Rosie Wemyss-Cook

Throughout this portfolio I will show, explain and demonstrate my development and progress throughout my first year at Leeds Conservatoire. Before coming to University, I already had prior experience in all three disciplines which was a big help coming into this as I didn’t come in blind. Throughout this year I feel like I have developed a lot in all three subjects and my overall achievements for first year have very much been met. think I came into university with the wrong attitude completely which really set me back entirely at the beginning of the year. I came here with a ‘don’t care’ attitude which is obviously not the right attitude to have when coming to uni. I didn’t try hard enough at the beginning which is having an effect on me now. I would stop when things got hard and not try to push through it or not listen in a lecture which was actually very important which I now regret. I will be showing videos as evidence of my progression throughout this year and talking about the differences that are obvious and also not so obvious. 

Singing 

I came to uni with lots of singing training. I have always specialized in singing throughout my whole life. I’ve loved singing since I was very little and was constantly running around the house singing little songs or putting on concerts for my parents. I was put into singing lessons quickly too and had been having them since i was 6, so i would say singing is my strong point. However, when I arrived at Leeds, we had a whole legit section at the beginning of the year which I was not prepared for seeing as I’d only really sung contemporary musical theatre songs throughout. This was tricky for me to get a hold of as i was not used to singing in that style and trying to figure it out was also difficult. I used to think that your voice was just made for one style and one style only, but I was very wrong.  

As I said in my introduction, I came into uni with a very careless attitude since I clearly didn’t bother to look at the curriculum and try and find more rep for legit, which is why I only got up twice during that whole term. I also think I was just very nervous since some people were clearly a lot better than me at singing in a legit style. One thing about me is that I’m a perfectionist when it comes to singing and my voice so since the age of 15 I have trained tirelessly to make sure my voice is perfect in what I’m good at, so coming into uni and having people be better than me was really tricky for me. When it’s said out loud it sounds so stupid, but I’ve always been in environments where I’ve been the best singer which is why I think the sudden change was so disheartening for me. The song I ever sung in an acting through song class was “Little bit In Love” from wonderful (Chodorov , J. ,Fields, J. Bernstein, L.1953) town (and it wasn’t actually that bad. My posture however was not great, I’ve always been the tallest in a choir or even just around my friends, so I feel like I have always compensated by hunching out and sticking my neck forward. My posture has always been a problem that I’ve never really worked on, so it was brought up straight away when I sang for the first time. I had also never really acted a legit song, apart from what I did for auditions, so I wasn’t really sure of what to do with songs like that. In my first acting through song, I learnt so much about myself, somethings I didn’t know were problems. All of this is seen in this video.  

From that, I took all that advice and put it all into practice (One Music School. 2019). For example, I really tried to fix my posture whilst singing so I did some research and watched some videos to really learn how to do it then try putting it into practice in my 1 to 1 singing lessons. I learnt I had to sing with shoulders down and up, so it looks like they’re in a straight line across my chest and my neck needs be natural rather than pushed forwards since that makes it look like I’m pushing the notes out which is unhealthy. Luckily, I didn’t need much work on my technique since I already had good technique from all the years if singing in the past, obviously it wasn’t perfect and still isn’t now but for where I’m at, I’m in a good place. Unfortunately, I haven’t been the luckiest when it comes to my voice. When i was 12 I found out i had vocal nodules which is every singer’s worst nightmare. Luckily, they weren’t very big and won’t really affect me in the long run but still a big setback, meaning I must be very careful when it comes to singing as I don’t want them to get worse. I also am very prone to tonsils since my immune system is not great, so that is also a setback since I can’t sing. My tonsilitis usually forms into a chest infection as well which meant I usually lost my voice. Throughout 2025 I got tonsilitis 6 times and 4 chest infections. There was a brief period around may-august where I could not sing at all since my voice was so damaged so for the rest of last year and all of this year i have spent trying to get my voice healthy again. 

 

As shown in this video, I had taken all my knowledge on my posture and applied it, making every note come out so much easier. I then applied all the knowledge I had into the most recent song I sung which was “Someone like you” from Jekyll and Hyde (Wildhorn, F. , L. 1981)I thought I sung this song very well, however I did struggle with the belt at the end of the song, so I went through it in vocal tech with Scott. He really broke down what to do when belting that last night and made it 100x easier when I did it again after. I then did that song in my assessment and it went so well! With everything I’ve learnt in singing this year I think I’m in a really good place and ready to continue with my singing training next year.  

Dance 

Before coming to Leeds Conservatoire, I had quite a bit of dance training. I had been doing ballet since I was 2 and jazz since I was 6 so I had a good base to work with at the beginning of the year. I started doing commercial and lyrical classes at 10 and continued to do them until I came to university. I used to perform them in competitions which was my first challenge when dancing here.  

Jazz 

In my feedback at Christmas, I was told I have ‘comp face’ which basically means my smiles and expressions look very fake, which is true. In competition, they’re not really looking at your face, so the facials don’t have to be convincing as such whereas they really do in musical theatre. This is something that I really do need to work on however I do think I have gotten better. I also was told that I really do rarely point my feet when jumping and turning which obviously is a big problem. Once I got this feedback, I made a point to remember to point my feet as its not something that just naturally comes to my head whilst dancing or doing personal practice. In my Christmas feedback I was also told that my pirouettes were kind of all over the place and that I really needed to work on them. Before coming to Leeds Conservatoire, I could just about do a double, but I would usually fall out of them. After my feedback I really worked on my turns. My first problem was that I wasn’t very good at spotting whilst turning and that is a bad habit that I’ve had for years and never really been told to work on, so what I did was I stood in front of a mirror to start and walked round and round in circles whipping my head around to look back at the mirrors multiple times, just to get it in my head. I then would stand next to a bar and go on relive to see how long I could hold it for. At the beginning it was hard since I was not engaging my glutes at all which is very key for balance but once I realised I tried again and held my balance but better! I then put the two together and ended up doing a triple on my first go which was so exciting! This was something I had to remember to keep consistent however which was the biggest challenge since it’s hard to break out of old habits. Now when I turn, I remember to spot, point my toes and engage my glutes.  

In jazz rep I felt a lot more comfortable since it was choreography which was my strong point. In the first lesson we learnt a song was Shrek the musical called “What’s up, Duloc?” (Tesori, J 2002) and I had so much fun! Thought the dance was relatively easy to pick up, it was quite technical and dynamic which wasn’t very easy. For example, some of the timings were odd and you had to be very sharp at some points as it was a comedic dance. I did struggle a bit with the sharpness of the dance but I do think overall I was okay. We moved on and did a new dance every 2 weeks which was a real challenge as we had to retain all of the choreography in such a short time  then go on and learn more Luckily for me however, I used to learn a new dance every week for competitions so the speed we were going at was really quite normal.  

I think I have improved a lot in jazz since the beginning of the year as I have gotten rid of bad habits and my technique is much better now too! I also think my strength and stamina has gotten better since we such high energy dances over and over again, building up strength and stamina. I` think the progress I’ve made is definitely less obvious then some people as I already came in with prior training, but personally I think I’m at a really good place for jazz, especially in first year.  

Ballet 

Like jazz, I came into ballet with prior training. I hade done ballet since I was 2 and quit at 15 since I have a bad injury which still effects my ballet now. The main thing I noticed when I started ballet here at Leeds again was my lack of strength. I am hypermobile so I have always been very flexible yet in the 3 years I took off, I never really worked my strength in my glutes and stuff so I just kind of lost it all. I had some bad habits in ballet too. We were doing an exercise called Grand Battement and Christina told me that I pop my hip out when I kick, which is not proper technique. This really upset me since that is how I had always been doing it and no one corrected me and now I felt like I had to start again. It actually was not that hard to fix however it was really disheartening at the time. I watched a few videos on how to kick correctly and followed them step by step! (Just For Kix, 2019) These videos were so helpful and though my leg doesn’t go as high now, it’s done properly. 

Since I had done ballet before, nothing was necessarily new to me yet they all seemed a little bit harder then they used to be which was really disappointing to me. I really struggling with motivation since I suffer from depression so finding the motivation to work on my strength with really difficult. I ended up going to the gym every other day, on leg days I focussed on working my glutes and quads. I also did some personal exercise’s once again working on the strength in my glutes. It was a very slow process but I do believe the work paid off. I’m definitely not the strongest but I think its gotten a lot better. As you can see in this video, my strength has improved by a lot, this meanings I can hold my leg up higher when doing the attitude and arabesque.

Injury  

Unfortunately, I have suffered a few injuries which have been big set backs this year. Firstly, I broke my ankle when I was 15 which has damaged it permanently which meant I am very prone to sprained ankles now. I also have nerve damage in my left ankle so if I land on it funny it just goes completely numb and flops. This has been a massive set back since when it flops I am unable to walk or dance on it until it comes back meaning I have missed out on a lot of dancing and exercise which could be very beneficial. The other problem is, I could land on my ankle funny and sprain it and I wouldn’t know until it comes back which has happened twice since being at Leeds which usually means I can’t dance for 2 weeks. This has really effected me mentally and physically as I have missed out on more than I would have liked to miss out on. I have been to many physiotherapists and they all tell me the same thing and give me the same strengthening exercises which have one nothing for me. I have learnt that I just need to be extra careful when dancing as I cant afford another ankle injury .  

I also, in march, suffered from a garde 2 hamstring tear during a body conditioning class. This was probably the worst injury I have ever suffered, worse than a break. This is because I was not allowed to dance for 6-8 weeks! I obviously could not afford to miss that much dance and it was a massive set back since assessments were coming up but all I could really do was let it heal. Thanks to my prior training, I could pick up dances by watching the videos so that was really helpful since I didn’t have to physically learn it. I also went to almost every class and observed, writing down notes that could have potentially helped me when I started to dance again. After 4 weeks I could get off the crutches so after that it was just a case of strengthening and stretching again which I did over easter with my dad. I took it very easy as it was still very painful, but I made some good progress. Once I came back from easter I jumped straight back into dance, which I probably should not have done since I was definitely not ready which is a mistake I tend to make a lot when it comes to injuries. This was a bad idea because that meant my dance was not consistent, for example, I would go all out in jazz tech on Friday morning but then I wouldn’t be able to tap as I would be in too much pain. This is definitely something I am going to work on over the summer as I need to be strong and healthy for the start of first year.  

I have health issues which means some days I am unable to make it into uni so along with my injuries which had set me back, I also had different things going on which set me back even more. This is really unfortunate since I love going in and learning and seeing my friends but some days I am just unable meaning I miss out on really important things. Throughout the summer, I am going to really work on myself and my injuries so I can be in top shape for the start of second year and hopefully not have a many setbacks as this year. I have learnt I that I really need to look after myself as this is such a demanding industry that I want to go into. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think i have learnt a lot about myself in many different ways. I have learnt that i am capable of so much more than I initially thought and that I am actually really good at what I do. I also have also learnt that not everything is going to go the way I want it to and sometimes I just have to suck it up and keep going since its probably not the end of the world. I think I have come a long way this year especially considering all the injuries i have faced and worked through in the last year. In second year, I intend to get rid of more of that bad habits I have whilst also work hard and focus on myself a bit more since I can’t do my best if I’m not feeling my best. This has been a fun, exciting and scary year since this was all so new to be and I hope that all the good that came out of this year can carry over to next year.  

Bibliography  

One Music School (2019). Power Stance for Singers – Alignment, Posture, and Releasing Tension. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elV5X6ZHJBU. (accessed 20^th May 2026) 

Chodorov , J., Fields, J. and Bernstein, L. (1953). A Little Bit in Love . Wonderful Town. (Accessed 20^th May 2026) 

Menken, A. and Feldman, J. (1992). Watch What Happens. [Newsies] Harvey Fierstein.(Accessed 20^th May 2026) 

Wildhorn, F. and Bricusse, L. (1981). Someone like You. Jekyll and Hyde. 

(Accessed 22^nd May 2026) 

Tesori , J. (2002). Whats up, Duloc? Shrek the Musical . 

(Accessed 22^nd May 2026) 
 
Just For Kix (2019). Waist High Kick Technique With Cindy Clough! [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR8jmRUK8pI  

(Accessed 22^nd May 2026)