." I think I will have to make an active effort to write regularly in my journal so I can track closely where it takes me throughout the upcoming months and when evaluating it in months to come.
Thursday, 3 March 2016
My Flickr
With my last post being all about creating a profile for yourself and advertising yourself to the world.. I bring you my own Flickr. I must admit, I'm not usually one to enjoy looking at photos of my dancing or just of myself in general but I will endeavor to upload more dance pictures as time progresses as I'm hoping it will be interesting for others to see what kind of dance works I have done so far in my professional career.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/140683803@N06/
Hope you enjoy having a read through
https://www.flickr.com/photos/140683803@N06/
Hope you enjoy having a read through
Monday, 29 February 2016
Technology and it's effect..
Technology and it's effect on the world of dance
As I look through my handbook and modules it raises the question to me; how does technology effect the professional dance world?
As the life of being a professional dancer is very much a public lifestyle, (by that I mean that we are judged on what we portray with our bodies to an audience) it makes sense that increasing your performance to a digital and much larger audience is a smart move and one that is necessary in broadening the dance world and making it more public, as well as your own personal dance profile. There are many different platforms that are useful for doing this such as Network Dance, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.
I think as a dancer or any performer in the arts it is very important to have a presence among some form of social media. Whether that be a member of a dance network such as Network Dance or having your own personal following on a larger scale on a platform like Twitter or Instagram. Not only does it open up further opportunities to get a job somewhere else in the world but it can also open some form of financial security like a private sponsor or a sponsorship from a brand like Freed, Bloch or Yumiko.
When thinking about exposure through footage, Youtube would probably be the most efficient platform to promote yourself as a dancer. If we think back 30-40 years then the amount of exposure for the arts purely through technology was a lot less and a lot less accessible by the general public. Current technology makes it easy to capture something spare of the moment, but in this day and age where we are being recorded more and more the likelihood that a moment will be captured is significantly higher than 30-40 years ago. So for example if tomorrow in class I happen to do something cool and it happens to be recorded which is very possible with the ease of capturing footage that is with a phone or tablet device, the likelihood of hundred of people seeing it is made possibly purely through technology alone.
With all the good, does come some bad. With technology being so accessible it is very easy for a bad moment to be captured and broadcast as well as good. I think probably one of the most damaging things to a dancers career is his or her reputation. With technology, you can literally be one click away from ruining your career. My first break at the Theatre I am working with came through a social media mess up by a fellow dancer. It involved him writing profanities on a public Facebook profile which ended up getting him taken out of the piece and leaving me 3 days to learn a full neo-classical ballet.. needless to say it was stressful but luckily I prevailed and it helped me with roles later to come as I quickly became the dancer who can "learn material quickly"
The internet is a massive tool for not only dancers but for choreographers and directors too. Directors can hold auditions for their company and make it completely accessible just through the power of a computer. Choreographers can post videos or pictures of some of their work on a social media platform that could lead to future employment. The list is endless of just how beneficial technology is to our profession. Not only through dancing but in a theater also. Using technology we can enhance digital images to make performances better, we can project different lighting designs, like I said.. the list is endless.
I hope that this insight to the benefits of technology has been interesting. The only thing that we can hope for is more. A larger following, a bigger interest from the general public towards dance and arts and more exposure across mainstream media and Television to promote the arts and especially dance in the future.
As I look through my handbook and modules it raises the question to me; how does technology effect the professional dance world?
As the life of being a professional dancer is very much a public lifestyle, (by that I mean that we are judged on what we portray with our bodies to an audience) it makes sense that increasing your performance to a digital and much larger audience is a smart move and one that is necessary in broadening the dance world and making it more public, as well as your own personal dance profile. There are many different platforms that are useful for doing this such as Network Dance, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.
I think as a dancer or any performer in the arts it is very important to have a presence among some form of social media. Whether that be a member of a dance network such as Network Dance or having your own personal following on a larger scale on a platform like Twitter or Instagram. Not only does it open up further opportunities to get a job somewhere else in the world but it can also open some form of financial security like a private sponsor or a sponsorship from a brand like Freed, Bloch or Yumiko.
When thinking about exposure through footage, Youtube would probably be the most efficient platform to promote yourself as a dancer. If we think back 30-40 years then the amount of exposure for the arts purely through technology was a lot less and a lot less accessible by the general public. Current technology makes it easy to capture something spare of the moment, but in this day and age where we are being recorded more and more the likelihood that a moment will be captured is significantly higher than 30-40 years ago. So for example if tomorrow in class I happen to do something cool and it happens to be recorded which is very possible with the ease of capturing footage that is with a phone or tablet device, the likelihood of hundred of people seeing it is made possibly purely through technology alone.
With all the good, does come some bad. With technology being so accessible it is very easy for a bad moment to be captured and broadcast as well as good. I think probably one of the most damaging things to a dancers career is his or her reputation. With technology, you can literally be one click away from ruining your career. My first break at the Theatre I am working with came through a social media mess up by a fellow dancer. It involved him writing profanities on a public Facebook profile which ended up getting him taken out of the piece and leaving me 3 days to learn a full neo-classical ballet.. needless to say it was stressful but luckily I prevailed and it helped me with roles later to come as I quickly became the dancer who can "learn material quickly"
The internet is a massive tool for not only dancers but for choreographers and directors too. Directors can hold auditions for their company and make it completely accessible just through the power of a computer. Choreographers can post videos or pictures of some of their work on a social media platform that could lead to future employment. The list is endless of just how beneficial technology is to our profession. Not only through dancing but in a theater also. Using technology we can enhance digital images to make performances better, we can project different lighting designs, like I said.. the list is endless.
I hope that this insight to the benefits of technology has been interesting. The only thing that we can hope for is more. A larger following, a bigger interest from the general public towards dance and arts and more exposure across mainstream media and Television to promote the arts and especially dance in the future.
CV compairson
My CV
For this post I figured I would take my graduating CV and do a comparison to my current CV at the place I am working currently. I have been lucky enough to do a lot of very interesting roles whilst working in Estonia and have worked with a lot of interesting choreographers.
Below is my graduate CV that I would send to directors of companies whilst auditioning around Europe in hope of getting auditions for those particular companies. I think all in all I auditioned for approximately 12 different companies over my graduate year. I had some success with different companies but a lot of companies would tell you things like "you need more experience" which is not a very helpful to a graduating student who doesn't have much experience and needs a job to gain experience to begin with. a good thing about the school I graduated from is that we had a wide range of training in different styles of dance which has definitely helped me during my professional working time as it has given me an edge on other professional dancers who have not had such extensive training in other styles.
Lawrence Cameron Massie
Mobile: +44 (0) 7732011151 (UK)
Email: lawrencemassie@hotmail.co.uk
Date of Birth 06/12/91 Height 187cm
Nationality British Citizen Weight 70kg
Ballet Training
2005 - present: Elmhurst School for Dance in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet
2000 – 2005: The Arts Educational School, Tring Park
2003 - 2005:Royal Ballet School Mid Associate
Ballet Coaches
Desmond Kelly, Errol Pickford, Patrick Hinson, Irek Mukhamedov, Lee Robinson
Performance/stage experience
2010
Birmingham Royal Ballet: Cinderella: Cavalier (D. Bintley) Birmingham Hippodrome Birmingham Royal Ballet: Sleeping Beauty (Sir P. Wright) Birmingham Hippodrome
Sadlers Wells
Plymouth
Sunderland
Excellence Gala Birmingham Town Hall
Orpheus Suite (D.Bintley) Elmhurst School Theatre
Cafe Ole: Soloist (A. Garcia) Elmhurst School Theatre
Don Quixote: Grand pas de deux (Nureyev) Shrewsbury
2009
Elite Syncopations (K.MacMillan) Elmhurst School Theatre
Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra (E Pickford) Elmhurst School Theatre
2008
Royal Performance for HRH Prince of Wales Birmingham Town Hall
2000-2007
Annual performances at Elmhurst School for Dance Elmhurst School
Annual performance at Arts Educational School Markova Theatre
Irek Mukhamedov and Friends Gala London Coliseum
English National Ballet: Nutcracker (D.Deane) London Coliseum
English National Ballet: Swan Lake (D.Deane) Royal Albert Hall
National Youth Ballet (F.Freeman) (A. Dowson) Sadlers Wells
Other Dance Styles Studied:
Contemporary, Tap, Jazz, Flamenco, Character, Fencing
Other Skills:
Grade 8+ equivalent in Piano and Drums, Advanced IT skills, First Aid, Prefect (Elmhurst School 2009/2010), Grade 7 Certificate in Fencing.
References
Desmond Kelly: Elmhurst School for Dance, 249 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7UH
d.kelly@elmhurstdance.co.uk
Errol Pickford: Elmhurst School for Dance, 249 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7UH
e.pickford@elmhurstdance.co.uk
And below is my professional CV from Teater Vanemuine. I've been lucky enough to dance some good soloist roles whilst performing with this Theatre, whilst in house and touring. My favorite role to perform has definitely been Morris in "Midnight in Paris" as it was a completely new ballet and very technically difficult, which was a nice challenge.
Vanemuine CV
Lawrence Massie
IN VANEMUINE SINCE 2011
BALLETARTIST
Born6.12.1991, Great Britain
Education2005 – 2011 Elmhurst Dance School (Great Britain)
Roles in Vanemuine:
Morris – “Midnight in Paris (Michael Shannon, 2015),
Strawman / Prince - "SnowQueen" (Silas Stubbs, 2016)
Prince/Grand Pas - “Sleeping Beauty” Pär Isberg)
Adam – “Beauty and the Beast” (Silas Stubbs, 2013),
Strauss - “Evening with Strauss” (Fabrice Gibert, 2012),
Tchaikovsky’s „Nutcracker“ ( Pär Isberg, 2004/2011),
“Casanova” (David Sonnenbluck, 2011),
“Raymonda” (Jelena Pankova, 2013),
Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s “Mary Poppins” (2011);
“Onegin” (Vassili Medvedjev, 2007);
“Carrrmen!” (Ruslan Stepanov, 2012);
“Moonlight Express” (Mare Tommingas),
It has been interesting to compare both my graduating CV and my professional CV. I have been lucky enough to do a lot of roles whilst working professionally which I feel has taught me a lot as a performer and I hope to continue doing roles like I have been doing for years to come.
For this post I figured I would take my graduating CV and do a comparison to my current CV at the place I am working currently. I have been lucky enough to do a lot of very interesting roles whilst working in Estonia and have worked with a lot of interesting choreographers.
Below is my graduate CV that I would send to directors of companies whilst auditioning around Europe in hope of getting auditions for those particular companies. I think all in all I auditioned for approximately 12 different companies over my graduate year. I had some success with different companies but a lot of companies would tell you things like "you need more experience" which is not a very helpful to a graduating student who doesn't have much experience and needs a job to gain experience to begin with. a good thing about the school I graduated from is that we had a wide range of training in different styles of dance which has definitely helped me during my professional working time as it has given me an edge on other professional dancers who have not had such extensive training in other styles.
Lawrence Cameron Massie
Mobile: +44 (0) 7732011151 (UK)
Email: lawrencemassie@hotmail.co.uk
Date of Birth 06/12/91 Height 187cm
Nationality British Citizen Weight 70kg
Ballet Training
2005 - present: Elmhurst School for Dance in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet
2000 – 2005: The Arts Educational School, Tring Park
2003 - 2005:Royal Ballet School Mid Associate
Ballet Coaches
Desmond Kelly, Errol Pickford, Patrick Hinson, Irek Mukhamedov, Lee Robinson
Performance/stage experience
2010
Birmingham Royal Ballet: Cinderella: Cavalier (D. Bintley) Birmingham Hippodrome Birmingham Royal Ballet: Sleeping Beauty (Sir P. Wright) Birmingham Hippodrome
Sadlers Wells
Plymouth
Sunderland
Excellence Gala Birmingham Town Hall
Orpheus Suite (D.Bintley) Elmhurst School Theatre
Cafe Ole: Soloist (A. Garcia) Elmhurst School Theatre
Don Quixote: Grand pas de deux (Nureyev) Shrewsbury
2009
Elite Syncopations (K.MacMillan) Elmhurst School Theatre
Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra (E Pickford) Elmhurst School Theatre
2008
Royal Performance for HRH Prince of Wales Birmingham Town Hall
2000-2007
Annual performances at Elmhurst School for Dance Elmhurst School
Annual performance at Arts Educational School Markova Theatre
Irek Mukhamedov and Friends Gala London Coliseum
English National Ballet: Nutcracker (D.Deane) London Coliseum
English National Ballet: Swan Lake (D.Deane) Royal Albert Hall
National Youth Ballet (F.Freeman) (A. Dowson) Sadlers Wells
Other Dance Styles Studied:
Contemporary, Tap, Jazz, Flamenco, Character, Fencing
Other Skills:
Grade 8+ equivalent in Piano and Drums, Advanced IT skills, First Aid, Prefect (Elmhurst School 2009/2010), Grade 7 Certificate in Fencing.
References
Desmond Kelly: Elmhurst School for Dance, 249 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7UH
d.kelly@elmhurstdance.co.uk
Errol Pickford: Elmhurst School for Dance, 249 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7UH
e.pickford@elmhurstdance.co.uk
And below is my professional CV from Teater Vanemuine. I've been lucky enough to dance some good soloist roles whilst performing with this Theatre, whilst in house and touring. My favorite role to perform has definitely been Morris in "Midnight in Paris" as it was a completely new ballet and very technically difficult, which was a nice challenge.
Vanemuine CV
Lawrence Massie
IN VANEMUINE SINCE 2011
BALLETARTIST
Born6.12.1991, Great Britain
Education2005 – 2011 Elmhurst Dance School (Great Britain)
Roles in Vanemuine:
Morris – “Midnight in Paris (Michael Shannon, 2015),
Strawman / Prince - "SnowQueen" (Silas Stubbs, 2016)
Prince/Grand Pas - “Sleeping Beauty” Pär Isberg)
Adam – “Beauty and the Beast” (Silas Stubbs, 2013),
Strauss - “Evening with Strauss” (Fabrice Gibert, 2012),
Tchaikovsky’s „Nutcracker“ ( Pär Isberg, 2004/2011),
“Casanova” (David Sonnenbluck, 2011),
“Raymonda” (Jelena Pankova, 2013),
Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s “Mary Poppins” (2011);
“Onegin” (Vassili Medvedjev, 2007);
“Carrrmen!” (Ruslan Stepanov, 2012);
“Moonlight Express” (Mare Tommingas),
It has been interesting to compare both my graduating CV and my professional CV. I have been lucky enough to do a lot of roles whilst working professionally which I feel has taught me a lot as a performer and I hope to continue doing roles like I have been doing for years to come.
Monday, 22 February 2016
A little more about me and my day to day life...
I figured that my first post was probably a bit too formal. I like to consider myself quite an easy going person so I'm going to try and write a little more casually so hopefully all of you who are reading can get an insight as to what I'm like and the type of life I live. As mentioned in my previous Introduction post, I am a professional ballet dancer at Teater Vanemuine, Tartu, Estonia. I love my job and have a fantastic set of colleagues which makes my life inside and outside of work a lot of fun. We have a lot of people in this company from my graduating school so making friends and fitting in when first joining seemed a lot easier than how others have explained their first experiences of joining a ballet company. Was it? I'm sure there are a few professional dancers reading this (hopefully) that can answer that for me. Within the first week or so working here I already felt like I had made friends with everyone.
I have so many things that I could talk about in this blog like auditioning, injuries, company relationships, rivalries.. But I think for now I will just give you a quick insight into my day to day life and save some of the other topics for blogs to come.
I know that this timetable may look a little confusing to you and believe me, it was confusing for me when I first joined too but the above picture is an average day for me. This is my schedule for tomorrow, Tuesday the 23rd of February. As you can see my day begins at 10am with warm up class and finishes at 9pm. Even though the picture doesn't show specific names of who is needed in which pieces during the day, for me, I'm in every rehearsal. We are given a break half way through the day from 3-6pm which you may think "huh, that seems weird.. doesn't that require you to warm twice a day to prevent injuries etc" Trust me, same page as you. At the moment we are working on a premiere of a new ballet "Snow Queen" so as you can see we have a tonne of rehearsals for just that tomorrow. I myself have managed to land a good part in this ballet which involves a lot of pas de deux, acting like a brainless fool and flying through the air on wires attached to the ceiling.. So it's a fun part for me to play :) Working on this ballet has been a good experience as it has some comedy in it which I enjoy performing as I feel it is the hardest thing to portray convincingly to an audience. My day changes a little when we have shows but I'll discuss that at another time.
I figured that as I get more comfortable with this whole blogging thing, I will be able to show a little more of what it is like to be me and the kind of days that I have being a professional dancer in Estonia.
I have so many things that I could talk about in this blog like auditioning, injuries, company relationships, rivalries.. But I think for now I will just give you a quick insight into my day to day life and save some of the other topics for blogs to come.
I know that this timetable may look a little confusing to you and believe me, it was confusing for me when I first joined too but the above picture is an average day for me. This is my schedule for tomorrow, Tuesday the 23rd of February. As you can see my day begins at 10am with warm up class and finishes at 9pm. Even though the picture doesn't show specific names of who is needed in which pieces during the day, for me, I'm in every rehearsal. We are given a break half way through the day from 3-6pm which you may think "huh, that seems weird.. doesn't that require you to warm twice a day to prevent injuries etc" Trust me, same page as you. At the moment we are working on a premiere of a new ballet "Snow Queen" so as you can see we have a tonne of rehearsals for just that tomorrow. I myself have managed to land a good part in this ballet which involves a lot of pas de deux, acting like a brainless fool and flying through the air on wires attached to the ceiling.. So it's a fun part for me to play :) Working on this ballet has been a good experience as it has some comedy in it which I enjoy performing as I feel it is the hardest thing to portray convincingly to an audience. My day changes a little when we have shows but I'll discuss that at another time.
I figured that as I get more comfortable with this whole blogging thing, I will be able to show a little more of what it is like to be me and the kind of days that I have being a professional dancer in Estonia.
Sunday, 14 February 2016
An introduction to me..
My name is Lawrence Massie and I am 24 years old. I graduated from Elmhurst School for Dance in 2011 with a National Diploma in Professional Dance and have been working as a professional dancer since. Before training at Elmhurst I spent 5 years training at Arts Educational School Tring Park where I had extensive training in dance, drama and music from a young age.
As a young boy my mother owned her own dance school so I had grown up surrounded by dancing. I started dancing at her school when I was just 2 years old and quickly understood that this was something that I wanted to pursue. I danced every week at her school until I was 8 years old and joined Arts Educational School.
Whilst training at Elmhurst I had the opportunity to dance a lot with Birmingham Royal Ballet as well as travel with performances and gala shows in many different places around the world. I was lucky enough to have some extremely good teachers whilst training such as Errol Pickford, Desmond Kelly and Irek Mukhamadov. Having such important and prestigious male dance teachers such as these men I think definitely shaped me into the dancer I am today.
My performances with professional companies started at a very young age where I was lucky enough to dance in English National Ballets Nutcracker. My role in that show was to be a giant Nutcracker head, which although sounds exciting, was extremely daunting as it was at least twice the size of an 8 year old me. I knew from that point on that being on the stage is where I wanted to be.
Whilst training as a dancer I also undertook a lot of other hobbies that would help me become more of a rounded artist. I am very passionate about music and play many different instruments like drums, piano, guitar and bass. I have numerous qualifications in music and consider it a huge passion of mine, alongside dancing. I also spent free time focusing on dancer rehabilitation and physiotherapy as it is what I am hoping to become once my dancing career is over.
At the age of 18-19 I traveled all around Europe in search for a job as a professional ballet dancer. Despite many months of travelling and living out of a suitcase, I was lucky enough to secure short contracts at the Teater Vanemuine as a Soloist dancer and that's where I am currently. The city I live in is Tartu and although the population is only 300,000 the Theatre here is held in very high regards among st the public so there is always a great reaction when a show is premiered or performed.
As a professional dancer I have had the opportunity to do some amazing roles. Since working on and off at the Teater Vanemuine in Estonia I have performed numerous leading roles including Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Morris in a dance rendition of Midnight in Paris and Strauss in An Evening with Strauss. Having the opportunity to dance these roles at still a young age has definitely matured me as a dancer and helped me understand the mentality behind being a dancer in a professional atmosphere. I think the highlight of my career so far was to have the opportunity to travel to Whistler in Canada to perform the Prince in Sleeping Beauty.
I have decided to extend my qualification to a BA Hons as I feel it will help me in the future to pursue a career in Physiotherapy. I am a hard working individual with a keen interest to learn new things and I feel like doing my BA will be another great opportunity to learn a new skill. I look forward to blogging and reading about everyone else and their courses too.
As a young boy my mother owned her own dance school so I had grown up surrounded by dancing. I started dancing at her school when I was just 2 years old and quickly understood that this was something that I wanted to pursue. I danced every week at her school until I was 8 years old and joined Arts Educational School.
Whilst training at Elmhurst I had the opportunity to dance a lot with Birmingham Royal Ballet as well as travel with performances and gala shows in many different places around the world. I was lucky enough to have some extremely good teachers whilst training such as Errol Pickford, Desmond Kelly and Irek Mukhamadov. Having such important and prestigious male dance teachers such as these men I think definitely shaped me into the dancer I am today.
My performances with professional companies started at a very young age where I was lucky enough to dance in English National Ballets Nutcracker. My role in that show was to be a giant Nutcracker head, which although sounds exciting, was extremely daunting as it was at least twice the size of an 8 year old me. I knew from that point on that being on the stage is where I wanted to be.
Whilst training as a dancer I also undertook a lot of other hobbies that would help me become more of a rounded artist. I am very passionate about music and play many different instruments like drums, piano, guitar and bass. I have numerous qualifications in music and consider it a huge passion of mine, alongside dancing. I also spent free time focusing on dancer rehabilitation and physiotherapy as it is what I am hoping to become once my dancing career is over.
At the age of 18-19 I traveled all around Europe in search for a job as a professional ballet dancer. Despite many months of travelling and living out of a suitcase, I was lucky enough to secure short contracts at the Teater Vanemuine as a Soloist dancer and that's where I am currently. The city I live in is Tartu and although the population is only 300,000 the Theatre here is held in very high regards among st the public so there is always a great reaction when a show is premiered or performed.
As a professional dancer I have had the opportunity to do some amazing roles. Since working on and off at the Teater Vanemuine in Estonia I have performed numerous leading roles including Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Morris in a dance rendition of Midnight in Paris and Strauss in An Evening with Strauss. Having the opportunity to dance these roles at still a young age has definitely matured me as a dancer and helped me understand the mentality behind being a dancer in a professional atmosphere. I think the highlight of my career so far was to have the opportunity to travel to Whistler in Canada to perform the Prince in Sleeping Beauty.
I have decided to extend my qualification to a BA Hons as I feel it will help me in the future to pursue a career in Physiotherapy. I am a hard working individual with a keen interest to learn new things and I feel like doing my BA will be another great opportunity to learn a new skill. I look forward to blogging and reading about everyone else and their courses too.
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