A Week of Work Experience at The Place

I’m Rosie and I wanted to do my work experience at The Place because I am very interested in studying dance at university. By doing my work experience at The Place I hoped to find out what to expect before applying to university myself.

During my work experience here, I have realised how many aspects of a dance company there are that I hadn’t thought of before. Earlier on this week I got the chance to visit the technical department. In here I was taught all about the setup before a show and all the things that performers don’t ever get to see. For example, we discussed lighting for a show and how they need cues from choreographers, so they know when to change the lights. Also, whilst in the Technical department, I was shown how to rig a stage light and even got to have a go at doing it myself. This was a fun and cool experience as I have never had any experience with anything like this before. This made me realise how much preparation is needed before a performance.

I also got to visit the Costume department. In here we had to match up the costume with the person who would be wearing it, and we also had to safety pin the description to the right piece of clothing. This made me realise the organisation skills needed in this department as there are so many costumes. It was also fascinating to hear that they reuse the fabrics/costumes and some of them are many years old.

Finally, I loved watching the Arts Cross Observation rehearsal which took place in Russell Square, so we got to sit outside and watch the rehearsal process which was very interesting. We saw how different countries have different styles of dance and it was really inspiring to watch. We also got to see how they used the nature around them in their dance, which is a concept I had never seen before.

Overall, I have had the best time at The Place. There was such a positive environment in every department I got to visit, and everyone was so welcoming. I’m so grateful for having such a diverse timetable and getting to experience as many things as I did from the Over 60s class to the student sharings, to the finance department, I really got a full experience of what The Place is like.

By Rosie Jarvis