My Dance Life

Well as I mentioned in my last post I started to dance when I was three years old. My first type of dance I started was Ballet then through out the years i picked up modern,jazz, hiphop, musical theatre, tap and luckily in The BRIT school we are taught contemporary and jazz. Unfortunately contemporary isn't available in my dance school which is Grayes but the school offers you lots of other dances and i dont think i could have got into the BRIT school without Grayes.

I don't really have a favourite type of dance. I started modern at about five years old, but I took up tap when I was a lot older at about ten, luckily I have caught up quicker than I thought I would. Jazz and hiphop you have to be a certain age to take them up, jazz you have to be about eight and hiphop has a junior and senior group.

I have done many exams and mainly achieved distinctions. At grayes we only do tap modern and ballet exams. Last modern exam I got a merit which I wasn't that happy about but just have to take it on the chin and just improve the areas that weren't that great.

Every summer grayes put on a summer school for all ages up to sixteen years old. I love it each year and have done it ever since it's started.

 Summer school is where westend dancers come in and teach us amazing dances and even a BBC make up artist came in and taught us the make up for BBC or west end shows we have had the lion king: 

We have also had:

And also the black swan:

We get goes at trying this on each other such as in this picture I did the younger dancers make up on the right and then she did mine. I have loved summer school every time I have done it and it gives me more things to do in the summer as I don't like sitting around doing nothing.

It's such great fun and everyone I have talked to that has done it have always been so positive.

Now on to musical theatre, I have only recently joined this class at my dance school and so far it's been so good. Each term we prepare from a show and my first term we did the production 'Cats the musical'

Our next show we will be doing is going to be 'Our House' , can't wait to get it all together and see what the finished product will be like, exciting! I like musical theatre as it has all aspects of performance, most dancers need to be versatile within dance and also able to sing and act. I think singing is an important part of being a performer this is why I have signed up to do peri lessons within the BRIT school.

My Life So Far

Hey, Im Tasha Cooper. I'm fourteen years old live in London and I love to dance. I have been dancing since I was three years old. I do a range of dances such as: Ballet,Point (Ballet),Tap,Modern,Jazz,HipHop,Musical Theatre and contemporary. I have recently joined The Brit School as a year 10 dance student. As you can probably guess I got in as a Dance strand student. I am so happy I got in and accepted the place here at Brit School.

My week is very busy which I love, as I love to be up and active, I get bored very easily. Every morning I get up at 6:30 and leave my house at 7:25 to get to the train station at 7:35 ish ,my train gets to the station at quarter to eight, luckily the train only takes fifteen minutes and we have about forty minutes to sit and relax in the canteen. On Mondays we finish at 4:00 then Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday finish at 4:10 then Fridays we finish at 12:15.

(In pink will be the actives I do)
Mondays: Lessons for four periods then Dance (strand) for two periods just to finish the day with. Head straight off to intermediate foundation at Grayes. 
Tuesday: Lessons all day (only full day of lessons) Off to musical theatre also at Grayes
Wednesday: Lessons for four periods then drama (your option) stay at Brit for stretch and conditioning then straight off to modern at Grayes.
Thursday: Four periods of dance then two periods of PE. Normally stay at school to rehearse any dances that we have learnt, then back to Grayes for jazz which is my latest class at 8-8:45 
Friday: Assembly then two periods of lessons stay at school for point class then go home and try and meet up with my old school friends and we have two breaks during the day. At first I was thinking that I would never get up this early for school, but there is just something about Brit that makes me get up straight away and go to school. Even for the days that is just all lessons.

I have mentioned Grayes which is my dance school, I have gone there since I started dancing it was my first dance school. I have been there ever since and I couldn't imagine going anywhere better. If you are looking for a dance school for any of the dances I do I would recommend it.

Now, I have done a few things in the past. I did dance shows and musicals at Grayes and stagecoach. My first proper job was a marks and spencer's fittings model when I was nine. I have also auditioned for the West End several times and was lucky enough to be shortlisted for a munchkin role in the wizard of oz auditioning for Arlene Phillips. I have sang at the Secombe Theatre celebrating scola's 40 years compered by Tim Vine. I was then asked to sing in manor park, sutton for The Big Event. As a result of this performance I was asked to record a promotion track for Scola. This will be available on Twitter, Facebook and on the Scola website as soon as they have sorted it. I met loads of people with this experience. I went for ball girl at Wimbledon lawn tennis championships and was lucky to get down to the semi finals and I'm glad where I got too even to I didn't get through the whole way I tried my best and it was great to try out. The trials were tough and required determination. I was selected out of sixty applicants and so happy for my friends that got through the whole way. Recently I have been entered into a choreography competition and will be performing two dances; a duet and another dance with two other younger dancers.

I think the students at Brit are so friendly and the higher years are so welcoming it makes me want to be there even more than I would ever want to. I like the fact that all the strands are mixed in classes which means that making friends is a whole lot easier. The dance teachers have been a huge help, pushing me to achieve my best. Encouraging me to achieve my goals and become a better and a more accomplished person.