Whilst I was on my work experience at balletLorent, I was lucky enough to take part in a range of different activities. Going into this placement I wanted to gain a better understanding of how the company ran day to day as well as the type of marketing used within this company. Throughout my entire week, balletLorent’s Marketing and Communications Manager taught me about the social media aspect of producing a show and the work that goes into promoting a dance performance like The Becoming, which was the show I helped work on during my work experience.
As well as learning about the marketing side of the company, I was also able to take part in many of the classes that balletLorent has to offer. I participated in the Yoga, Move it! Parents and Toddler class and the company class, which I thoroughly enjoyed as it gave me a better understanding of how the company operates their classes and how they all vary from each other. I also observed the balletLorent youth company session and the Knitters, Movers and Shakers group, which I also enjoyed as they showed the sense of community balletLorent brings into each of their classes.
Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to observe some rehearsals of the becoming and watch a few of the dress runs. This gave me a first-hand view on what it is like to be a professional dancer and it was fascinating to watch the show multiple times in different places around the room and feel like I was watching completely different shows as I found I was watching different dancers every time I watched the performance and picking up certain parts of the performance I had missed beforehand. I also helped set up a merchandise shop including cards, posters and t-shirts in preparation for the performances of The Becoming the following week.
The people I worked with this week helped make this experience even more enjoyable. Everyone I encountered throughout the entire week were very welcoming and happy to talk anytime or answer any questions I had about anything. Overall, this work experience was very beneficial for me as someone who is interested in the performing arts industry as it showed me all the different jobs available surrounding the industry. It also helped me see how companies in the arts prepare for performance work.
