Introduction

Over the course of my training in musical theatre at the conservatoire, I have discovered that dancing has been a constant strength of mine. Knowing this when the opportunity arose that I could specialise my studies in this area I jumped at the chance and made sure to prepare enough to get the grades in second year to make this a reality for the last leg of my training. Before starting my specialised training in dance,I was so excited to see what new techniques and styles I could learn and therefore implement in the future to make me an all-round better dancer and therefore more employable when graduating. During this time, I also got a taste of what life on camera looks like which has massively opened my eyes to a completely different line of work which is completely foreign to me as I have always been involved in live performance. Even though this is the case I have found that I am thoroughly interested in screen acting and to my surprise not only being on screen but also working behind the scenes. These weeks of specialist training have resulted in me expanding my knowledge and have allowed me to expand my performers toolbox. 

Advanced Ballet training

When I first found out that ballet was going to be a part of the specialised category for dance I must admit I was very apprehensive as I do not associate myself as a stereotypical ballet dancer however over time this changed. After I managed to get out of my own head I learnt that to be a good dancer I had to understand and learn how to implement the foundations of ballet as they are widely considered to be the foundation of all styles of dance specifically the attributes such as the discipline of technique and body awareness and weight transfer as a dancer. Following on from this my specialist ballet training allowed me to improve my overall strength, flexibility and musicality which I can take away with me into other elements of not only dance but musical theatre as a whole. The main factory in which I had to really work on was beyond the physical skills it was more mental as unlike other dance styles ballet is not fast paced and explosive it’s much more of a controlled and elegant style of dance which has to be performed in a specific manor, this for me made it extremely frustrating when I got a movement incorrect as it is so obvious so to work on this I did lots of work at the ballet bar checking alignment foot placement (turn out) and arm positioning to self-correct these mistakes. Even though I never thought I would use any form of ballet after graduating from the conservatoire I have surprised myself as I now when practicing dance in general have the discipline to check my fundamentals and know how to critique myself to make sure my performance is more aesthetically pleasing for not only myself but an audience.  

Advanced Tap training

Since beginning my specialised training in tap, I believe I have improved massively not just technically with learning new steps and materials but also with my confidence in this style of dance. I really underestimated how hard tap dancing is as it is often made to look effortless and seen I was into my drumming at a younger age I thought this would come naturally to me however this unfortunately was not the case. Saying this, although my drumming experience didn’t help me learn how to do a maxi ford or pull backs knowing the rhythm of the steps and visualising the sounds made it a much clearer picture to know what to aim for. My journey as a tap dancer has not been the most straight forward as I have had to overcome challenges where my brain could not digest information like others, so I had to go through a process where I had to find my own way of learning while keeping up and for me personally this meant learning the steps individually and linking them together by sound rather than by counts as this sank in my brain the most effectively. Even though this is the case I also constantly push myself to implement the more traditional ways of learning a routine as it is good practice for the future when I go into an audition room and they teach it their way. As much as tap dancing is all in the body I have coincided tap dancing with my love for music theory and music in general as this has allowed me to understand straight and swing rhythms in my inner ear and has allowed me when doing small improvised sections in class to really know where to be syncopated and where to add some more complex rhythms depending on the overall groove of the song. I believe since throwing myself in the deep end with tap my coordination and body weight placement has allowed me to really grow as a dancer and has improved my confidence greatly and is such a vital part of being an advanced dancer and certainly makes me far more employable in the future.  

Advanced Commercial dance

Before coming to the conservatoire, I had never trained in commercial dance but since progressing through the years and especially since starting my regular specialised classes I have grown to not only enjoy commercial but also start to excel at it. This style of dance has allowed me to adapt my style and performer to music I never thought I would at a pace I didn’t even know I could move. Our technical practice in commercial classes have allowed me to develop my timing, coordination, control and explosiveness as a dancer allowing me to move in a different way that I have ever done before. This style has also specifically allowed me to focus more on expressing a sense of confidence when performing rather than remembering the steps within the routine. Not only this but due to the style being taught to us at such a fast pace this has allowed me to improve my pickup skills which is so important for when auditioning for professional shows. This specific level of training has allowed me to work professionally this year as a commercial dancer in London something that would not have been possible without the hours of practice put into my specialised training. My personal main take away from this area of my specialised dance training is the range of dynamics you can incorporate when dancing as this is a main feature of commercial dance and has been highlighted to me very often while in class as it shows a much more contrastedand eye catching routine when incorporating both sharp and controlled movements.  On reflection I have been told since using these elements when performing a routine, I look more confident, expressive and professional overall which tells me that improvement is inevitably noticeable.  

Advanced Jazz dance

Out of all disciplines within advanced dance I would say I am the strongest within jazz as a whole. Jazz is a style of dance I have been performing in a sense since a young age however ever since going into my advanced lessons I have learnt and refined so much more. In Jazz technique classes specifically, I have learnt several pieces of new terminology and movements that I never even knew existed such as an axel turn, scissor leaps, chasses and different styles of pirouettes. All these movements I had rarely came across before but with lots of repetitive corner work and being show how to perform these safely in step-by-step stages I have been able to execute these not only as a singular movement but also and more importantly within routines. These skills in themselves are going to allow me to stand out and be up to the standard expected in the professional industry and will allow me to get through a corner work routine in an audition in time to come. Another reason in which I believe I have improved so much with my jazz technique is due to the amount of different teachers I have had through this area of the course as for some specific student being given conflicted information may be somewhat overwhelming i personally found this very helpful as you can see what style within jazz to use different teachers notes. For example, we as a year group take audition dance classes with a different show in mind with different castings time of show and music style meaning if notes in technique class have been taken you can implement these into whichever show you are auditioning for and I have personally been praised on this. Not only do these classes allow you to gain feedback in an audition setting but are taught at a face pace meaning pick up speed is a necessary skill. Through this element of advanced dance, I have really found my own in characterised styled movement and embedding this into my performance. Not only has this brought my performance to life but it has helped me as a professional become more concerned about the story telling of the piece rather than what the steps are. Due to this i have found that choreography comes far more easily than before and it feels far more like a performance than an assessment. Over the course ofmy time as a training dancer at the conservatoire I have been injured many times meaning i have long periods of time out of the loop with dance although this has stunted my growth as a performer in some ways in others it has helped as I now believe that I am capable of learning a dance routine from the audiences point of view without physically performing it which is a very good attribute to have as on or off stage swing which is something I never thought i would able to achieve. The injuries I have sustained have also made me be more prepared for the future as I now have a plan in place as to where I go through my dance specific warm ups at the start of every day and before classes to minimalize the chance of injury when working on a show and without these jazz warm up routines being drilled into me and also stretches learnt in our body conditioning classes I would not know where to start.  

 

Screen Acting classes

Screen acting for me opened my eyes massively into a new side of the industry I have never explored before and this highly excited me. Over the weeks in screen acting i have managed to not only perform on screen but also fill in the shoes of the: director, camera man, lighting designer, continuity and voice over work. Having the opportunity to get a feel for what life is like on and off screen allowed me to really get a good understanding of which department I may want to work in professionally in the future. 

In our first class of screen acting, we did extensive work into character development and linked it to the characters core memories to try and really get into role and get a deeper understanding of what the sub text of the piece really is. Having read through the script many times we then discussed with one another who are character actually is and found that feeling and placed it into our scenes. From this Keely then asked me personally a series of questions where we swept my emotions away and I truly did feel emotions start coming present in my body that the character would be feeling and therefore my posture changed to suit the characters without thought it was all based off of impulse. This method I will take forward with me into my career as it really allowed me to lock into who I am and what state of mind I am in.Keely would also occasionally spring a last-minute audition class on us and for me to start with was very daunting as i personally like being prepared for situations like these however i had to go through with the exercise as it was explained to me that there will be times in the furutre where you have to take screen auditions last minute or get called for a completely different character you went in for. After doing this exercise randomly across our weeks of training it really did make me a better performer under pressure and allowed me to sell myself better even though my performance was not previously rehearsed making my improvisation a lot stronger.  

I unlike many of my classmates really enjoyed learning how the camera was operated and how to make the presenting actors look the best possible and the scene the most affective depending on the angle or scenario of the scene. From spending a lot of time experimenting with the camera I have managed to work out how to focus and re focus actors depending on them walking in and out of the scenes and how to blur an actor for affect so an audience only sees a shadow/outline of an actor so they can’t be sure who the character is interacting with. As well as this while being on the camera it gave me as an actor a better understanding of what works for camera and what doesn’t and how much work I actually need to put in to get a result out of a performance for screen compared to on stage as although they are both still a type of performance they require very different characteristics and styles. From this I dropped the level of my voice as i was still projecting although i was using a face mic in a live show rather than realising there was always a boom microphone above catching the sound and that it could be monitored by the sound team when necessary. Another change I had to make was where to direct my eye line depending on what scene I was doing as I would find myself looking into the lenses of the camera when the intention of the scene was to be intermate with my scene partner so therefore looking down the lenses broke the scene up.  

The main factor I would like to take away from this module would be how to affectively film a self-tape and make it look professional enough to present as a first-round audition. As we are arriving the end of our time at the conservatoire self-tapes are going to be a vital part of allowing us to get into audition rooms especially as graduates and therefore any advantage we have on other graduates the better and with our wide range of screen acting skills this gives us a wider advantage than other schools which do not have specialised classes for this.  

Conclusion

To conclude this portfolio, I would like to state that both of my specialist training in screen acting, and my individual dance styles have equipped me to be a far more versatile performer which increases employability when finishing the course. Within dance specifically I believe that I now have the understanding to implement emotion through movement and make this appealing to an audience and this all down to the physical discipline and adaptability taught to us when learning all these new styles of dance to a higher level. Whereas with my screen acting training I have learnt that there is so much more than just the actor on screen this module has shown me the number of different jobs there are within this line of work but how much external effort is put in to create the finished product. Following on from this, ialso know myself that my emotional intelligence as an actor has improved as I now have a better technical awareness of what is expected in the room and can implement this into my professional practice in the future. Overall these modules truly do feel like they mould you from students into training professionals and this is such an important step in our journey at the conservatoire and as previously mentioned especially for me personally allows me to look into not only stage performances buct also film, tv and commercial work while also knowing the expectations that come with that in the professional world to come.