Y.B.W.

Do you know what's so much fun? Doing what you want, all day long! I don't know why more people don't do it all the time. I could really get used to living as an artist, it means that I get to do the things I have ideas for instead of just having them as ideas and not having the time or seeing the point in doing them. And the idea of starting a project with an old ballet shoe was, if I dare say so myself, an excellent one! One aspect of dance I'm looking at is the contrast of the pretty, perfect, on-stage picture of the ballerina in the tutu and the unglamorous behind-the-scenes world of hard work, blood, sweat and tears.

I went to my old ballet school last week to talk to the Principal to see if it would be okay for me to sit in on classes and do some sketching and take some photos. The school is Corrib Dance Academy but there is a subsidiary of this called Youth Ballet West, which was set up three years ago and provides the opportunity for additional training at a semi-professional level for those in the west of Ireland who are hoping to pursue dance at third level. It's much tougher than ordinary RAD classes because the expected standard is so much higher, you have to be in vocational training to be allowed audition. They hold an audition once a year and we had people from Galway, Limerick, Clare, Mayo and Longford join the first year. YBW is excellent because the only other opportunity for this sort of training in Ireland is with the Irish National Youth Dance and that's difficult for some people to get to, I know my parents wouldn't let me go for the first two years I wanted to because they weren't willing to drive for three hours there and back every weekend.

Anyway, two years ago we did The Nutcracker at Christmas and they're doing it again this year so when I arrived at the studio last week there were posters up for it and in my head I was like "Oh, I wonder will I recognise anybody in the picture..." Until I looked properly and saw it was me!!! I'm on the right, Jenny's on the left. And I'm not embarrassed, I think it's lovely they used this image because neither myself nor Jenny are in the company any more but it's like a little tribute to our old memories. Awww.
So what I'm doing now is recording my observings of the classes and rehearsals of YBW, which will develop and hopefully tie in to lots of others aspects of my project at a later date. I went along with my notebook yesterday not really knowing what I was doing and came out with pages upon pages of scribbles. It's actually quite difficult to draw a body that doesn't stay still longer than two seconds! Oh and everybody should buy tickets and come to the show. Of course I have to say it's going to be brilliant, but if you can take my word for it, it really will be really good!