by Amy wood
Introduction
I came to Leeds conservatoire in September having had some training in Musical theatre already but I have been focusing on honing my strengths and making sure they are consistent as well as getting rid of any bad habits that I may have picked up. I also came with the mindset of wanting to improve in the areas I felt weaker in and get them to a good level as well as learning as many new skills as I could. Keeping all of this in mind I worked out what I most needed to work on and constructed a list of goals and tactics to achieve said goals. In this portfolio I aim to reflect on my practical development throughout my time at the conservatoire so far focusing on my strengths, weaknesses and new skills. I will be reflecting on skills across dance, acting, singing and acting through song and why they are important for the industry, how the skill was when I arrived in September, what exercises and practices I’ve implemented to improve in these different areas and how I am finding the skill after working on it more.
Dance
Coming to the conservatoire I felt like my dance was the area where I was weakest, I had had previous training but never felt like it was something I could call a strength. I did find that thanks to three years previous training of learning routines in various styles and classes my pick up skills were there, as well as knowing the moves and the terminology for different steps, however what I really needed to work on was technique. This is something that is hugely important in the industry as it ensures that you are using all of the correct muscles to best support yourself making for stronger moves as well as preventing injury that could take you out of work. Linda Ashley says: “the body of a dancer is like the piano of a musician: it is a working tool and so must be finely tuned” (Ashley,2008, ) so if I want to execute certain moves to the best of my ability I must know the correct technique and be aware of which muscles I am using and strengthening them accordingly. Technique also makes dancing look better and more fitted to the style you are portraying which in shows such as Chicago (1976) and A chorus line (1975) is hugely important. With all of this in mind I realised I needed to put the work in if I wanted to improve my technique and focus on exercises targeting the areas in which I was struggling in.
One area of technique that I have always struggled with is pirouettes, but by using certain exercises I have managed to see a huge improvement already. When I arrived in September I could do a single pirouette but I wasn’t spotting and because of a lack of core and calf strength my weight was all over the place. To work on this I targeted a few areas I needed to work on. To target spotting I worked my way up from spotting a quarter turn, to a half turn and then making my way up to a full turn, this helped my head get used to the whipping action I had to do in smaller increments so that spotting a full turn felt much easier. I also practiced turning on the spot , without doing a pirouette, and keeping my focus on a thing either a posit on the mirror or a person. This helped me to bring my gaze back to exactly where it was Which helped me to master the whip movement that you need to get round, then I found I needed much less momentum when going round as for a single turn, the whip was enough. To target the strength element that I was lacking I worked on strengthening the areas that needed to work in a pirouette and then putting them back into practice. First thing I worked was my core Linda Ashley also says “Many dance programmes nowadays stress the importance of core stability and body awareness” (Ashley, 2008, ) so I realised strengthening my core would give me a sense of control in my turns which I was previously lacking so I made sure to do some of the core exercises, that I had learned in my body conditioning classes, outside of uni as well. Then when I put it back into the pirouette I could feel the engagement much easier and my core felt stronger, having this engagement meant that I felt much more stable and improved my overall alignment. I also strengthened my calves in order to hold relive for longer. To do this I did a lot of calf raises in my free time, when brusing my teeth or waiting in a queue ect. Now when doing pirouettes I have the strength to get higher on my releve and to stay there much longer which means I can hold it long enough to do a double and have the right positioning of my foot to turn.
I put all of this into practice in another exercise to see my progress. the exercise as shown in the video is a chasse then a hold to test balance and strength, then a single to work my spotting and finally I try doubles, my spotting is much improves especially on the singles and for the doubles I get the whip action really well however I’m not quite finding the spot with my eyes which may be the reason for a loss of balance, which also means I need to engage my core more. I also need to remember to keep my front foot flat in the preparation as well.
My pirouettes still aren’t perfect my any means, however I can now do singles consistently and my doubles are coming along. moving forward I am going to continue with these exercises in my free time and remembering to engage my core before every pirouette as that is something I often forget. then once my doubles are consistent as well I am going to start working towards triples as well.
Acting
Before starting this course and exploring acting technique and how to properly prepare a script in our acting classes I often found it quite difficult to get deeper into a character and fully understand what they wanted out of the scene. Also, if I had found an objective for my character, I often found it hard to play that objective in a clear and interesting way which got the message across to the audience. So when we learnt about objectives, actioning and tactics I knew they would be valuable for me to access my characters better and give the scene more colour. These are all super important things to be able to do in this industry as portraying a clear and deeper character is essential for the audience to be able to connect to them, and giving the scene colour prevents it from feeling flat and boring.
When looking at a scene I am using for my acting assessment, I used techniques such as: Objectives, Uniting, and actioning to ensure a better understanding of my character: Joyce and give me a way into the scene to make it seem less one dimensional. Once we were given the script and I had read through the play I decided on an objective for Joyce in the scene. It needed to be something simple and clear that I could play as in the past I have overcomplicated objectives which made it feel unclear and the audience was unable to read it. So I kept it simple and made the objective: to get rid of Wilson. Doing this scene with this in mind gave me a much stronger sense of what I actually wanted to achieve, but I then lost some of the connection to my scene partner so I rephrased the objective to ensure that it included the other character. This then became: I want you to leave me alone. This version felt more connected and I was much more aware of what the other person was doing too. However I felt the scene was still the same throughout, like I was playing there same action the whole way through. So from here I thought about different tactics I could use to achieve my objective. To make this much clearer I decided to use actioning. Nick Mosely says in his book explaining actions: “they stop you getting stuck in a flat and meaningless delivery of the text.” and “They help you realise the different moments and shifts within the scene” (Mosely, 2016) So I knew this was what I needed to use to give my delivery more colour and intention.
As you can see in the picture above: I went through the script giving myself an action for every line making them all different for example to patronise and to accommodate. When I did the scene again implementing these actions I felt much more like a real person, it gave me a real sense of the shifts when Joyce realised her first tactic of being cold and harsh wasn’t working she tried being polite and quiet, both working towards her objective but they felt very different giving the scene more of a journey. Even if I don’t stick with the exact actions I originally picked, it gave me something to work with and can help me to discover something new and interesting in the scene. Therefore I made sure to use this when I am struggling for a way in to a scene or song or when it feels flat and one level. I used it for one of my songs in acting through song as well and again it helped my to discover more nuanced moments and delve into what I wanted to achieve. The next step for me in a scene would be to notice things about the other character or how they are delivering there lines and react by choosing an appropriate action during the scene. This will stop the scene from feeling too planned and make me more available to play in the moment making the scene feel even more real and spontaneous.
Singing
Singing has always been something I have considered to be more of a strength for me so my intention when starting this course was to secure the techniques I already had and to work on the things I was finding more difficult. The more legit, classical style had always been a comfort zone for me so I have been focusing on the more chesty, slightly more contemporary sound. In the industry at the moment this style of singing with a thicker chestier sound and big belt moments are hugely prominent. In an article on the female voice it says “In rock/pop inspired music Theatre productions since 2000 such as Hamilton (2015) and Waitress (2016), females are now required to sound like rock/pop singers and produce the belt sound to the top of the staff and beyond” (Roll, 2019, p.1). Therefore as I am entering the industry at a time when this is what is popular it is vital for me to improve this skill.
To target this, after Christmas I started to bring in songs which included this chestier sound and had more belt notes in them. in the above voice note I am working on the spark of creation from Stephen Schwartz’s the children of Eden (1991) To access a chestier more speech quality sound in my singing lessons we focused on onsets, specifically glottal onsets. As you can hear in the attached voice note above, we did an exercise first using the word Goo and then bub. I focused on the consonants and making it sound really casual and speech like. Richard Miller a professor of singing says in his book: “it may be wise to introduce the slight glottal attack so that excess breathe is eliminated” (Miller, 1996) This made the sound more connected and thicker because the glottal of the G makes the vocal folds close more and the larynx more neutral. because of this work the sound at the beginning of the song sounded much more conversational because of that chestier placement which gave me somewhere to go to build the song into the climax later on and when I did reach the end it sounded much stronger and fuller because of the engagement of my chest voice. moving on to look at the belt moment previously I was struggling with it sounding too thin and weak as well as forced. To target this we did and exercise where I had to breathe all the way out before singing the note as it was a habit of mine to hold my breath before going for a big note however I discovered that by doing that it just makes it harder as it builds up more pressure and obstructs the airflow. After trying this exercise the sound sounded thicker however I was still struggling with the placement. I then realised I was adding a diphthong in the word forcing my sound to have to go to the back of my throat to make the Y sound and then back forward making it so much harder to get out. So by softening the diphthong you can hear how the sound pings out much more and sounds much louder and fuller and it also felt so much easier without the obstruction of an extra sound the note just flowed out. I noticed I did this in another song I was working on too and another habit I have when belting is not opening my mouth enough which also obstructs the sound. Therefore from now on when I am working on a song with belting in the future I am going to stop and ask myself if I am: holding my breath, adding a diphthong or not opening my mouth enough. I will then apply the appropriate exercise to what I am doing to work through the problem rather than straining for the note or getting frustrated with myself.
Acting through Song
The final thing I am going to be talking about in this portfolio is acting through song. Throughout my time this year I have realised that when it comes to acting through song and singing in general I tend to lean towards slower, more emotional, Ballad type songs. I have always found these much easier to perform as I can stand still and sing them relying on my face for performance. However even in these songs I have been given the note to engage my body more to make the character feel more real and the voice to sound more connected. In an article about the importance of acting in musical theatre it says “Even though a character is singing the actor must still be fully immersed in the role, using facial expressions, body language and vocal inflections to convey the appropriate emotions” (Zununov, 2024) Therefore it is not just enough to use my facial expressions to convey a characters emotions, although important, the songs are such emotional high points in musical theatre that I must allow the emotions and character into my body as well to be fully believable and connected.
As seen in the video above I decided to perform a more up beat song from the wild party (1997) this forced me to think about my body more. In my first performance of the song my movements were un specific and the body felt stiff. To remedy Aaron my teacher told me that I was holding my breath before singing, which was causing my body to go stiff and created unnecessary tension in the body as well as not letting the sound be absorbed making my voice sound restricted. This made me realise how everything was connected and my body directly affects the voice and visa versa. To free up my voice and body I had to stop holding my breathe before singing as well as focusing on my objective which was: to get people to party with me, I also used the real audience which gave me more to bounce off. By focusing on my objective this gave me something to play with instead of stressing about the singing I was focusing on the words and how I could simultaneously use my body, voice and face to portray my character and get everyone to party with me. As seen below in the second video my body felt much more free and natural and portrayed the playful nature of my character Kate.
Although so much better already I think this is going to be an ongoing journey for me: getting rid of tension, stiffness and holding my breath in order to free up my body and voice. To implement this into my practice further I am going to work on floorwork for example singing on the floor and seeing where I feel it in my body, as well as breathing exercises before and during when I practice singing, forcing me to stop holding my breathe. finally I am going to play my objective more during songs as well to enable me to feel more free and playful.
Conclusion
To conclude I have learnt many new skills in my time at Leeds conservatoire so far as well as identifying things that are in within my comfort zone as well as things that challenge me. By continuing to work on the more challenging areas I am slowly turning them into strengths too but not without hard work. Over the summer and going into second year I am going to continue to work on the exercises I have mentioned in this portfolio as well as finding new things to help me on other things I have been struggling with. Instead of getting frustrated with myself I am going to remember my tool kit of skills I have picked up so far and apply the exercises. I have made much progress in Acting, Singing, Dance and acting through song as well as other areas, however progress is an ongoing journey.
Bibliography
Ashley, L. (2008). Essential Guide to Dance. Hodder Education.
Ebb, F., Fosse, B., Kander, J. and Maurine Dallas Watkins (1976). Chicago : book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse ; music by John Kander ; lyrics by Fred Ebb. New York ; London: Samuel French.
Kirkwood, J., Dante, N. and Kieban, E. (1995). A chorus line : the book of the musical. New York: Applause.
Lippa, A. (1997). The Wild Party. Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation.
Miller, R. (1996). The structure of singing : system and art in vocal technique. Boston: Schirmer Cengage Learning.
Moseley, N. (2016). Actioning and how to do it. London: Nick Hern Books.
Orton, J. (1990). The complete plays. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.
Roll, C. (2019). The Female Broadway Belt Voice: The Singer’s Perspective. [online] Available at: file:///C:/Users/24102174/Downloads/JOS-076-2-2019-155_-_Christianne_Roll_-_The_Female_Broadway_Belt_Voice.pdf [Accessed 9 May 2026].
Schwartz, S. (2006). Children of Eden. Hal Leonard Corporation.
Zununov, R. (2024). European Journal of Innovation in Nonformal Education European Journal of Innovation in Nonformal Education (EJINE) The Role of Acting in Musical Theater: A Fusion of Storytelling and Performance.
