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I have just completed my final audition where I had to perform two contrasting dances. I decided to perform my tap dance and modern dance that I have performed in exams out side of college. My tap dance was very happy, cheerful and full of technique. However my lyrical was very slow and the music really contrasted to the fast tempo. On reflection, I think that my lyrical went really well as I could really connect to the music and show emotion and expression. However, tap was more harder as I really had to focus on getting every sound and making sure my technique was clear. Lorraine, my tap teacher was watching the audition which made me really nervous as she knew the dance I performed and knew if I had made any mistakes. I think that the auditions have made me more confident in an audition evniroment for next year. Although sometimes the nerves get the better of me, the more I do it, the more comfortable I become.

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Today we started to polish the choreography and we began to sort out our formations, because there are only 5 dancers it's hard to find different formations that look different from each other. We managed to think of different ways we can change the triangle so for example, rather than having the point out, it came in. We also started to change the choreography for work from home as it didn't work with the music. We all put in our ideas to try and change it to something we can all pick up quickly. We managed to finish the whole dance to where I come off as I have a quick change. I tried something I've never done before which is clapping with the people next to you and it looks really effective, it's hard because you have to make sure you get your positioning right and stand really close to them. We have had some bad news that Maisie won't be able to turn up to rehearsals for a few weeks as she's is in hospital very ill. As it states in the breif we need to make des icons as a team and decision making is really important. So at the moment we need to start taking Maisie out of the dance and not adding her for a while as she may not be able to participate in the show, this has made it difficult as we have done alot  of it already.

I created the choreography so that I can reflect over the weeks and improve my seeing where our rehearsals went wrong and where they went well.

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Today we had an choreographer from Thriller Live - Ebony Clarke. She came to carry out a second choreography session with us for our show in June. Ebony introduced a new style of dance to us called "house dancing". I was really struggling to pick it up as I have never done the style before. I need to start becoming familiar with different style of dance because in the near future I will be starting to learn different genres of dance and be expected to be confident in them if I want to get into the good stage schools. I can master this routine by ensuring the choreography that Ebony has taught me, I practice independently, so that I grow in confidence. You need to have a relaxed posture and relaxed arms. It's supposed to look nice and smooth. However, I am aware that I was too tense on my upper body which makes the dance style look quite awkward.  Since starting at college I have a greater appreciation and consciousness of my body.

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Today I had my performing class outside of college at Dance Scene. Unfortunately I missed last week as I was doing work experience. It was tricky picking up the routine from a video clip but I managed to learn the choreography really quickly and our external dance teacher Danielle was very impressed with how hard I worked. This is good however, I need to make sure I don't miss too many rehearsals in the future as at stage school or in a paid job in the dance industry, the directors can be very strict on punctuality and attendance. They need to make sure they employ someone reliable. Organisation skills are something that I need to continue to develop throughout my career and make sure I'm on top of at all times, so that I can balance the demands of my college course, my commitment to Dance Scene and my personal life. I can improve this by starting to use my diary in my phone, this means that I will be less likely to double book anything or miss any rehearsal. Acting professionally at your job, as a dancer has to be your main priority when you go into a high level in the dance industry.

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Today we had our Ballet and Jazz assessments which serve as a practice for next year. We get graded on our performance and technique through out the assessment. I was very nervous about it as it was my first assessment at Harlow college. I think I performed really well, kept a smile on my face to show I was enjoying myself. However, when it came to my technique and during the harder exercises I found it really hard to keep focus. I did my pirouettes wonky and I was getting very dissapointed as in class I can normally do them really easily. To improve next time I can try and imagine that I'm in class doing it instead of in the situation of an assessment. I will work on my spotting. When I have my spotting perfect my pirouettes will be good no matter what environment I'll be in. In terms of progression, assessments are really important in college as they get you ready for stage school. I want to go to stage school to do dance which means there will be choreography, tap, ballet and jazz assessments on a regular basis. Therefore these assessments are preparing me for when I will be under much greater pressure in standard and volume.  By having these practice assessments I will grow in confidence. So my focus this week is my spotting and technique of my pirouettes in an assessment environment.

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My name is Isabel Wedgbury-Glew. I have been dancing since the age of 4. Dancing has not only been a hobbie in my life but has turned into a passion. I have danced with Essex dance theatre a long time, they have now changed into their own company called Dance Scene. Dancing outside of college helps me escape from the world around me. Musical theatre is my favourite genre of dancing. I find it so interesting and I want to peruse it as a career. I did GCSE dance and got an A*, whilst doing this it really made me realise that I wanted to do this for the rest of life. I have entered different comparisons that have made me a stronger dancer. My dream would be to go to Bird stage school and do a degree in musical theatre. Harlow college will help me improve and progress my skills and technique to help me when I audition for stage school.

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This week I participated in work experience with Dance Rio. Dance Rio are an independent dance company who produce mass dance performances eg: cricket matches. Work experience is helping me improve the way I feel about working in the dance industry. I have found it very hard but also fun at the same time. I found it challenging to look after all the children because there's ony one of me and 30 of them. This is good for my progression plan as in the future I may not make it to the performance side of dance and Instead I could fall back on a career within a company like this. Being part of this amazing opportunity means I can use this on my my CV. This will give me a competitive edge over someone else as it shows how responsible I am. One of the biggest challenges I had was getting the children to listen to me, so I'm going to try a new strategy of more audience participation so that they have an opportunity to respond back.

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Today I really improved on my tap. I am grade 5 tap but at college there are loads of people who haven't tapped before so we need to start on the basis. By doing all the basics again it improves my technique. I slowly broke down the moves to hear the different sounds coming from my feet. This made it easier to do as you know what sound you're looking for. Here is me doing my drop shuffle ball change. The sounds sound clearer when doing it slowly again.

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During the half term I didn't really do any dance. I tried to exercise as much as possible by going out on runs but over all I let my body rest as much as I could. As I would like to be a professional dancer in the future you should make sure you rest your body regularly otherwise you can over do it. You can do this by making sure you're eating well and resting your muscles and body. You should catch up on plenty of sleep.

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Overall the shows went really well. We performed three shows and I was happy with the result in the end. Like most performances, the more you do the more you improve as your confidence grows. I think that to improve on my first show I could have worked on my timing better, I let the nerves get the better of me. I can improve in my next show by looking at other people during rehearsals until I can get the timing myself. Also by listening to the music more. But overall I think I did a good job. Having the chance to perform live in front of an audience on a regular basis helps me to understand and appreciate what it would be like to perform in the West End show.  If I am to make my dream a reality I need to be able to control my nerves right from the start.

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Today we completed the dress rehearsal for our show in full costume, the reason for this is to work out whether our costume changes will go to plan with the quick changes. Over all, it went really well and we managed to get on stage in the right time. Kate saw the first year choreography for the first time and she was really happy with them. However, for unit 5; a performance with lighting and costume we had to change the costume as Annabelle couldn't get her cloth around her mouth in time. We had to take the cloth out and change the choreography to fit the dance. Annabelle had to do more movements with her hands on her mouth to show she's stuck in silence. This was a last minute change which gave me a few seconds to quickly sacrafice my lighting and costumes designs. This is good practice because anything like this can happen in productions in indusrry

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This is me attempting a forward roll using a safety mat. This will help me become more confident and comfortable when I do it on the floor. I need to make sure I'm doing it correctly to be safer and avoid injury.

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In class today Cassie could clearly see how I have improved my head positioning. She was very happy and said that it looked so much better. I have realised that by having my head held up it creates a better posture and makes you look more professional. This will affect my ability to be successful at auditions.

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In my modern sessions at Dance Scene. I have been learning a new dance for our showcase in July. In the dance we have to do a rolly polly forward from crossed legs. This is really hard and not many of us can do it so Kate told us to work on it over the week. Here is a clip of me struggling to do it. I will be posting videos of my progress.

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Audition with Dan on Tuesday 1st March 2016

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Audition with Dan on Tuesday 1st March 2016

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On Tuesday we did our first audition to show our tutor Dan our skillsand what we can do. He also wanted to see our organisational skills. I did a dance that Danielle had choreographed about domestic violence. The dance is very powerful and touching. I needed to show the clear emotion on how the man who was abusing me made me feel and make it into a performance. I think the audition went really well despite being nervous. The audition is really good as it gives us plenty of practise for what it's like in the real thing. My weaknesses in the auction was my technique as I was concentrating so much on remembering the choreography. However, Dan gave me feedback that my emotion and connection was really good with the music. Next time I will make my dance longer and create my own choreography. I will also work on my technicality - pointed toes, extended arms. Dan will be looking for progress on our next audition so I need to practise them before hand.

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As you can see from the image below my felxibitky has got so much better. It shows you how simple stretches have made improvements in a week. Imagine how much impact they would have after another year or flexibility training how flexible I could get, goes to show that practice makes perfect.

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I have been doing lots of different stretches at home and at college to get my flexibilty better. By stretching it will give my muscles a chance of remembering the movement. My hips are very stiff so hip loosening exercises are helping me loosen them to get my leg higher. I warm up before stretching further so I don't injure myself. The split stretch which I'm demonstrating will help me get my legs stronger and higher when doing the position in previous post. I am also doing the frog position to loosen the hips as well.

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This week I'm going to work on my flexibility. My right leg is more flexible than my left. I will do this by stretching on a regular basis. Stretches like box splits and lunges will help me get my leg higher.

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In my private lesson we did the same warm up. I sing a different song when it's just me and Becky and that went very well. Becky tested me on my breathing that she wanted me to progress last week, she told me that I have improved and that the power sounds a lot better. This is the sign of progression. I got given feedback and got better. For next week she to,d me to improve on my mouth shapes as it makes the sounds stronger.

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In singing with Becky today we did a big class warm up and practised different scales and mouth shapes. We then learnt a song called "Here right now" which is very challenging. I got feedback from Becky saying that I need to work on my breathing as it will make my voice more powerful. If I breathe from my diaphragm instead of gasping air in my lungs my breathe will be easier to hold. She told me that I can do this by doing different exercises such as breathing in and holding my breathe then hissing out. When hissing out stop half way through and hold your breathe again. Lying down usually makes it easier to feel if you're breathing correctly.

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During halfterm, I took my exams, these are very difficult and I was under pressure due to having a tight timeframe. I had about 12 weeks for each exam to practise. This gives me a hint of what it would be like if I was called in for a show or a audition short notice , I would be able to prepare well. By doing these exams I will have more experience and improve as a dancer. Also, these qualifications allow me to get a better chance of getting into stage school. The exam had 10 exercises, 2 dances and 2 alamgomations for each exam. I think that the exams went well and I was pleased with the effort I made.There were a couple of exercises that I could have done better in relation to basic timing. I also found ballet very hard. The technique side of it was challenging. However, luckily I have a lot of ballet classes in the week where I was able to improve on my technique.

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This week I am going to focus on working on my cardiovascular fitness. Cardiovascular fitness works on your stamina. Having a lot of stamina means can work for longer. At stage school you have a very demanding timetable, sometimes days can be up to 12 hours long. I do lots of classes outside of college which prepare me for the long days. For example on Wednesday I participated in a bounce class. The bounce class is a high intensity class on trampolines. A lot of toning is involved on your stomach and bum. Toning is very good as it makes you a lot stronger. By doing fitness classes it will make you alot  fitter. I also took part in rehearsals for my exams. On Thursday I started college at 9am and finished at 9pm. By the end of the week I felt alot  stronger and less tired, I ate healthy and drank loads.

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n cassie's class I got a few corrections such as keeping my head up when doing certain exercises. I will try to stopmyself  from doing this by always focusing whether I, looking up or not. By keep practising it will become a habit to always look up. Next week I will be able to show Cassie my exercises with her n cassie's class I got a few corrections such as keeping my head up when doing certain exercises. I will try to stopmyself  from doing this by always focusing whether I, looking up or not. By keep practising it will become a habit to always look up. Next week I will be able to show Cassie my exercises with her n cassie's class I got a few corrections such as keeping my head up when doing certain exercises. I will try to stopmyself  from doing this by always focusing whether I, looking up or not. By keep practising it will become a habit to always look up. Next week I will be able to show Cassie my exercises with her This week I have done many different things that will make me have more professional expeirence for where I want to go on my next step. We did ballet and jazz on a Wednesday morning which helps us increase our performance when becoming more professional. Attending to the classes on time is very important and a good skill to have when going into the industry. We also had Rob Gentle come in Whois a professional ballet dancer. By having a pro in, it gives us an idea of the standard we need to be at. Concentration in class and the actual ability of dance. I think that our day to day course gains professionalism for its students as its not different to stage school. I also train outside of school which increases the hours of dance I do a week. The training is very professional. Next week I am going to focus on getting my box jumps.