Aimee's Dancing World
BBC Performing Arts Fund Dance Fellow, Aimee Williamson, recently had her premiere with Ballet Cymru. Still fresh out of her studies, Aimee reflects on her first professional experiences so far and how the support of the company has helped her develop.
“When I started the Fellowship with the company, we had begun rehearsals for Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Pigs as well as for The Tempest. Little Red Riding Hood is a completely new production and we started with creative work to build on each character. Darius (Artistic Director) had a strong idea of what he wanted and everyone was free to chip in with suggestions on steps, shapes and ways of moving. I felt it made the end product very rich, with so many different inputs, which resulted in a twisted Grimm Brother’s style piece.
On the 5th May, the opening night for the piece, we were accompanied by the Welsh Symphony Orchestra, which was very exciting. The last week before the opening night was busy, and there was plenty to be nervous about. There were ups and downs in the run up but, when it was finally show-time, it couldn’t have gone better. I find that the more you put in to what you do, the more you enjoy it. It is now onwards and upwards, and taking the production on tour, along with The Tempest.
Looking back at the start of this process, I realised how much I needed to improve. Darius and Amy (Assistant Artistic Director) were giving me lots of corrections; I’m very lucky, most companies just let you get on with it, so there’s not much time for improvement. At the end of each week I felt I had progressed. When it comes to class each morning and time to focus on technique, I have good days and bad days, and there’s not much predicting what each day is going to be like. For some reason, no matter how hard you will it to, your body just won’t do what you want it to! But Darius and Amy are very patient with their corrections. Improvement requires patience and concentration on the right areas when you are working. My advice would be to stay focused and single-minded on corrections. Even when you feel it’s not working, still keep that in mind and it will, slowly but surely, get into your muscle memory.
Choreography and creative work have not been my strongest areas so I was slightly uneasy before we started creating Red Riding Hood, but I found Darius very encouraging. This made me feel more open to trying new things. For example, one of our tasks was to create a motif of movement for the opening scene, when we are in a forest. Amy and Darius were clear about what they wanted which was very helpful.
In the past I have experienced vague instructions about creative work, or simply been told to choreograph something. I think if you are ever in that kind of situation (in an audition, workshop etc.) where you have been given little inspiration, create your own! Pick something that you like, for example a book or a cartoon character you could emulate, an object you could base the movement around or an emotion or motive that could inspire you. If you choose movement and ideas you like, it will give you confidence, and which will result in something you can be proud of.
Up until now, I never really got the knack of creative work. I still have much to learn and most of it is probably experience and confidence, but I have really started to enjoy thinking up and playing around with different ideas. I think I have taken a big step forward.
Three or four weeks into rehearsals Donald Sturrock, author of Roald Dahl’s biography and writer of our narration for Red Riding Hood, came to watch the rehearsals. It was exciting to meet him; he had great enthusiasm for what we were doing and has a clever, dry sense of humour. I enjoyed showing Donald what we had made, and was curious to find out what he thought of it. He also came to the opening night on 5th May; I hope it was exciting for him to watch the end result after having a glimpse into the creation of it.
More recently, we have been informed of the educational work that we will undertake throughout the year. We will be working alongside Rubicon, who teach community dance, and using all kinds of styles, we will work in schools and hospitals with a variety of people, from those with disabilities to the young and the elderly. We will also be shadowing a teacher in some of their classes to learn how to work in these environments. I can’t wait to see what it’s like and hope it will open my eyes to the wider dancing world.
On 22nd April I attended a catch-up meeting with other Dance Fellowship winners, where we all shared what we have been up to. We were also given training in how to hold workshops and carry out community projects. I was overwhelmed with the experiences everyone shared, and that the people in the room brought dance to the lives of children who suffered from learning disabilities or domestic abuse. The workshops I will be taking part in with Ballet Cymru will be for children who want to dance, whereas the role of encouraging people who do not see dance as an outlet for themselves would be very different challenge from my perspective. When you are in a company it is easy to create a bubble around yourself and forget about everything else that is going on, so I definitely learnt a lot about the wider world of dance from that meeting.
I feel so lucky to be part of this company and am enjoying this production so much. I am enormously grateful to the Performing Arts Fund for making this possible.”
All tour dates are available on the Ballet Cymru website.
