Perform on stage at Disneyland Paris

In the summer of 2010 I got the amazing opportunity to dance with my dance group (Watch This Space) at Disneyland Paris. We spent a whole year preparing for the show (amongst some other shows we did during the year too). We all got to know each other really well during the process and the hard work throughout the year paid off when the day arrived that we performed on that stage.
We left in the morning by coach and travelled down to Dover to cross over to France by ferry. The journey was fun for us all, watching films and talking; all excited about the trip ahead of us. It was pretty late in the afternoon by the time we finally reached Paris. I decided to go into our room, take a nice soak in the bath and relax since I was tired and had a headache but most people went straight down to the park to watch some of the shows and fireworks. Everyone met up later in the night to get their hair all done the same since we had to get up early in the morning to get ready for the show.


Most people got up super early to go do a dance workshop where they learned a dance of Lilo and Stitch but I didn't join in that so we had to meet up with them all at about 10am to all get dressed, put on make up and have a practice run on the stage. We danced at 12pm and it was so exhilarating and fun! We did 5 dances altogether (I was in 4 of them).


After we performed we pretty much had the rest of the time on our trip to just have fun around the park, going on the rides and watching the shows. We went on as many rides as we could that afternoon, watched all the floats and fireworks at night and then got up early the next day to pack up our bags and go on the rides again before going back home on the coach.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rocky Horror Picture Show


I have to admit that when I first watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a movie I found it very strange and only actually watched it because one of my friends insisted that I had to. I did find all of the songs catchy though and promptly downloaded them all to sing along to.

A few months later one of my friends found performances in Blackpool so a few of us made plans to spend a few days together there. On the Friday morning we all met up at the train station and traveled to a B&B in Blackpool. I shared a room with a girl friend and three guy friends went in another room.

We spent the afternoon getting all dressed up in our Rocky Horror costumes because as anyone that knows Rocky Horror knows, when you go to watch the stage performance you look strange if you DON'T dress up. I love dressing up in fancy dress things so this was a real blast.

We went to the afternoon viewing at the theatre and it was fantastic. Part of the fun of this show other than everyone being fully decked out in costumes is that there is always a lot of audience interaction. There's certain parts that even the actors weren't expecting so they would crack up a bit. Everyone sings along to the songs and the whole atmosphere is amazing a fun. You could not go there and not enjoy yourself because everyone is so full of energy and life. 

After the show we went back to our rooms to change into regular clothes before going along the beach and on a couple of rides on the pier. When it started to get a little late two of us decided to go and see if we could catch any of the actors on their way out of the theatre after their evening performance. We got lucky because they started coming out as soon as we got there. We got pictures with most all of the actors and our other friends joined us. 

The next morning we all got up and had breakfast before packing up and heading off the Blackpool Pleasure Beach. No matter how many times I go to that place I will never get bored of it. We spent all day going on the rides and taking pictures so by the end of the day we were completely knackered out and ready to head back home. 

Swan Lake

Swan Lake



When I was in high school I had to watch a lot of performances because of being a drama student. I had to see performances and write papers about what I thought of them. So when Swan Lake was being performed that was one of the shows I went to see.

I have to admit that it really didn't interest me that much. As a ballet dancer you would think I would really enjoy watching a ballet show but although I can appreciate all the effort and great technique used there wasn't much else in it for me. Maybe it's just because I was a teenager and didn't really see the beauty as much as an adult would but for me a performance of just dance and music that I didn't really understand the story of that much was rather boring.

Cats

Cats

Since watching the filmed version of Cats as a child I have always loved everything about it. The characters, the costumes, the songs. It's quirky, entertaining and has something for someone of every age to appreciate. We even had a pet cat called Skimble when I was younger which is the name of one of the characters. 

When I was in high school I had the chance to go and see the performance of Cats on stage and jumped at it. I would have loved to be closer to the stage because some of the cats sit on the audience members laps and interact with them but I was on the balcony so didn't get to experience that. 

As a live performance the show completely comes to life. The music, lights, set design; it's all so fabulous and well thought out, right down to the very last whisker painted on the cats faces. I was happily sitting in the audience singing along to all of the songs which I'd learned throughout my childhood. I could watch this show over and over and never tire of it.

Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera

In all honesty I can't say I remember seeing this performance very well because I was only a child but I know it must have had quite an influence on me because I have always remembered and loved the songs in this musical since and enjoy listening to and singing along (as long as I'm alone that is). 

I'm disappointed that I don't have any memorabilia from this show. Now that I'm an adult I love to keep every ticket and memory from every event I possibly can because I absolutely love looking back at things like that. That's probably one of my favourite pass times. But since I was only a child when I watch this show I wasn't given my own ticket to keep hold of. 

Phantom of the Opera is a show that nearly everyone has seen or at least heard of and I"m glad I got the chance to watch it and know about it at such a young age. I have seen parts of the movie but really can't say I liked it that much just because the voices and actors are so different to the one's I remember from the stage show. 

I think Andrew Lloyd Webber is a wonderfully talented man and the story line of this musical is romantic, tragic and so easy to become engrossed in. The music is very memorable and even people that haven't seen the show usually know at least one song from it. I have even heard a punk cover of one of the songs that's how popular they are. 

I would like to some day watch The Phantom of the Opera again as an adult to see how my opinion differs now.