It’s never easy, but it seems things are going swimmingly well!

First and foremost, I would like to apologise for the deteriorated level of blogging this year. Reflecting back over the recent blogs, the time frame between each entry has increased drastically!

In my last post, I explained about the up and coming auditions for our Persian Modern dance piece choreographed by renowned Russian choreographer and artistic Director, Andrei Alexandrovich Melanin. Auditioning the piece was great fun; it was so different to the classical repertoire being performed that day that for once, my nerves didn’t eat me up inside! I knew that what we were bringing to the auditions, all be it very strange, was fresh and fun. We received a lot of positive feedback as well and much to our amazement, the Russians even enjoyed the Modern piece; Bonus.

To add to the excitement, and again much to our disbelief, we were chosen to perform in the Annual Repertoire Performance. For Hayley and me, it was extra-special to be asked to dance because that would have meant our dances had been chosen two years running (time to start preparing to make it a hat-trick!) Unfortunately though, we were unable to perform as Hayley experienced a nasty fall during Duet Class and severely sprained all the ligaments within her foot. I tried to be as supportive as humanly possible, but for all those that know me, feet are not my favourite body part and I run a mile whenever they are in close proximity to me! Hayley’s foot, still very sore, is recovering well and it proves how much Hayley loves to dance because she continues to fight through all her bad luck – she’s such a tough cookie! I was asked if I was disappointed not to be dancing and I would be lying to say I wasn’t. Having said that, I would never have wanted to compromise and rework the choreography in order to accommodate for Hayley’s absence. Hayley, Diego, Alex and I bonded a lot throughout the vigorous rehearsal period and if we had performed it, it would have had to be as a team. Truth be told, I think the boys and I were overjoyed not to have to wear the Persian Costume, as it was a little revealing to say the least! (Thanks Stobo!)

I must sound like an awfully dull broken record, but nonetheless, once again I am happy to report that Hayley and I are continuing to do well in our academic exams! I have completed the course for History of Theatre, I have only one outstanding exam left in History of the World and then only a handful left in both Musical Literature and History of Ballet. Our aim is to knock these out of park by the end of April and leave May to focus our sights solely on achieving the best possible marks in our dance exams.

Every Tuesday for a few weeks now, I have been privileged to be asked to read English texts to the University Students within the Academy. The purpose of doing this is to allow the students to absorb my accent; it is a lot more productive than using a pre-recorded audio because this way, the students can actually ask me to pause mid-sentence and repeat the pronunciation to fully understand it and how to properly enunciate each word.

Daniel celebrated his 19th Birthday last Month and in true Daniel style, bestowed the lovely honour of Chief Party planning duties upon Hayley and myself. As much as we love Daniel, when it comes to birthdays and Christmas, he becomes awful demanding! Using my Russian language skills, I booked a table at the Soho Rooms restaurant in Moscow, which was absolutely stunning and served some of the tastiest dishes I have ever eaten! I could go on to tell you about them all, but one course that stood out was the chocolate egg dessert. A sweet desert was surrounded by rich white chocolate like an egg, and upon serving the waiter would pour hot milk chocolate sauce over it, melting and cracking the ‘egg’ and revealing the sweet inside! If anyone has Tumblr, please have a look at the video Joy Womack posted of the evening! Reflecting back on the meal, it must have been quite a unique sight to see so many different nationalities at one table, with multiple languages flying backwards and forwards in conversation!

The night was excellent because it gave Hayley and I a chance to unleash our girlie sides as we dolled up for the occasion. After eating we spent a few hours dancing the night away in the club just below the restaurant and it was a lot of fun to witness how, even though we may be talented dancers in a studio with a barre, some of us could not pull of dancing in a club! A group of 8 of us stayed at a local bed and breakfast, which was a nice peaceful escape from the noisy life of the dorms and gave us a short feeling of freedom.

Our exam leotard and skirts for both Ballet and Character were completed recently as well! Everyone has been having a lot of fun with the Character Skirt in particular; it’s in the style of a flamenco skirt and is incredible what a difference it makes; the skirt adds so much character and makes it even more exciting for the audience to watch. Our ballet leotard and skirt are raspberry in colour and very basic so not to distract the commission from the dancing in the exam. The colour is beautiful, but for someone who is known to stick to her blacks and navy blue, it is going to take a lot of confidence to get me to wear it during class!

Last Friday I was extremely fortunate to be one of the students selected to take part in a Master Class run by Arthur Mitchell from Harlem Dance Theatre. Arthur Mitchell is an extremely influential figure in the dance world; he created a training school and the first African-American classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, has been recognized as a MacArthur Fellow, inducted into the National Museum of Dance’s Hall of Fame, and has received the United States National Medal of Arts and a Fletcher Foundation fellowship. In simpler words, it was an honor to work with him!

We were taught a floor barre, the purpose of which was to teach us something we can do everyday, even when we are injured, to ensure we never get out of shape and can work through injury and long periods when we are absent from training. And I can assure you it works as well! My bottom is still aching to this day. After the floor barre, we raced through a quick barre where our ability to absorb combinations at a rapid speed was tested. The barre was a breath of fresh air because it was a different style of ballet to the one we are used to routinely working through every day.

In the centre we began with a coordination exercise, which was so hard! We were taught a simple tondu exercise with the legs, and then an exercise for the arms and asked to then merge the pair together; much like the exercise where you rub your tummy and tap your head. I think we gave all the onlookers a good laugh at that point! The choreography we were taught at the end was taken from one of their recent works and I felt in my element as we experimented with Jazz hands and elastic knees (made famous by Elvis Presley). The Master Class lasted from 4.30 until 7.30, and truth be told, I was gutted when it finished! It put the greatest smile on my face.

As well as all the positivity, fun with friends and rapid improvement in my performance within class, I have also been finding myself getting upset very easily and very quickly. I have had terrible withdrawal symptoms from home, so much so that I would find myself crying out of the blue and for hours on end. Thinking about my family would make me ill and last week I became very weak. To ensure I didn’t jeopardize my chances of achieving the marks I deserve in my exam, especially considering how strong I am beginning to feel in ballet, I decided to return home for Easter week. I am hoping this week will allow me to breathe before the final push before exams and to give me my family fix so I can return happier and focused on the important goals for these next two months. I suppose I was getting ahead of myself thinking I could last 20 weeks without my mummy cuddles! Typical Girl!

Wow. Very long entry! Massive pat on the back to all of you who were able to read to this point – it must be all that energy you’ve gained from a chocolate-filled weekend! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and that work and school are not too tedious after the holiday fun.

Jumping, exploding eggs and finally, flat middle splits!

Over the past month my class have been working alongside one of the resident student teachers at the Academy. She trained us daily throughout the end of January and February in order to use our class in her final teaching examination, to demonstrate her understanding of ballet technique and how to communicate those methods across to a class of students. The student teacher specialised in the jumping section of the ballet class, which was extremely helpful to us all because she was able to demonstrate how to correctly perform all the new jumps added to our syllabus this year; the negative was, that unlike the usual 20 minute jumping session we usually received at the end of class, it was elongated to 45 minutes up to an hour daily, and after a month this really began to take its toll! As well as focusing on jumps, she also had to demonstrate her teaching ability over the course of both barre and centre work on top of giving continuous corrections to us all to affirm her understanding of when mistakes were being made. I found this excellent, I received a variety of corrections and consequently it has given me a good idea of what to work on in order to improve my technique for my own exam in a few months. I am happy to report that she received top marks in her exam and the commission added it was one of the better exams they had seen! Congratulations Alyssa!

The March concert is soon approaching so all the classes have doubled their rehearsals and repertoire times; last year Hayley and I were entered in it to perform our Duet from a larger Grand Pas piece. As much as I enjoyed getting up on the stage with Hayley, I have to say it was a scary experience and I was very much looking forward to watching everyone else take their turn this year while I focused on my class work! And that was my plan, until last week. Our ballet teacher Revich surprised us all by bringing in a male choreographer to class last Saturday and with him came two new repertoire pieces, one classical Polka and one Persian contemporary dance. Hayley and I were privileged enough, alongside 3 other girls, to be selected to learn the Persian Dance; the dance also includes two boys, my good friends Alex and Diego. Unfortunately the piece is only choreographed to include 2 boys and 2 girls, so as much as we all love each other, we are having to work our bottoms off to show the choreographer that we have the ability to interpret the mood and movements he wants for his piece. Rehearsals have been brilliant; he has travelled around Europe with his work and so he prefers to speak in English, which makes communicating the intricate details of a Persian dance a lot easier. As you know, I am a huge fan of neo-classical and contemporary work so I am thoroughly enjoying turning up to rehearsals and getting stuck in; it makes it even more enjoyable now that I have been paired up with Hayley, creating one out of two casts competing for the piece. Our first stage rehearsal is on Tuesday and the auditions are the following week, so I shall have to keep you all posted on our progress! It would be an honour to be chosen, but as I say, Hayley and I are quite content, if we are not chosen, to simply watch the auditions and the show as we are both heavily focusing on our ballet technique so we do not let Revich down in this year’s exam. She has given us so much help and encouragement this year; we honestly worry more about disappointing Revich than ourselves!

In Modern lessons, we have been learning the Vivaldi piece, which was choreographed by the Choreographer from the Joffrey Ballet Company. We have all been set homework to learn a specific part, so I’m excited to get my teeth into that. In Character classes we are continuing to learn various folk and national dances to expand our knowledge of Character Dance. In Acting we are currently working alongside third course; we are lending a hand by making up numbers for a few of their exam pieces (great experience for next year as we can watch the rehearsal process and know in advance what is expected of us). As well as this, we have been watching and imitating famous ballets, learning how to portray the emotion needed for each individual role. We had a mini exam, Hayley and I performed an extract from La Bayadere; we received 5’s but the teacher said she wanted to give us a 5++ but didn’t wish for us to get complacent! This was a massive compliment to us both; acting with Hayley comes so naturally and easily because we are growing more telepathic by the day!
Now that the student teacher’s exam is over, Revich has already started experimenting with some Exam combinations for the end of the year, and I will be honest, it did panic me! There is such a huge difference in the movements from last year, to those expected to be performed this year!

As for Academics, well what can I say? From now until the year ends, Hayley and I will be sitting 3 exams weekly in order to complete all the necessary exams for Second Course. They are all going well, passing them all successfully and jumping straight into the next one!

I have also been spending a lot of time outside of the studio with my friends here. We have ventured to Sunday Breakfasts at French café’s, evening dinners at sushi, afternoon trips to coffee shops and not to mention all the laughter we have whilst in the dorms! I think my stomach hurts now due to the amount I find myself laughing! One of the best occasions for this, was when Hayley and I tried to make hard-boiled eggs in the microwave, and 10 seconds before the timer rang, the egg exploded! It was pretty messy; pleased to say our second attempt was far more successful. Time is flying by here, and with the academic year finishing May 31st due to the refurbishment of the studios, exams are already on the mind and everyone is stepping up their game, particularly the teachers who want to show their classes off to their fullest.
My last blog was a slightly down hearted one. With the increased rehearsals, contemporary and modern work, I am finally starting to feel at ease with my dancing ability. I am learning more and more about the type of dancer I want to become and what I can realistically achieve. This became evident when Diego and Alex sat in and watched one of our classes; previously, I would have found a reason to sit down so that no one could look at me dance, but now I take it on the chin and continue to work without even flinching! The combination of my parent’s supportive words, Hayley’s continued motivation and Revich’s understanding of my insecurities has really helped me progress since Christmas.

One of the highlights of the past couple of weeks was finally getting my middle splits flat as a pancake! For all those that know me, I have struggled to get into the box splits all my life, and I was told that my hips would never allow for me to reach a flat middle split. So now that’s nailed, just need to work on my 10 pirouettes haha! A girl can dream…

I hope many of you enjoyed a loving Valentines Day, I was lucky enough to receive a bunch of roses from the lovely Diego, an e-card from my daddy and a handle of romantic images from my mummy!

As much as I would love to stay and ramble about everything that’s been happening over here, I have a vast amount of studying to do this weekend for the week’s set of exams! If I hear anything more on the Persian piece, you will all be the first to know, that is unless you follow me on twitter! I post daily, some happy, some sad, but all true feelings. So when I neglect my blog, which I am terrible for, you are sure to find information on my twitter! Follows me - @NatCarts 

Goodbye England, Hello Russia!

After having a lovely Christmas, spending time with my family and friends, I am officially back in the Motherland! There is a beautiful blanket of snow covering the ground and everything looks so quaint and delicate, that is until the Great Britain gang walk outside and start slipping all over the place like a bunch of untrained dancing elephants. Considering balance is a key factor in ballet, you would have thought walking on a bit of black ice would be a doddle! Pleased to announce though, that some of us have a lot further to go in mastering this than others… hint hint – Heather McGowan (who would achieve more shuffling along on her bottom!)

The first few classes, despite causing a terrible pain in both my calves and bottom from being woken up from their Winter Hibernation so abruptly, have been good. Heather’s class have joined ours this week, so even though there has been an excess of bodies in the studio, it’s been nice to have fresh faces surrounding me at barre and in the centre! We also had Heather’s teacher, Maria Ivanova, for a class on Saturday, which I enjoyed greatly because even though I wouldn’t swap Revich and or her methods, it is always good to get a different teacher once in a while to give new and varied corrections.

It’s also been exciting to see all my friends again and swap Christmas stories.

I read a status this week;

‘The best thing about ballet is that the minute you walk into a studio you can leave every problem outside!’

I thought to myself, ‘wow, this person is so incredibly lucky’. I don’t know about the rest of you, but for me, entering the studio is just the beginning of a long list of problems and insecurities that I can’t seem to shake off! Many people put it down to the fact that because they are so passionate about what they are doing, the littlest things, such as a single failed pirouette, are far more likely to flick the self-frustration and criticism switch than spilling tea over a pile of important paperwork. Others reason that the more self-critical you are the harder you will push yourself in life, consequently leading to higher motivational levels in order to reach more challenging goals. I don’t know yet how I would justify why I am so hard on myself, but I am certain that I would give anything to be able to draw myself away from such a negative and self-critical mind set. For me, at the moment at least, this negative mentality is inhibiting me, both inside and outside of the dance studio and there have been many days recently where I have looked at my reflection thinking, ‘You are just so glum Miss Carter!’

I decided to share this with you, firstly to demonstrate that I am by no means happy within myself and my dance ability yet and secondly, in a hope that many others out there are feeling the same way, not only to comfort me in knowing that I am not the only negative soul out there, but to show to others that they aren’t alone by being trapped in this train of thought either! I also know that the worst thing is confiding in someone about it all, especially when their response is usually along the line of, ‘well don’t be so harsh on yourself then, silly’; Gosh, if only I had thought of that! Ha! Unfortunately this particular switch, despite only needing one push to turn it on, seems to need several hundred heavy handed pushes in order to turn it off!

I have loved dancing since I began at the age of 7, I loved creating small shows for my parents to watch in the living room and choreographing dances for my sister and step-sisters to perform. I have no doubt that this love for dance will forever live inside of me, but unfortunately, the combination of fretting about my appearance and inability to master certain movements at a faster pace is clouding over that love and it is beginning to worry me! I was never under any illusion that going to Russia was going to be a walk in the park, that everything they wanted me to learn would be achieved in next to no time and that I wouldn’t feel the strain that the 3000km distance from my family would inflict. But truthfully, this has been the hardest 2 and a half years of my life so far, and it just doesn’t seem to get easier.

It’s upsetting that the emphasis placed upon the appropriate weight of dancers takes its toll on everyone’s mentality. It’s a shame that this added pressure, results in an inner loathing for your own physical appearance and a secret detest towards dance for being the cause of it all.

Please don’t mistake what I am saying for a criticism on my training at the Bolshoi, it’s a worldwide problem not just one acquired here. I know how fortunate I am to have this opportunity and I aim to take everything from it I can. I simply didn’t want to write a false blog where I pretend that every day is a stroll in a meadow and as easy as making daisy chains. I want to share real thoughts and feelings with you, and I hope I haven’t scared any young budding dancers in doing so!

So, on a positive note, my aim for this week is to try and acquire a thicker skin. Hopefully this will allow me to focus on the important parts of class and not on how far my bottom sticks out in the mirror!

Have a lovely week everyone! Stay positive!

This particular blog is dedicated to a young girl I met over the Christmas break. She is currently fighting against Leukaemia at Watford General Hospital, but loves nothing more than to dance down the halls and at home when she can. She doesn’t want to be named but said I could share the lesson she taught me, that you can still do the things you love even through the toughest times in life. Get better soon beautiful girl, meeting you made my day just as much as yours I assure you. Stay strong and keep fighting, I promise to take you with me to a class when I get home!

Merry Christmas!

I’m sure that everyone’s festive preparations are well under way by now, and if not, you really ought to shake a tail feather and put yourself into fifth gear! Last minute shopping during Christmas week is not a pleasant experience, trust me, I will openly admit I am one of those annoying people who insist on waiting ‘til the last possible moment to buy cards and presents; and I still haven’t finished! Uh oh!

The final couple of weeks before our Winter Holiday flew by! Hayley and I were so busy completing various Academic exams that we had little time to kill. After many nights of sitting and memorising lengthy Russian texts, I am thrilled that I achieved a set of 5’s and one 4 in all my exams to date. I hope I can maintain the standard in the New Year!

At the weekends we would venture into Central Moscow in order to buy some small Christmas Presents; I have to say, Hayley was far more successful at this than the rest of us, we didn’t have a clue! On one of our trips, Hayley, Daniel, Matthew (New American Boy) and I went to TSUM department store. In the central column of the store was, in my opinion, a Christmas Wonderland! It was so beautifully decorated that when you stepped into it, you felt like you were entering Santa’s Grotto! Daniel was eyeing up a grand Music Box, which told the story of the ballet ‘The Nutcracker’, but for 50,000 roubles his only choice was to walk away empty handed! Maybe save and try again next year Dan?

During the week, Daniel had begun going to the Music rooms in the evening. He is teaching himself to play various songs on the piano; he is actually surprisingly good! I decided to tag along a couple of time, but this far from pleased Dan! I don’t think he appreciated my rendition of ‘Can you Feel the Love Tonight?’ and ‘Tale as Old as Time’. Just you wait, after a bit of Christmas practising I will return to Moscow a Piano Pro, the modern day Beethoven even… well it’s nice to dream!

The last week at the Academy was very relaxed. Most of our teachers were absent for various reasons, so Hayley and I only had to endure ballet and Russian every day, after which we were allowed to spend our time as we pleased. So Hayley and I chose to nap! It may sound silly, but it was the best feeling in the world; returning from a long ballet class and just jumping back into bed for a few hours, while Heather looked on in ore as she shuttled herself off to all her classes! I am not portraying myself and Hayley in the best light! I should mention that after our naps we jumped into the role of ‘Domestic Housewife’; we tidied our room, did the shopping, washed our dirty crockery and cutlery, changed our bed sheets and did our laundry and drying! We were well prepared for our return home – or so we thought!

Upon collecting our washing from the drying room on our final night, we found that the window had been closed, meaning that none of the clothes were actually drying at all! Typical! So I spent part of our last night hair drying my laundry before joining Hayley and Dan for a final sushi meal!

In the early hours of the 16th of December, after being waved off by Daniel and Alex, Hayley, Heather and I hopped into a taxi to the airport and boarded the 6.35am flight to London Heathrow. I was extremely excited, not just to be going home, but to see the look on my Mummy’s face! Since October, when we booked the flights, my mum had been under the impression that I would be returning on the morning of the 21st of December, but instead I had booked a flight for the 16th in order to surprise her on her birthday!

As soon as we touched down at Heathrow, Heather and I jetted off to baggage reclaim – I am sure people thought we were training for the Olympic’s Speed walking race! I was greeted at the airport by Michael; he drove me home and then accompanied me on the train journey to London to meet my mum!

A work colleague of my Mum’s met us at the entrance of the building and escorted us to my Mum’s desk. It was great to see my mum and give her a squeeze; I don’t think she really understood what was going on at first! But she definitely looked over the moon to see me! So thrilled in fact, that she summoned me to join her on an errand to Tesco to by 20 boxes of Mince Pies for her work! Makes you wonder whether she was overjoyed by my return, or simply to have found an extra pair of arms to carry such a large number of pies?!

That evening, the entire family reserved a table at Zinco’s Restaurant to celebrate her birthday. It was so nice to be surrounded by family; it was especially great for me to spend some quality time with her sister and her new man, as well as surprise my Grandad! I sneaked up behind him and pretended to be a waitress guiding him to his seat; there is no fooling my Grandad because he is the king of pranks, he clocked on straight away and smothered me in cuddles!

That weekend I spent time catching up with my mum, dad and sister. My sister has just had a serious knee operation to secure the knee cap, so currently she is waddling around in crutches!

On Saturday, I went to see Kerry, one of my oldest friends! Kerry and I have grown up together, shared so many experiences and she really does know me inside out. We both screamed when we saw each other through excitement and disbelief! 16 weeks is a long time to go without seeing your friends and family! We chatted for a while and then went to meet Jacqui from work. The troublesome trio were reunited! We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner where we were joined by Connie and Racheal. We have all known each other for years, as we grew up together at Gypsy Booth, so I love when we get together and just act as silly as we did back then!

On Tuesday, my dad, his girlfriend and I went to Winter Wonderland! It was so good to spend a full day with my dad; It is rare because of my busy schedule and his hectic shift work that we are able to spend long periods of time together. We ventured all around the German Christmas market and he took us on the Big Wheel. It was like babysitting two big children! They were absolutely petrified on the wheel, which I found highly entertaining, but they soon began to appreciate the beautiful views of the London horizon.

Wednesday was my Grandad day. It was excellent! We went to Milton Keynes shopping centre in the morning, so that I could be well and truly spoiled; my grandad has spoiled his Grandad children since the day we were born. He relished the times where he could hype us up on sugar and buy us outrageous toys and then ship us off to our parents where they would have to deal with the consequences of too much sugar in our systems! I still have a human sized cuddly Lamb he bought one Easter; I can still remember my mum and Granny’s face when we returned with it – not impressed!

After shopping, I joined him and his friends at ‘Afternoon Tea’. I had an excellent time socialising with his friends, there are some excellent characters! And I was privileged enough to meet a man who not only loves the arts but was my Granny’s boss for just over a decade.

Oh gosh! This blog could qualify for a novel soon, so enough from me! I need to dash off and finish my Christmas shopping! Happy Holidays everybody and I hope that the New Year brings all you hope for.

A few days off! Or so we thought…

On the 3rd November, everyone was blessed with the news that we would be receiving four days off;  that Friday and then from Monday through to Wednesday. Revich then excited us even further by telling the class that we could have the Saturday off as well! We left the studio beaming with the images of long lie-ins snuggled up in our warm beds, film marathons and pyjama days whizzing through our heads.

I spent Friday, as planned, in bed. I ransacked my collection of Disney DVD’s and had a small Disney Marathon, reminding me of my childhood! I have to say, I enjoy watching the old classics much more than the latest Disney movies with the improved colour and sound definition!

Revich called Friday evening with the news that she had been contemplating her decision to allow us the extra day off and had decided to kindly retract the offer. No one was annoyed by her decision to have ballet; everyone was merely dreading the 7am wake up, having previously planned to sleep until noon! But it would be fine as we  would just have  a ballet class and then straight back to our beds – or so we thought! At the end of the class Revich dropped yet another bombshell on us. She had also made the decision to have a Repertoire Class at noon.  9 girls raised their hands to say that they wouldn’t be able to attend as they had already pre-booked seats to see a show that afternoon, so Hayley and I were relieved, assuming immediately that Revich would postpone the class to another day. Wrong again! She decided she would take the remaining 4 of us for class.

Promptly at noon, Hayley, Federica (from Italy), Precious (from USA) and I, arrived outside Studio 7. Revich told us to put on our Pointes and she would quickly run a few warm up exercises before Repertoire itself. 2 hours later, after ‘a few warm up exercises’ and no repertoire at all, we were allowed to waddle out of the class.    After returning to my room and taking my shoes off, I found that I had lost my two baby toe nails and acquired in their place two giant blisters – Yummy!    Evidently my feet were not prepared for that 2 hour Pointe Class!    That evening for a well earned treat, we went to TGI Fridays and I was able to indulge in their creamy tomato and basil soup and mushroom soup bowls.

On the Sunday, Hayley, Heather and I began our Christmas shopping! We roamed through the outdoor Russian Market, located next to Red Square and inside the underground shopping mall.   I was thankful for the indoor shopping mall that day,  it was absolutely freezing   and even my gloves were struggling to keep my fingers warm and cosy! It was an extremely successful trip for Hayley and I, but I won’t ruin the surprise and mention what was bought in case the receivers of these gifts are reading!

Monday was spent much like the previous Friday, relaxing in front of a good movie, in the comfort of our rooms.    Tuesday, as I have already mentioned, was filled with a modern master class; for all those brave people who attended! Our final day off was spent preparing for a new day of classes. It was as if I had blinked and our days off were gone! The short holiday passed by so quickly and if I am honest, I didn’t feel I had rested enough to start the daily routine of 7am wake up calls again!

From Thursday through to Saturday, because the younger children were still on their week’s holiday and Revich didn’t have to dash to a class or rehearsal after ballet, our class was elongated to give us time to learn all of our new jumps. This sounded like a bullet proof plan, what an excellent way to take advantage of the free studios! Unfortunately, planning to jump for an extra hour on top of ballet and actually having to muster the energy to jump for an extra hour couldn’t be at further ends of the spectrum! To put it plainly, it was tough, and after having 3 consecutive days of 2.5 hour ballet classes, it made our usual class on Monday feel like a walk in the park!

The highlight of my week however, was when Teresa Mackay, of Youth Arts in Action, asked me to lend a hand at the MPC Harvest Ball (a charity auction to raise money for Children). The auction was held at the Ritz and one of the auction lots was a private tour around the new Bolshoi Theatre, as well as signed Pointe shoes and photos of both famous and training dancers at the theatre and the Academy.    Hayley, Daniel and I were all asked to donate photos and shoes – it was very strange signing my Pointe shoes to give away, considering we are only students in training!

Teresa asked if I would don a Tutu and present the Lot alongside Julian and Nicholas Mackay.  Our Lot went for just under 4000 US dollars –  not sure whether it was a basket of smelly old shoes or the Bolshoi Tour that drew in the bidders! Daniel who was supposed to support me on the night and help calm my nerves,  but instead managed to wangle his way into the Harvest Ball dinner and enjoyed a 5 star, 3 course meal; leaving me to prepare in another room! Thanks mate! I can’t complain too much because I had Julian and Nicholas to entertain me. We played Checkers, rehearsed our entrance and small presentation piece, and they even had time to teach me a very strange American clapping game!

Ever since the Auction, I have maintained the braided hairstyle in ballet classes as well.   Unfortunately, this means poor Hayley has to sit and pleat my hair every evening for me, because firstly she is better at it, and secondly, I means I do not have to lift a finger in the morning and can enjoy a few extra minutes in bed; Natalie Carter, bringing the definition of lazy to a new level!

Good Afternoon Bloggers!

I just wanted to share with you something that I have been questioned about a lot via Formspring and in private emails. I am often asked what advice I would give to young, aspiring dancers, striving for a career in ballet, or how I remain confident and composed during classes and performances. Well the truth is I am none of the above, as I am also only a young, aspiring dancer looking for advice and guidance myself and I don’t want to mislead any readers that believe I have all the confidence in the world to strive forward in this profession.

This week, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy invited a guest teacher from the Joffrey Ballet Company to take a modern dance master class. I absolutely love modern dance, and for me, it should have been a day filled with enjoyment and an opportunity to show my thirst for modern dance and to absorb everything that was thrown at me. However, I opted instead to let my lack of self confidence get the better of me; whenever I am put into a situation that involves dancing in front of others, of whom I know are of greater ability, I freeze inside, be it in a class situation or on stage. I can’t tell you why, I just know that all I want to do is crawl up in a ball and keep everyone from noticing me. I got myself so worked up about sharing a room with the Russians, and dancing alongside them, that my stomach knotted up and I was in so much agony that I couldn’t dance because of it. My own negative mentality and self inflicted stomach pain meant that I had to miss out on an opportunity that doesn’t come around the corner everyday;  it’s really difficult to express to you in words, how angry I was at myself.

What makes it worse, is that deep down, I know that people aren’t there to judge me and that we would all have been in the same boat. Since I was small, I have always had a fear of failing. At school I would never put up my hand to answer a question unless I was certain I would be giving the correct answer, at my old dance school I wouldn’t demonstrate an exercise or movement unless I knew I had it as close to 100% mastered as possible and for my GCSE’s I had it drilled into my head that anything lower than an A grade was a fail. Unfortunately I have never been able to shake this mentality off, and although it may have been beneficial for me during school days in order to push myself harder, to ensure I achieved good grades in class, I have come to find that while in Moscow, it is actually hindering me more than helping me.

Missing the master class gave me the time to sit and reflect on why I am here. I am here to learn. Nobody expects me to be perfect or already moulded into a dancer prepared to perform a solo in Swan Lake, and in fact, having the guts to put myself out there without the fear of making mistakes is the best way to improve; for it is common knowledge that the greater lessons are learned by reflecting on mistakes previously made.

Now, I am not going to lie to you and say that I had an epiphany that has now miraculously altered my way of thinking! But, I can assure you that it has opened my eyes to how seriously my lack of confidence is holding me back and that I know that it is something that I have to focus on, as well as improving my dance technique. There is no point in studying here, making my dancing technique stage-worthy and then not having the confidence to step onto the stage or into an audition room!

So for all those young, aspiring dancers out there who are reading this blog, I hope that I can help you by sharing my experiences and the lessons I have learned during my time here at the Academy. I will also continue to try and answer all of your questions on Formspring, but please remember I do not have all the answers, only opinions and suggestions and if anyone has any advice for me, I will gladly open my arms to it!

Lastly, as I know this down-hearted blog must have been a drag to read in places! Please, for all those in the UK, wear your poppies proudly this week while remembering the men and women who fought on our behalves.

A small quote which is quite appropriate considering you are all reading a blog!

‘If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you can read this in ENGLISH, thank a solider’ – Remembrance Day 11/11/11

It is so strange not seeing poppies everywhere or being able to wear one of my own. Have a lovely week, and I will blog again next week with more uplifting anecdotes for you all!

It is official; I am the worst blogger in the world!

Sorry for yet another delayed blog, I can’t even use the excuse that life has been too exciting over here to sit down and write, because not much has changed since I last blogged! I will however use the excuse that revision for my Academic exams is taking over what feels like the only spare minutes I have. As I have already mentioned, in second course we also need to complete a number of academic exams, of which the grades collaborate with those we receive from dance and are then put forward for our final Diploma. Exams are well under way now and since I last blogged I have been sitting at least two Academic exams a week. That might sound like a walk in the park, but when you have to learn two pages of Russian text to recite without hesitation, the strain begins to show – I am sure by the time I return home from Christmas, I will have more stress lines and wrinkles than my mum! Just joking mum! On a positive note, I have been receiving some good grades. 5 out of 5 for my History of Theatre, History of Russia and Russian assessments, and I am hoping that I can achieve the same this week in History of the World. Hayley is also walking all of her exams; waving the flag high for Britain!

Last Friday, we completed on of our most daunting exams, the Weigh In! Thankfully, the day has been and gone and now it has been crossed off everyone’s minds until April.

As all of you computer geeks will know, the Apple iPhone 5O.S software update came out a few weeks ago, and for those of you that don’t know, I live with the greatest computer geek out there – Daniel Dolan. So, in order to get the best internet speed for this giant download, Daniel, Hayley, Heather and myself sat for nearly 4 hours above Ramstore; and even though the download process was tedious, I actually had a lovely evening! Due to the fact that we were all stuck together for four hours, we had some really deep and interesting conversations followed, of course, by a few funny rounds of ‘Would You Rather’.

On the topic of Mr Dolan, we have started getting into a weekly routine of going to McDonalds for Sunday breakfast. I am hugely addicted to their Babychinos and Orange juice and I like getting my weekly fix. For the uneducated folk who have not browsed through the McDonald’s drink menu thoroughly enough, a babychino is a child’s version of espresso, you replace the espresso shot with a caramel shot. Perfect for my sweet tooth!

Some of you may have read on the news that the Bolshoi Theatre was officially reopened on the 28th of October, unfortunately we weren’t able to get tickets for the event (seats in the stalls were being sold for two million roubles!) but hopefully we will be seeing a few shows there over the course of this year!

A funny anecdote for you all! The power in our rooms over the weekend has been cutting off sporadically throughout the day, so we are finding ourselves with no laptop or phone battery and a fridge that is actually warming our food! The power has yet to be fixed, just something else to add to life over here, and something I hope we can all laugh about in a few years time!

And now something I find amazing! The Russian president decided that this year Russia would not be joining the World in moving the clocks one hour back, choosing instead to maintain in Summer Time throughout the entire year. This means we are now 4 hours ahead from the lovely UK. Now time to test your math skills! My flight from Moscow to London is 3 hours and 25 minutes long. If I leave Moscow at 9am, what time will I land in London?

8.25am; Which means I am travelling back in time! Pretty cool eh? Well I thought is was!

Last week, my best friend Kerry celebrated her 19th Birthday, so of course I was sad that I couldn’t be there to join my girls in celebrating the day. But as always, I have Miss Stobo to keep my spirits sky high – I am sure my stomach still hurts because she makes me laugh so much! I am telling you she is my own personal Alan Carr, days would be so much longer without her. We are going to begin our Christmas shopping this weekend, in a bid to speed up the time until we jump on our England bound plane!

Happy Halloween and I hope you all have some exciting plans for Bonfire night! It’s one of my favourite nights of the year, so for all you Watford based readers, get down to Cassiobury Park for me!

Just a quick final message: This week on my Formspring I was asked which charities I support. My Grandad does a lot of work for the ‘Lions’ and my mum has always donated to ‘The British Heart Foundation’, so both of these. On top of that, when I teach at Gypsy Booth, I often teach a child called Kelsey, who lost his sight through eye cancer at a young age and I fully support his charity choices.

Привет, дорогие друзья!

I am sorry it has taken so long for this blog to arrive, but as usual, it has been a very hectic start to the new academic year here in Moscow, but I have survived my first month at the Academy and time is flying by this year!

I am in Second Course now, and it is really starting to dawn on me that this time next year I am going to have to put everything I possibly have into getting my graduating exam exercises and dances nailed, my academic exams under my belt and to start applying for company auditions! Wow, that is quite a daunting list.

On a brighter note, although it has been a tough challenge to get my body and fitness back into form after such a long stretch at home, I have loved going to the studio every morning to take class, under the guidance of Natalia Igorevna Revich. Revich has thrown us in at the deep end this year; we are plunging straight into the hard graft because of the vast increase of movements on our syllabus for second course. Despite having some bad ballet classes, Revich is keeping my spirits lifted.

This year, our class has a new Character teacher; she is a dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet and speaks English! Thus, she is able to give us some really in-depth corrections as well as  show us how it should be done at a professional level. We have already learnt so much from her in a month, so this year should be really exciting to see how much our class improves.

Our other teachers have remained the same, and it is great to see my acting teacher again – I think she is the only teacher to understand British Humour! For example, last lesson, she wanted our class to act out attempting to lift a very heavy bag. So everyone is taking it very seriously, looking very strained as they try and move this very heavy invisible bag; Natalie however, chooses to mime finding an Airport trolley and wheels her bag away, while Hayley calls upon the aid of her husband, which caused a great deal of laughter amongst us and the teacher!

As well as my usual Ballet, Character, Acting, Duet and Contemporary dance lessons, this year we also have an increase in our Academic schedule. Between classes we are now fitting in not only Russian Language, but theory of Music, Musical Literature, History of Theatre, History of Ballet, History of World Culture and standard History – all of which we are assessed in and have to pass in order to obtain our Diploma. At the end of this year, the whole of second course will pay to sit a state Russian Language exam, which we must pass in order to receive our Diploma Certificates the following year – so Hayley and I have been knuckling down with our Revision early this year!

I haven’t a lot to report on the dancing side of things, I am just getting to grips with all the new work and trying not to let any past injuries come between myself and progress this year. This has meant however, that I have withdrawn myself from all show rehearsals in order to focus all my energy on improving in ballet and not to overload my stomach with extra pressures, which is a shame, but as my Ballet teacher says, ‘You must be strong in class, you are here to learn, not to perform, that comes later’.

I celebrated my 19th Birthday at the start of the school year at Planet Sushi, with Hayley, Daniel and Mario – we had a fun evening, filled with lots of giggles! As well as this, at the beginning of September myself and the British crew at the Academy also went to watch the Gala at the Kremlin – ‘Ballet stars of the 21st Century’. It was amazing to get to watch the great dancers from over the world on one stage and it was also a great way to motivate myself at the beginning of the year.

Hayley, Heather and I, have tried to fit in as much walking as possible before the snow hits Russia. We walked to the giant super market Ashan, in order to stock up on fresh fruits and goodies – the walk was 6km and I forgot to mention to Heather before setting off that their isn’t a full path for the entire stretch and it would involve climbing muddy hills!

Hopefully I will have some more exciting anecdotes to indulge you all in soon!

A short history of Brits at the Bolshoi Academy, Moscow

Over the Summer I have had many emails about the number of Brits who have attended the academy. I am hoping to be able to answer some of these questions for you, and I apologise in advice if some of the information is incorrect, I am going purely on previous (but reliable) sources.

The first British student to be accepted into the academy was in the 1960’s, her name was Linda Goss. She studied at Bolshoi Ballet Academy but due to injury transferred to Vaganova Method for teacher training.  Since then Linda’s skills and teaching experience have been sought after worldwide and she has taught in numerous professional dance companies and major ballet schools. She has obtained qualifications in both dance and teaching, covering courses from classical ballet training including pas de deux, character and modern dance, to the method and theory of classical ballet and psychology.

Ralph Pickering was the second to follow in Linda’s footsteps in 2005. Ralph studied at the academy for just over a year and then went on to join the British Army.

Henry Perkins began his training at the academy in 2006 and went onto becoming the first British boy to graduate from the Academy with a full diploma under his belt. During his year of graduating, Henry was accepted into the Estonian National Ballet Company in Tallin. He is currently studying Government and Politics and Russian, in order to obtain a degree; proving that dancers are capable of more than just throwing our legs in the air! Well Done Geggers, I am very proud of you!

In 2008, Rebecca Croan became the first Scottish girl to obtain a place at the Academy. After a year’s training in the trainee course, she then went on to tour with the European Ballet Company, which is based in London.  However, an injured toe has forced her to stop dancing.   She then set her sights on the music business, and has spent the last year training as a sound engineer and producer in her father’s studio.

2009 was my lucky year, as both myself and Daniel Dolan received our acceptance emails. We both completed our one year training course and are now in our Second year of our 3 year diploma course. Daniel is currently training under ballet master Onisimov; Dan has got the hard life because, due to the fact there is no international class for boys at the academy, he has been forced to train amongst the Russians from day one. Daniel has obtained top marks in all exams to date. I have been fortunate enough, to be given the comfort of training amongst other international girls living away from home; this has helped to create a strong bond between us all. The more time I spend at the academy, the more we are filtered in with the Russian girls in various lessons; but truth be told, I enjoy being separate as I would spend far too much time staring at the incredible technique of the top Russian students, rather than concentrating on my own work! Thankfully, I have also been blessed with high grades for the exams I have taken to date.

In 2010, Miss Hayley Stobo became the second Scot to attend and joined us on the diploma course. Hayley is doing equally as well at the Academy and definitely makes class more enjoyable, as we partner each other in nearly every class!

This year Heather McGowan was invited on the trainee course, and will begin her training this coming September.

What an awesome summer!

Only a matter of weeks now until I touch back down in Moscow, accompanied by my bonnie Hayley Stobo, for another eventful year full of hard work and lots of laughter. My mum and I have spent the last few days browsing the shops in order to find a light-weight suitcase to ensure we can take maximum advantage of the luggage weight limit; every year I fail to stick to the weight boundaries and am always lumped with an excess baggage fee to pay (well usually my Grandad is lumped with it!)

After going to the theatre with my Grandad I had a busy week to follow. I returned to Watford Grammar School for a second time to take a series of assemblies around ambition and the importance of education. It was great because my dad was able to watch and have a nose around my old secondary school afterwards. Mrs Hyde also surprised me by awarding me a Diamond Award. Mrs Hyde’s motto is that when we enter the school we are unpolished diamonds, and by the time we leave, we are fully polished and sparkling, so to achieve a Diamond award at Watford Girls is on the same level as achieving an Oscar as an Actor! Or close enough!
As well as the assemblies, I had to cram in last minute driving lessons before my test, which I passed! And with only two minors! So now I am legally on the road, and I love it! So much freedom, although it does have some drawbacks when your little sister insists on being taxied around everywhere!

On the 24th July, my sister and I were lucky enough to go to Studio 52 and have a small photo shoot done. The whole experience was lovely, I love people doing my make up and hair and it was great to get some one on one time with my little sis. The pictures turned out really well, I can’t believe how old Sophie looks in the photos! After the shoot, I was asked if they could use one of my photos to publicise the Studio; I was really touched because when I look at photos of myself I can only pick out flaws!

During the final week of July, my time was consumed with teaching at the Gypsy Booth Summer School. I really enjoyed the light hearted ballet classes and being able to choreograph a dance for the girls to perform at the end of the week. The Summer School, although we do work very hard, is always based around having fun so was complete with party games which left us all very tired and very wet! We all went to see Shrek the Musical as a group and the kids loved it – I think the adults would have preferred something a bit different though! It was extremely well done and did have myself and Jacqui laughing throughout. Summer School was complete when my oldest friend, Miss Kerry Mcnally, returned from Egypt and came in to teach a commercial workshop! So, not only did I get a massive catch up with my Kerry, but I also got to get my groove on and take part in a workshop that couldn’t be further from my own ballet workshop! It was a good laugh.

August, so far, has been filled with spending time with my nearest and dearest. I was even honoured to get to spend some quality time with Henry Perkins! Ever since he left Russia last year, I have greatly missed his banter and advice, so I really enjoy when we get to chat and meet up in England. I also went out last week with my whole Gypsy Booth dance family! We had a lovely dinner at Nando’s and then went on to dance the night away at various venues in Watford, ending the evening extremely merry but with very sore feet! The next morning I wasn’t feeling on top form, to say the least, but my family and I went on a day out to Westfield. I needed to find some fair skin foundation, so as the lady kindly beautified one side of my face to find the perfect make up matched for my skin tone, the other side of my face was left very bland! And I had to then walk around the rest of the day looking like I had a small skin disease, to which my mother found absolutely hilarious.

The next few weeks, I’m sure, will be filled with just as much fun, as well as a lot of packing and panicking as we ensure I am all set for Moscow! Although it has been great to be home, I cannot wait to get back into ballet and get back into shape as soon as possible!