Hello again performers! I can’t believe the time has come to write to you again already, it feels as though it was yesterday that I was writing up all the benefits of Performing Arts on last week’s blog. The month has gone so fast, and all the tutors and kids at TPS have been busy working hard in their lessons. This month, we thought it would be great to talk you through a day in the life for some of our Elites.
A day in the life of Anise consists of starting her day with yoghurt for breakfast, whereas George tried Sundae Pop Tarts for the first time and rated them a 7/10. When the time comes to get ready to go for TPS, all our students get here via different methods of transport. Symone came to TPS this week in her dad’s car, but she stopped at B&M along the way, George also came via car. Anise walked with her mum to classes.
Doors open for students 5 minutes before class. You are always greeted by a TPS Tutor at the front doors, it is important not to forget to sign-in by tapping your headshot on the register! Students then put their coats, bags on the red seats and join the other tutors in a circle to talk about what they have been doing the past week. It is a great opportunity to catch up with friends and talk about all the fun things happening in your life. You also get to meet any new students that might have joined TPS and introduce yourself to them, making sure they feel welcome.
First up was dance class with Miss Millie. It is import to ALWAYS warm-up during dance class to reduce chances of injury, get our heart pumping and to let our bodies know we are about to start dancing. This week, Isabelle led the warm-up for the group. Miss Millie found it really gratifying to see her leadership skills flourish in front of the class, and how supportive the class were in the warm-up. Tutors do their best to make every dance class different and unique; from technique down the room, learning new choreography, or asking students to create their own dance piece. After practicing a kick combination and pirouettes down the room, Elites learnt a modern piece to Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’.
It was impressive seeing how well they took on the challenge of more fast-paced choreography. Symone said it made her feel empowered, and Anise said it was really good and it was enjoyable because it was ‘fun-challenging’. At the end of dance class, Miss Millie did a cool down, this week students helped lead by contributing moves in the circle.
Once dance had ended, it was snack-time. Elites had 10 minutes to rest and rehydrate. After asking the students what they brought in this week, there was such a variety of drinks and snacks. We had snacks like: sandwiches, biscuits, popcorn, mini eggs, a lot of crisps, apples, bananas, and raisins and to drink: orange juices, Lucozades, and water.
After snack time had finished, it was singing with Miss Annie. Class starts with a specialised vocal warm-up where we often do exercises such as ‘big face, small face’ and vocal warm-ups such as ‘I like the flowers’. Afterwards, it was time to find out what song Miss Annie had picked- it could be a musical, ballad, or a pop song. This week Elites sang ‘Picture Show’ from Bonnie & Clyde. Symone said the song was amazing and Anise said it made her feel happy, she liked it. Miss Annie put the lyrics for the song on the projector, and began practicing, by going over the song line by line.
After a few practices, the song is staged and the students perform in the lights to their tutors, this is where the students get lost in the song. Everyone at TPS knows this wouldn’t be a performers day in the life blog without finishing the class with a cool down is important, this is where students often cool down with songs using their facial muscles when saying letters such as ‘AEIOU’ which helps protect their vocal chords.
At the end of singing, it is break time again, and a great opportunity to reset before the last class of the day. In breaks, we often work through creating Videos for Instagram Reels or TikToks with Miss Eleanor, who is always busy posting class updates on social media. One of our recently loved ones was the TikTok dance to George Ezra’s ‘Green Green Grass’- which our Seniors class performed.
The final class of the day was acting with Miss Sadbh. Acting began with a new exercise called ‘How many ways can you say’. Miss Sadbh gave the group a sentence and an emotion, and then Elites had to go around in a circle trying to repeat the phrase and emotion without copying anyone else. Once they had done a few rounds, Miss Sadbh decided to give the Elites more of a challenge, making it more advanced, she included another exercise known as ‘Film or Theatre’, where students had to continue with the phrase and emotion, but then perform as though they were in a film or theatre. The group had to guess which acting technique was being used.
After a few rounds of acting exercises, Elites moved onto working on scripts called ‘Tarred and Feathered’. Working in groups they worked cohesively to put a short performance together to complete the session. It was great to see the individuality from each performance group, and Miss Sadbh is excited to work on the script again in the upcoming weeks.
At the end of acting and having done the final cool down of the day, all the students get their bags together, and get ready to leave. For our younger classes, one of the tutors will announce the ‘Performer of the Week’, and the class congratulates them. We love finishing the day on such a great high and it is always brilliant to see everyone in the class be so supportive of one another.
To finish, we asked what the highlight of the day was for students. A few responses we got were: ‘My favourite part of the day was singing Bonnie and Clyde’, ‘My favourite part of the day was dance, especially doing the barrel jump.’ And ‘My favourite part of the day: hang on it’s not finished yet so how do I know.’
If you aren’t already part of our amazing TPS community, we would love to have you join us and share your day in the life.
Please contact Miss Ciara via email on: [email protected]. It has been great writing to you again this month, and we are super excited for you to find out all the plans we have in store for the rest of the year with more blogs such as these day in the life blogs!
Until next time, keep performing!
From the TPS Team x
Written by Millie Barnes: Dance Tutor
