I found today a mixture of exciting, yet also challenging and frustrating. I ended up spending the whole day on the Princess of Monaco garment, as it had a lot more alterations than I realised and these were new to me, so it took me much longer. I really enjoyed problem solving and finding ways to resolve issues with the dress, however only working on one garment made me feel really inefficient and a bit inadequate. Toward the end of the day, I started levelling the hem. Helen had offered to do it, as it was fairly time consuming and challenging, but I wanted to learn and force myself out of my comfort zone. However, it did become very frustrating and tedious. I think doing it at the end of the day meant that my energy was low and my focus was waning. I am going to look back on it with fresh eyes on Monday. I also got my first pay check today, which felt incredibly rewarding. It feels exciting to feel like the work I’m doing is worth being paid for and that it is an ‘official’ ‘real’ job. I feel like although I am less experienced and of course on placement, this validates the work that I’m doing.
End of Week Notes and Takeaways:
- Was really insightful to sit in Stephen’s fitting – so fascinating to see a military jacket be built up from scratch, from its base all the way to having its embellishments and badges tacked into place. This was quite a magical way to watch a garment come to life before may eyes and it gave me a great admiration for tailoring.
- Everybody in the company has been such a pleasure to work for. I have also been surprised by how much we have interacted with the dancers, who have made a lot of effort to introduce themselves and make conversation. I had made an unfair assumption that their may be a lot of big egos in the cast, however everyone has been really down to earth and lovely.
- I have found watching the dancers in rehearsal incredibly inspiring. They push themselves to both the physical and emotional limit everyday and have trained for years to be in these shows. One of the dancers is blind, in one eye and it is so astonishing to watch him dance seemingly effortlessly in rehearsals.
- Feeling like I would really like to specialise in dance costume and have fallen deeply in love with the ballet – the dancers are so motivating and push their bodies to the limit to the point that they are essentially breaking them every day – I find this is inspiring me to work harder and makes me want to design costumes that are beautiful and magical enough to do justice to the dancers
- Entranced by the mysticism, fairytale and magic of the ballet
- Incredibly exciting and surprising to have met Matthew Bourne and spoken to him about Swan Lake, over the years.
- Was also really encouraged by the conversation I had with Lez about design – I would like to see if I could ask to shadow him, or to possibly look at my portfolio, however I am a bit intimidated by this and would want to ask Diane if she though it was okay to ask first.
- Really exciting that the boys Swan legs came in this week, having all been tirelessly made Phil Reynolds and his team, since March. They were incredibly beautiful and delicate appearing (although they should last 200 shows) and it was really thrilling to see such an iconic costume in the studio, face to face.