A day in the life of the Birds Eye View Theatre Choreographer is as easy as the waltz. It’s a simple case of One, Two, Three.

09:00(ish) Awake, Two, Three.

09:30 Breakfast, Two, Three.

10:00 Shower, Two, Three.

10:45 Leave house, Two, Three.

11:00 Directors Meeting Two… to discuss how the previous week’s rehearsals went; how successful they were or how they have sparked new ideas for our devising process. Based on that discussion we progress onto what we would like to achieve in the upcoming week of rehearsals and then continue to plan each of our 5 rehearsal sessions; who is going to lead each session, the layout of that rehearsal and how it contributes to the development of our show…Three!

14:00 Lunch, Two, Three.

15:00 A Waltz ‘Reverse Turn’ of events: back to bed to write a detailed plan for the upcoming dance rehearsal. I plan every rehearsal in the same format: a fun, energetic game to start, then a good warm-up, then I introduce a new dance/movement idea e.g. basic foxtrot step, and then develop the basic step over corner to corner exercises (as one example of an exercise), next I plan for putting the cast into partners and teaching them to dance the steps they have just learnt, as a pair. Based on how quickly the cast pick up the steps and how confidently they are dancing them, I will have a routine for them to try should they be strong enough; if they are not, it will be saved for the next two, three dance rehearsals to develop further.

17:00 Break, Tea for… Two, or Three.

17:30 Find appropriate music, Two, Three. (I feel I should elaborate “appropriate music”! By this I mean if I am teaching Waltz in the session I need to find a variety of music with a strong Waltz beat, or the Foxtrot, or Castle-step etc based on which dance is being taught).

19:00 The Choreographer signs off for the day, after watching some beautiful dance films and video clips for inspiration with a cup of tea and a One, Two, Three.