Today’s student spotlight features the lovely Florence Foster…

Can you tell readers how you became involved with dance?

I started ballet classes at the age of two like many girls do. I then ventured to street dance, break dance and contemporary at the age of ten and fell in love with it at a tender age. Once I began to train in contemporary at Rambert (Dance Company) my dance life got very busy! My teacher also worked for the English National Ballet and gave me lots of opportunities and great experiences from the start.

What do you find you like best about dance class?

You are able to sculpt the dancing body you want, but you also get to have fun and challenge yourself without the challenges feeling like chores. The goody-goody in me thinks that the more dance I do, the better I’m going to get, so it’s all positive!

What is the hardest part about dance for you?

The injuries are the hardest part, purely because they happen when you overwork and don’t think about your physical health and wellbeing enough: they happen when you push yourself too far, they happen by accident and they are the worst. All injuries are horrible because they mess with you emotionally. You can’t do what you love, and you are vulnerable and dependent on others, such as doctors and physiotherapists, to know their stuff, whilst all the time you are hoping for a fast and pain free recovery.

What advice would you give to other dancers?

If you hope to train at a dance institution as part of the performing arts education system, find the one right for YOUR needs! You are investing lots of time and money in that education, so go to your classes and work your bottom off! Do what is right for you and how ready you feel at the start of your training. I wanted to refine the skills I already had and with further training I hope to learn new things about myself as dancer; do your best, be you, be original and passionate about what you do! To be a dancer you have to be a do-er!!

How has dance changed your life?

Dance has enabled me to think outside and inside the box, and I think on the lines and boundaries of the box too! I am more of a team player now: as the first child I used to think my opinion and ideas were always best and I was a ‘bull in a china shop’ whereas now dance has given me better people skills. I also have discipline and respect for my body, and most of all dance has opened my eyes to a visual way of explaining ideas that I can’t explain in words.

BIO: Flo, aged 18, has just completed her final two years of academic education at the Arts Educational School, London, focusing on the performing arts. She recently auditioned for the Northern School of Contemporary Dance where she was accepted onto the Contemporary Dance degree programme. Flo is excited to begin three years of higher education at Northern, but will be leaving behind Rambert’s youth dance company Quicksilver, which currently complements her dance training.