Need Help with Commercial Castings? This Class Will Help!
My beloved At Your Beat dance classes have, as you know, started a weekend pop-up 1 minute away from Leicester Square tube.
It’s choc-full of hour-long classes, from jazz to hip hop in heels to barre to lyrical. It’s great for AYB-ers like me who are super addicted but don’t ALWAYS want to lose their entire weekends to dance classes*. But it’s also good for anyone curious yet who feels too scared to give it a go and wants to dip their toe in to dance-flavoured classes (believe me, I understand, I don’t think I’d have ever tried a class if it weren’t for journalism forcing me to!).
I saw that there was a class called ‘FlowBEAT’ at 4pm on a Sunday and it seemed like a good idea for me. I’ve been wanting to chill out a bit, and I had a huge commercial casting the next day. I pictured a relaxing class getting me ready for an early night and waking up refreshed. I was right, but it was a bit more challenging than I’d expected…
The class is taught by Marta, who is one of my faves. We’re all in slight awe of her because the way she moves is so sensual and effortless. She’s always telling us to, “Touch yourself, it’s your body!” and she dances in a very fluid way.
Pic from Marta’s Instagram
We started out with some simple yoga moves and stretches: nothing you need to be advanced at, just downward dogs, child poses and nice stretches. Then it was the part that I found really hard. In groups of threes, we had to move across the room by being ‘in the moment’ and following what we felt our body said, rather than our mind. So when Marta demonstrated she’d breathe and on the exhale, bend a knee. Then on the next exhale, it was a drop to the floor. The next time a slide.
It sounds so simple! First up, Molly and Kim went, who are AYB teachers, therefore trained dancers, and perhaps had done an exercise like this before, and they moved fearlessly and experimentally. It felt like kind of a private thing and I felt like I shouldn’t watch, but I was nervous and getting ideas.
When it was my turn, even though it was a totally non-judgemental space and everyone was doing it, I felt soooooo stupid! I found myself just doing strange, slow lunge walks and sort of half-mimicking what I’d seen others doing. I couldn’t get to the other side quick enough – even if we were doing it mega slow – I just found it PAINFUL!
Next up we moved across the room using our bodies in circular motions. Not just moving the feet in a semicircle but thinking about ways you could move any part of your body: your nose, fingers, toes, hands, elbows…I was getting a bit more into it, but still felt like I ran out of moves half way through!
Marta, Queen of back bends
Finally, Marta gave us a simple sequence, propelling ourselves forward with breathe and arm movements and sliding across the floor (side note: the floor isn’t the cleanest so don’t wear your favourite white clothes).
Lastly, we gave one another touch massages in twos, one person standing with their eyes closed and the other applying pressure to feet/hands/arms/head/anywhere they felt. It was sooooooo relaxing!
OK, so why is this amazing for models? The next day, I had a big casting for which I had to prepare a few moves to a song for. I tried quite hard and was pretty pleased with what I put together, and walked in feeling confident.
Then what happened? I HAD TO DO THE WHOLE THING IN SILENCE. Dancing around imaginary bags and making big faces at them and looking sad as they ran away. Not what I was expecting!
Then they said, “We’re going to play the song now so just do a few moves,” and they played a totally different tune to the one I’d been sent. This is the sort of moment my heart would be a flutter and I’d mind blank and just revert to Pulp Fiction moves: my trusty back-up.
However, with Marta’s words and the body-led movements we’d done the evening before, I just embraced my blank mind and moved with what I felt. I’m not saying I’ll win awards for what I did, BUT it was the fact that it came from my core and my calmness, rather than a panicky mind and racing heart, and I felt SO much better!
Also, for anyone quite new to the world of auditions and commercial castings, it can be hard to cast aside that ‘mind’s eye’ that holds us back. It’s when we feel stupid, and almost stand outside of ourselves and take the mick of how we’re performing in these auditions. Any time you force yourself outside of your comfort zone – and FlowBEAT was, at times, far outside of mine – it prepares you for the next time. You learn to embrace these moments and have fun with them and get creative, rather than staring into an abyss of mind blank-y terror.
Dance classes used to be soooooooo far outside of my comfort zone. Having faith in my co ordination + remembering choreo + doing moves that I don’t feel suit my body + performing to an audience holding mobile phones = HELL. Now it’s my norm, what I do many times a week, and of course I still get nervous but I’m fine.
Some people would be totally cool with FlowBEAT, seeing it as a few lovely stretches and interesting way to move, but for me it was actually quite uncomfortable at times. It was strangely vulnerable, perhaps because I’m deep down a shy person and I couldn’t ‘prepare’ for these spontaneous movements and listening to my body. But of course, it’s when a situation forces you to feel like that, that you get the most out of it. It wasn’t remotely scary once I started and even just the next day I saw how it fed into improving my work. I think it would help with nerves when I perform the choreo at the end of classes and for someone like me who is ALL in my head, I need help in connecting to my body rather than my brain.
Head to www.atyourbeat.com to find out more about classes and prices.
Rebecca x
*Or rather they do, they just know they ought to see their boyfriend/family/friends sometimes**
** Also, this way they can go to class ALL DAY.