Theo Bawtree
INTRODUCTION
Throughout this portfolio, I will examine the development of my performance skills during my first year at Leeds Conservatoire. I will reflect on the individual components of my training, considering both my initial skill level and the processes undertaken to strengthen these abilities.
(appendix 1)
At the beginning of the year, we created Personal Development Plans (appendix 1) designed to establish realistic and achievable goals across each of our core disciplines. These plans enabled me to identify areas requiring improvement and provided a structured framework for my training. Revisiting these objectives throughout each term allowed me to maintain a clear sense of focus and progression within my practice.
In addition, I will reference feedback received during summative assessments, as this provided valuable insight from lecturers regarding the areas they believed required the greatest attention. I will analyse how I responded to this feedback, the strategies I implemented to address these weaknesses, and the impact this had on my development as a musical theatre performer by the end of my first year.
Voice
Prior to starting at Leeds Conservatoire, I already had a strong foundation in singing due to years of vocal training, including solid vocal technique and musicianship. However, I entered training from a very different stylistic background to musical theatre. My previous singing experience prioritised music first and text second, whereas musical theatre requires a text first approach.
(appendix 2)
Vocal Technique
In my first singing lesson of the year, my teacher identified that I use too much ‘messa di voce’ when singing MT rep. (appendix 2). Receiving this feedback at the beginning of my training was highly beneficial, as it highlighted a habit I had developed through years of singing in other musical styles and gave me a clear focus for improvement moving forward.
At the beginning of the year, my main focus in singing was developing my ‘legit’ voice, as I found that I struggled to maintain rounded vowels at the top of my range and to blend my legit tone consistently through higher notes. I noticed that when singing higher in my range I had bad habits, such as spreading vowels to make notes easier to sing, despite this being stylistically inappropriate.
A song that highlighted this was ‘Hey There’ from ‘The Pajama Game’. (Adler, R. and Ross, J. 1954) During a singing lesson tackling the piece, I struggled to maintain a consistent vocal line throughout my range, as well as adding vibrato while sustaining a fuller sound.
Listening to myself in November (appendix 3), I noticed it was a thin sound, not fully embodied and unsustainable. With this in mind I started working on exercises to stretch the top of my range.
(appendix 3)
My teacher had referenced a ‘cry quality’ that was imperative for legit singing, So I researched into this further. Singing and The Actor states that “Cry is the basis of legit singing, and it is a must for ballads in classic book musicals” (Kayes, 2004), which directly applied to ‘Hey There’.
The book provided practical exercises, such as “siren up and down a little to access thin vocal folds… sound is quiet” (Kayes, 2004) and “make whimpering or moaning noises on vowels” (Kayes, 2004). I incorporated these exercises into my warm-ups and practice sessions, and they made a significant difference to my vocal technique. Returning to the song at the end of April (Appendix 4), I noticed that my legit sound had become far more connected and clearer at the top of my range.
(appendix 4)
I plan to continue developing this sound further by regularly using exercises based around the ‘cry’ technique. Taking these exercises and using them through my range has been really important as it is making my voice more versatile, and will definitely help with more contemporary pieces.
Overall, I am very pleased with the progress I have made in singing technique this year. I have responded well to feedback from my teacher and have become increasingly comfortable performing across a variety of musical styles. However, reflecting on the beginning of the year, I could have approached rehearsal and independent practice more effectively. At times, I treated simply singing through songs as productive practice, rather than using structured and focused exercises.
I want to continue developing my legit tone, particularly at the top of my voice. As the focus of training next year will be more contemporary, I want to ensure I continue dedicating time to legit singing, as it is a style in which I can see myself working professionally in the future.
Acting Through Song
(appendix 5)
For my summative singing assessment, I performed ‘Something’s Coming’ from ‘West Side Story’. Overall, I was pleased with the feedback I received (Appendix 5). One note that has appeared consistently throughout the year in Acting Through Song classes has been tension in my chest while performing.
(appendix 6)
When working on ‘A World Without You’ from ‘Children of Eden’. (Appendix 6) (Schwartz, S. 1991), I was made aware that the tension I was holding in my chest was preventing my voice from working to its full potential. This was also affecting my acting choices, as I was becoming too focused on the sound I was producing to make fully considered choices.
This is an issue I am actively working on, as if left unresolved it could place serious limitations on my performance ability. Through further reading, I found exercises around Glottal, Aspirate, and simultaneous onset. Working on these exercises independently has started to give me greater agility and freedom within my tone, with aims too “give you more choice as a performer” (Kayes, 2004).
Although my ATS work has improved overall, I need to continue focusing on tension release over the next few years and develop the ability to approach ATS with acting first and voice second approach. Once this becomes more physically instinctive in performance, I believe my development will progress much more rapidly.
Dance
Starting this year, I had very limited dance experience. I had taken a small number of Jazz and Tap classes and had only performed in one show that required dancing prior to training. With this in mind, I tried to view dance as a blank canvas to be as optimistic as possible with the year ahead of me.
Jazz Technique
Pirouettes
A fundamental skill in dance is a pirouette. Pirouettes appear in a wide range of dance styles and are an important technical skill, contributing to precision and control within choreography. I had never been taught how to execute a pirouette, meaning both my technique and understanding of the movement were non-existent.
(Appendix 7)
(appendix 7), I was aware that I was lacking many of the fundamental skills needed for a successful pirouette, but I was not sure on where I needed to look at to improve this.
I researched into the topic, and found that the fundamentals of a good pirouette were “A good preparation”, “High and strong Retire’”, “Spotting”, “Energy in opposition” and “Strength” (mldancecenter, 2024)
With this in mind, I began working on exercises to develop these fundamental skills. One of my biggest struggles with pirouettes has been maintaining strong balance. While reading ‘Dancing Longer, Dancing Stronger’ (Kish, R, Morton J, 2019), I discovered that “Being on balance involves much more than hitting a static pose. All these systems need to be well-conditioned and therefore also need attention in training”. (Kish, R, Morton J, 2019)
One exercise from the book that I used to progress was to “stand on one leg… remain on balance with the eyes shut for a minimum of 30 seconds” (Kish, R, Morton J, 2019). I initially found this exercise extremely difficult, but through consistent repetition it has significantly improved my balance, and I am beginning to notice progress in my technique.
(appendix 8)
As seen in (appendix 8) I can fairly consistently execute double pirouettes now. After comparing the two videos, the most noticeable improvement has been in my spotting technique. Being able to consistently return my focus to the same spot after each rotation is an essential skill and has contributed greatly to my progression.
Although my balance has improved considerably, it remains the main reason I fall out of turns. This has shown me that balance training is still an area I need to continue developing moving forward.
In my Personal Development Plan (appendix 1), I stated that I wanted to achieve consistent double pirouettes, and I am now beginning to reach that goal, showing that I am progressing in the right direction.
However, I believe I could have made this progress quicker, and potentially reached a stronger level by this stage, if I had begun focusing on stability exercises, such as the one-leg balance exercise mentioned earlier, much earlier in my training.
Looking ahead, I plan to continue developing what I now understand to be the fundamental elements of pirouettes through targeted and specific exercises. My aim is that by this time next year, I will be able to execute consistent triple pirouettes.
Leaps/Box Jumps
Jumps are an important skill within musical theatre, as having strong jumping technique increases cast-ability and allows a performer to become a more versatile dancer. As I had very little prior experience with these styles of movement, I once again needed to focus on the fundamental techniques behind jumps in order to develop my understanding and identify the key areas I needed to improve.
(appendix 9)
One key area I discovered that was limiting my jumps was flexibility. (Appendix 9), My legs are bent and too low, my feet are not pointed, my shoulders are raised, and the jump lacks power and elevation, meaning it does not travel effectively and appears visually unrefined. Similar issues are visible in my box jump (Appendix 10), including flexed feet and lack of power. As a result, both movements appear untidy and lack precision.
(appendix 10)
This feedback can be heard in (Appendix 11).
(appendix 11)
I carried out further research and found in ‘Dancing Longer, Dancing Stronger’ that the optimal time to stretch is immediately after exercise. (Kish, R, Morton J, 2019) This was a significant change in my understanding, as I had previously believed stretching should mainly be done at the beginning of classes as part of a warm-up. Applying this knowledge, I began stretching consistently after classes and gym sessions, which greatly improved my flexibility.
I also discovered that “a flexible body without strength is useless” (Kish, R, Morton J, 2019), which highlighted the importance of combining flexibility with physical conditioning. As a result, I have consistently attended the gym this year in order to improve my overall strength and physique, while also supporting the development of my dance technique.
(appendix 12)
My jumps have improved drastically since the start of my training (Appendix 12). I now cover much more distance in my leaps and am able to achieve two straight legs consistently, showing clear improvement in both technique and control. Looking ahead, I need to continue developing my power and flexibility in order to gain greater elevation and achieve a flatter, more aesthetically effective leap.
(appendix 13)
My box Jump is in a much better place too (appendix 13), my legs are almost at 90 degrees, and I have pointed toes, making this a much more aesthetically pleasing jump. Going forward I would like to see myself work on power to get this jump higher and cleaner. As both my jumps are in need of more power training I did some research in what exercises to tailor to benefit my training the most. After reading ‘Perfecting Your Jumps: Plyometric training for dancers’ I now know that I should be training plyometrics focusing on about 100-140 reps of “Jumps in Place, Standing Jumps, Multiple Hops and Jumps, Bounds, Box Drills, Deep Jumps” (Garcia, D 2024), resting for at least 48 hours between exercises. Similarly to my pirouette exercises, if I looked into plyometric training earlier in the year I believe I would be in a better place now but I am not disheartened by my progress as I believe my jumps to be in a good place now as a first year.
Looking forward I would like to push my leap into a flatter degree angle, and improve height on both of my jumps to allow them to stand out more.
Tap
Before starting I had a little experience in tap, picking up a few moves in beginner classes. However, my knowledge was very limited, I had never looked at time steps and had not really looked into tap in musical theatre at all.
Tap has become a very important skill for me as I have found that many of my favourite shows included tap: The Book of Mormon, Top Hat, Anything Goes. As these are shows I would love to be involved in, Tap has become a very important part of my training. I have picked up tap quicker than all other styles of dance as I have found that for me it makes much more sense musically, so steps started to pick up quicker.
(appendix 14)
This being said, I had issues with timesteps. Looking at (appendix 14), I was struggling to stay in time, I was not making clear sounds, and the moves were not fully embodied. Doing further reading I noted that a good tip was to think of Tap Dancing as if it was a musical instrument, especially when talking about rhythms. It also mentions mnemonic phrases, saying “Counts are tools of the trade and can be recited rhythmically, but mnemonic phrases are also useful” (Rees, 2003)
I started at looking at mnemonic phrases to help with time steps, ‘I like eggs for my breakfast’ for the single, ‘I like bacon for my breakfast’ for the double and ‘I like sausages for my breakfast’ for the triple. I also found out that time steps were used “in order to establish tempo” (Rees, H 2003), this showed me how important it was to get all these steps locked in at a variety of speeds.
(appendix 15)
(appendix 15), shows my triple timesteps now, a big improvement from my original timestep (appendix 14), because I am keeping time and making clear sounds. Tap dancing has become a real favourite of mine, and I believe it shows in the progress I have made. I continue to dedicate a lot of time outside of class on tap, even now going to a weekly intermediate/advanced class at Dance Studio Leeds, which has greatly helped with my vocabulary of steps and my pickup skills. I believe in hindsight, if I did the research on tap dancing, and its links with music theory earlier, I would have made much quicker progress in my technical ability in this dance style.
(appendix 16)
I started looking at elevated steps early in the year, specifically wings. I was drew to this skill as it was regarded as one of the harder ones so I wanted to challenge myself to see how I could fair with this skill. (appendix 16) was an early attempt at this step. I was struggling with getting the distinct sound so I did some research into this step, I also wanted to avoid injury as I was told it can be dangerous if not executed properly. I read “when learning the execution of these wings, students may find that placing their hands on a high surface… will aid in removing the weight from the ankle until the step has been learnt” (Fletcher, 1997)
(appendix 17)
I can now perform this trick successfully in repetition, without fear of injury (appendix 17). I am happy with this level of progression, as I feel I managed it in a safe and precise manner. Looking to the future of all my tap skills, I want to progress my vocabulary of all steps, allowing myself to become a confident dancer in this style.
Jazz Performance
(Appendix 18)
One of the biggest struggles I have had is pick up skills in dance classes. As seen in the video of ‘What’s Up Duloc?’ (Appendix 18). I felt the vast majority of my group had a decent amount of dance experience, especially compared to me. This made the first few months of training particularly stressful however, I did not want this to push me the wrong way so I had to start finding ways to make choreography easier to pick up so I would not fall further behind my peers.
Pick up skills I’ve found improve best by actually doing it. As I have worked on my Jazz technique I feel my pick up skills have naturally progressed with it. Somethings that have helped make this work easier is extra classes. I take part in pop up Jazz classes, where each session has made my skills pick up faster and faster by each week. Overall my progress in dance has been huge, but there is still a long way to go as I started from such a basic place. I aim to continue to go to as many extra classes as my body can handle without regressing in any of my course work.
Although pick up still continues to be a problem in my dance, I have managed to go back and refine choreography well.
(appendix 19)
(appendix 20)
In (appendix 19) you can see the choreography is messy, and I was not confident in my dance skills. This in mind I did some reading on self confidence and dance performance to see if I could find any helpful tips to better my performance skills.
Whilst reading about performance I found a topic on ‘threat response’. Reading this section it gave me an exercise; “Start by focusing on your outbreath, as it is easier to push breath out than take breath in, especially when you are in a state of alert” (Ispas 2023). This trick worked wonders for me before I was going to perform and is a trick I still use to this day.
(Franklin, 2014) said that “the ability to truly be yourself” , “If you want to be a brilliant expressive dancer you need to go on a path of discovery – not to far-off lands, but to yourself” This was really important to me as I was getting stuck in trying to impress other people, and I had not realised that if I wanted to progress I needed to “learn to let go and simply relish the moment-to-moment experience of your movement without self judgement or mould yourself to an imagined expectation”
After reading these books, I felt a heightened confidence going into these routines, I also spent time working on precise movements so in (appendix 20) you can see the different in the neatness of the choreography. Overall I am happy with my improvements made in the performance of my dance, I am not hiding behind a fake smile, I am starting to be proud in the work I am producing, both technically and in performance. I think I did waste a lot of time stuck in my head at the start of the year in dance, and if I was to go back and try again I would be authentic to myself and allow myself not to be apologetic about the amount of training I have had and just be me, as this would have allowed me to enjoy dance more.
However, I am aware that I have a long way to go, and if I want to be a strong dancer by the end of my training I cannot be complacent. I know I have a lot of work to do, but I will continue to stay attentive in class, doing all the work I can, going to me additional classes, and most importantly, being authentically me.
CONCLUSION
Overall, I am really happy with the progress I have made this year, I have refined the knowledge I had in singing tailoring my skill set into a musical theatre focused form. I am also impressed with the ability of dance I have got to in this year. Having the knowledge I have now, I could have tailored my training in singing and dance more specifically from the start of the year, however, I think I will progress faster starting next year, as I have a better idea of what is necessary to improve on specific skills.
Although of course I want to improve at singing, I think going forward my focus will primarily be on my dance in technique and performance, as the range of shows I will be able to be seen for after I graduate will greatly increase if I become a confident dancer.
Bibliography
Adler, R. and Ross, J. (1954) ‘Hey There’. In: The Pajama Game. New York: St. James Theatre.
Fletcher, B (1997) Tapworks. New York: Princeton Book Company.
Franklin, E (2014) Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance. 2nd edn. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Garcia, D (2024) Perfecting Your Jumps: Plyometric Training for Dancers. Available at :Perfecting Your Jumps: Plyometric Training for Dancers – Musical Theater Center [Accessed:10th May 2026]
Ispas, A (2023) Self-Confidence for Actors. London: Routledge.
Kayes, G (2004) Singing and the Actor. 2nd edn. London: A & C Black.
Kish, R, Morton J, (2019) Dancing Longer Dancing Stronger. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company.
mldancecenter (2021) How to Improve Your Pirouettes. Available at How to Improve Your Pirouettes [Accessed: 10th May 2026]
Rees, H (2003) Tap Dancing, Rhythm in their feet. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials.
Schwartz, S. (1991) ‘A World Without You’. In: Children of Eden. London: Prince of Wales Theatre.
