The Digital Green Room Activity Week 3 – Preparing for the performance.

Welcome to the third Dance Proms Digital Green Room activity week! This Activity Week will give you the opportunity to think about your performance

at the Royal Albert Hall. The 4th November is fast approaching and so this

week, we let you take a sneak peek of the venue you'll be performing in.

Regardless of where you have danced before, nothing will compare to being in

such a prestigious space. To help you get ready for the event, we have a video

interview with ballet dancer and musical theatre star Wayne Sleep OBE where

he gives advice on performing in a big space and how to deal with nerves. There

are also interviews with students sharing their experience of a recent

performance they did in the arena at the Royal Albert Hall.

This third event is all about preparing for the performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Click on the video below to learn about this activity week's theme.

This Week's Communication Tasks

After watching the introductory video and going through all of the content

on the site, log on to the Digital Green Room to do the following tasks:

Post a message to someone else in the company (who isn't from your

dance school) to introduce yourself and ask them a question about what

they are doing to prepare for the performance. You might also want to ask

how other company members are feeling as the event fast approaches.

Make sure to check back for an answer and then keep the communication

going.

Check for answers from Darren Bennett. If you are a student and you

asked a question to Darren Bennett – Star of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ – then

don’t forget to check back to see what his answer was.

Check for answers from Gillian Lynne. If you are a teacher and you

asked a question to legendary choreographer and director Gillian Lynne,

then don’t forget to check back to see what her answer was.

The Royal Albert Hall - Behind the Scenes As you know, the Dance Proms performance will be at the Royal

Albert Hall. To help familiarise yourselves with this iconic venue,

we've created this video that gives you a sneak peek of all the

places you'll be using during the performance.

To find out more about the Hall's history, click here. To download a plan of the stage complete with entrances and

exits, click here.

The Royal Albert Hall is perhaps best known for staging the BBC

Proms - the world's largest classical music festival. But this is

just one of the wide variety of events which take place in this

remarkable building each year.

Despite its undoubted heritage the Royal Albert Hall is not a

museum. It is a working building that is transformed to meet the

needs of each event, day by day, week after week. To get an

idea of how the Hall is transformed and what it is like to work

there, watch the video below. You can also hear famous dancers

talking about how they dealt with performing in such a large

space.

You can also click here to take a virtual tour!

Performing at the Hall

In the videos below, Pascale and Fiametta from Latymer Upper

School talk about their experience of performing at the Hall.

They were part of Swanning Around, a project that involved ten

schools from the United Kingdom and China creating a new dance

inspired by Swan Lake. The dance was performed at both the Royal

Albert Hall and World Expo in Shanghai in 2010.

An interview with Pascale from Latymer Upper School

An interview with Fiametta from Latymer Upper School

In the video below, students from the Susan Robinson School of Ballet share their favourite moments from Dance Proms 2011 and talk about their hopes for this year’s performance.

Performance Tips from Wayne Sleep OBE

Wayne Sleep has been at the top of the dance profession for

many years, beginning his career at The Royal Ballet before

branching out into musical theatre - creating the role of Mr.

Mistoffelees in Cats, the musical produced by Andrew Lloyd

Webber and choreographed by Gillian Lynne -- and classical

acting with the British Shakespeare Company.

He has performed in some of the largest venues in the world,

including the Royal Albert Hall. So who better to give you tips on

your Dance Proms performance than the man himself?

Part 1

Part 2

As we enter the final month before the event, everyone at Dance Proms would like to say how excited we are about the big day itself. We are sure Dance Proms 2012 is going to be amazing and can’t wait to meet you in person and watch you all perform. Don’t forget to log on to the Digital Green Room to share your thoughts about the performance with one another.