Return to Got To Dance

Nicolette Whitley Professional dancer, dance teacher and choreographer

Over the last few weeks I have mainly been in rehearsal mode and spent a lot of my time in London. As I write this I’m on the train down to London for a Got to Dance camera rehearsal at Pinewood studios.

Here we will spend the next few days rehearsing and getting prepared for the live show on Sunday (29th). It’s always a really eventful yet social weekend as all the contestants and performers get put up in the same hotel. It definitely feels a bit weird returning as it has brought back many of the emotions, feelings and memories that I had from GTD last year. The whole experience was absolutely incredible, it really was a highlight of 2011. However even though it feels like a trip down memory lane I also feel a lot more calm and relaxed compared to when I was competing in the show. As exciting as it was, I have never been more nervous for anything. Despite all the shows and performances I had done prior to GTD nothing had ever prepared me for how I was going to feel that evening. Walking out to 6000 people for the final and knowing all those people were watching live on tv really made me feel sick with nerves. The wave of adrenaline running through my body was also something I have never experienced to that level before. I also think knowing that everyone I knew from home was watching made me more anxious, as for some of my friends this was one of the few times they had seen me perform since I had finished my degree.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of the contestants semi final pieces over the weekend as I have not really had the chance to watch much of GTD this year. I wish anyone competing on Sunday the best of luck .

You can check out all this years semi finalists here.

The Events Production Live

Up until this weekend we have be rehearsing at Diversity’s studio in Essex. It’s been good to have some dance space for more that a few hours as early next week we are performing for 2 days at The Events Production Show Live. We have had a 10 minute set to prepare and also a 5 minute set to choreograph where we will be dancing alongside a live singer. So along with our GTD piece there has been a lot to do in a short space of time which if I’m being honest is nothing out of the ordinary for us! With us living far apart it can be really tricky to fit in rehearsals between our individual schedules and as mentioned before finding the space to rehearse in can sometimes prove a nightmare. We tend to do really intense sessions i.e between 2 to 6 full days at a time and even though this can be tiring on the body everything somehow always come together in the end. I’m planning to move to London after the Olympics so hopefully when we do have performances to prepare for this will make things a lot easier!

Hope your week is more chilled than mine

Nicolette -x-