Episode 19: Q&A with Dance Academy

In this episode, some of our Dance Academy students ask Alice questions all about dance and the summer show. Listen to join in on the excitement towards our whole school performance 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to Theatre Workshop Talks. My name is Alice and I'm a teacher here at the Theatre Workshop. We have a theatre school based in Birmingham, Barnt Green, Blackwell and Bromsgrove. Here you will gain an insight to what it's like being a part of the Theatre Workshop. Along the way, we will be talking to TTW students, parents, teachers, and also some very special guests. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you know when a brand new episode drops.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Hello guys, welcome to today's podcast. Today we're gonna be doing a little QA with the one and only Alice. The one and only.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Hey guys! Today I am joined with some of the Dance Academy girls. We've got Betsy, Ellie, and we've got Abby. And they've come up with some questions to ask me. Um so they're gonna do a little bit of a QA. So let's should we just go into it, girls? Let's do this. Let's do this. Ready first question? What's your favourite dance style to teach? To teach. My favourite style to teach is probably different to my favourite style to dance. Favourite style to teach, I think, is commercial. I like commercial. Because you can find so many different things in the song. We did this in our class, didn't we? You can find um song lyrics that can have movement to them, you can have like different instruments in the song that can have moves to them, you can have a bass in the song, so there's so much freedom that you can have in the song. Betsy's giggling at me because I'm being serious, and I'm never serious. But yeah, I do love teaching commercial, and there's a lot of fun that you can have with it. So yeah, commercial. Okay. How old are you when you started dancing? I was five, I think. Four or five. The girls are doing six, seven. Yeah, I was four or five, and I started doing I started in like a little church hall just down the road from my house, and I started doing ballet and tap, and then started with all the you know, good toes, naughty toes, and then I started doing modern as well, and then I did a bit more um acro, and then I carried on up until now, really, and then I've done lots of competitions, lots of shows, lots of exams. So, yeah, I've done it for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Um, what's your dream show to be in?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I love the idea of being in Matilda just because the scooters on the stage, like, and the swings, you know, the swings that are on the children. Yeah, be one of the children.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

I want to be one of the children because I feel like I just you can still have fun with it, can't you?

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah, you just get to like mess around a bit on stage, like yeah, and like if you're playing a child, you can have that little bit of freedom, like it's not a serious role, like I said, I'm not serious at all. I could never play a serious I could never play a serious role. So I feel like Matilda would be so much fun, and also there's a lot of swings in Matilda. So if you did get a role as a swing in Matilda, pretty much every night on the show would be different. So yeah, love the idea of being in Matilda. I'd also love being in a tap musical like 42nd Street, because you know I love my tap. 42nd Street is like a tap musical, it's got a lot of tap in it, yeah. Um Betsy's saying, What is that? I've never heard of that. So yeah, um 42nd Street or Matilda. Um, what's your best tip for going into an audition? Okay. Best tip for going into an audition is be prepared. Know your song inside out. Even if they ask for a 16-bar cut or a 32-bar cut, you need to know the whole song as well. So a 16-bar cut is basically you need 16 bars of a song. So a bar is if you've ever seen sheet music, girls are giggling at me. Can you hear Joel's singing? Joel's in his singing lesson original. Um so yeah, even if they ask for a 16-bar cut or a 32-bar cut, just know the whole song anyway, because they could ask you to sing the whole song. Also, make sure that you bring different options as well. Um, because they might want to hear you sing something different to what they've asked you to bring in. What else would I say? What if it was a dance audition? I would say don't hike on the back, be confident, just take it.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Don't care what people think. Literally, yeah. Prove the haters wrong.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

I don't want to care about what they think. I would say take it, like, take the audition as a lesson. Because even if you don't get the job or get through to the next round, you've still gained that experience and learnt some fun choreography. And then next time you know like what level you've got to be at. Yeah, exactly. Um another thing in an audition that I would say is be nice to everyone, even the runners. Like, they're the people who will greet you at the door, they're normally at the desk, ticking your name off as you come in, and they're normally saying, You can go in now at the audition room. Um, be nice to everyone, to the panel, to the pianist, everyone that's in the room, the other auditiones, the runner, everyone. Because I'm not kidding, everyone in this industry knows everyone. Like it's actually scary. I was talking to Jess on Friday, and she was teaching at a school on Friday with someone that I went to school with. Oh, that's cool. How random. I know. So, yeah, everyone does know everyone. So, yeah, just be polite, be kind, use your manners, and yeah, just work hard and do your best.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Okay, the next question is what's your favourite song at the moment, or like like musical? Does it have to be a musical song?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

No, it could be any song like.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Do you know what I love? I love the singer that I love at the moment, Sienna Spiral. I just think she's so good. Um, and Hello Susie. Susie just walked through the door. Do you want to say hi? They can't hear you. She said hi, she just walked through the door. So, yeah, I really like her songs, and I actually put it on last night as I was driving home and it was dark. I feel like it's like it's a vibe. Oh yeah. I just put her all her whole album on. I think she's just great. I don't think I have a favourite song. I do have a favourite song, change my mind. Sweet Disposition. Oh yeah, you told us that last week, didn't you? I just love it. If you don't know what song it is, you need to have a listen. It's just, I think it's because it used to be, this is so random, but it used to be on the centre parks adverts. And I used to go to centre parks every year when I was younger. It used to be me, my mum and dad, and like our family friends and their children, and it used to be on the centre parks advert, and I just love it since then. And I went to Ibetha last year and they played a remix of it, and I was like, this is the best day of my life. Like, I'm mixing my childhood memories with Ibetha.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

That's so good.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Honestly, like it was just, yeah, so yeah, I love that song. What's your favourite teaching day? My favourite teaching day is a Saturday. My favourite teaching day is a Saturday, only because it's the day where we do the most show prep, and also being a dance teacher on a Saturday, the ideas that I have in my head come to life. No, I feel like on a Saturday as well, like it's like a fresh start. Yeah, I think Saturday is because we also did uh Greatest Shaman Dance. Did the Greatest Shaman Dance? Yeah. Yeah, on Saturday. And all of the group ones, the group twos, and the group threes came together for the first time. Like I've been teaching it separately in their groups, and then it all came together for the first time. And the feeling that you get when you've had an image in your head for so long of what you want it to look like, and then it's you see it, it's just such a good feeling. So yeah, I do love Saturdays. And I also have my private students on a Saturdays, and yeah, it's great. You have afternoon and morning. Have afternoon and morning, and then I have my privates in the morning, I have my privates at lunchtime, and yeah, and then I have one after the day.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

I I just want to say I'm really excited to see the like the greater showman dance and stuff because I love the greater showman.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

So yeah, so we've got Greater Showman Dance in the morning on in the Saturday school, and then the afternoon school are doing through the decades. So we've got some lovely fun props there, and we've got some songs that some of you parents will definitely recognise, and then we've got some songs that are a bit more current and a bit more new that the kids are gonna absolutely love. But yeah, the show's gonna be great. We've also got an amazing Michael Jackson medley that has been choreographed by Jess, which is gonna be absolutely amazing. That's got all of the Bromsgrove school in and the AM school and the PM school, so yeah, it's gonna be all the schools. All the schools together. So it's gonna be it's gonna be full of fun, very energetic, and I love Michael Jackson, so I can't wait to see it all come together. I'm really excited to see all the pieces on the stage, actually. And you girls have got a commercial dance, haven't you?

unknown 9:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

You have indeed. We do our commercial class on a Tuesday.

unknown 9:47

I've got Paddington.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Oh yeah, and you've got Paddington? Yeah. That's like a ballet with all the weenies. Yeah, so you've that's more lyrical, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 9:54

Yeah. Yeah.

unknown 9:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

It's cool because it's not with the weenies, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah, so you've got some younger children in there as well. Yeah. So yeah, we've got lows to look forward to, girls. I'm gonna ask you, what's the thing that you look forward to most at Showtime? Let's go, Abby, first. Oh, um, they put me on the spot.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Um I didn't tell them I was gonna do this. Like the entire vibe, because like um when we get to see all the Birmingham students as well, because obviously like we never see them until the actual show. So it's just nice to see everyone. So yeah. Lovely, love that. Ellie.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Uh, when we were watching each other's pieces.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Nice, yeah, because I bet you hear about them, don't you? And you're like, Yeah, what is like the Michael Jackson piece? But then yeah, you get to see, which is nice.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

But see, I like like I like just like seeing it all together. Yeah. I just feel like when you see like the Michael Jackson, like you see with like the gaps in it, it just doesn't look right.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Then like when it all comes together, like it just looks it becomes one, it just looks like that. And especially when we add the lights in and we're gonna add some props and costumes this year, which we haven't really done the past couple of years. So yeah, it's gonna come together. So it's gonna be really good. That's all our questions. Cool. Thanks, girls, thanks for joining me on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Thank you for listening to TTW Talks. We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode and look forward to hearing the next one. Make sure to follow us on Instagram at the Theatre Workshop Birmingham and TikTok at the.theatre.worksbam to see all of our class and show content and all of the exciting things we get up to. Once again, thank you for listening. This has been TTW Talks.