Last Saturday evening I treated myself to a night out in Basildon!\u00a0 I was in the audience to see SHAKE IT OUT, a show performed at the Towngate Theatre by Tip Toe Stage School of South Ockendon.\u00a0 And what a show it was!<\/p>\n
Throughout the years I’ve been to many, many theatre and dancing\u00a0school shows.\u00a0 Some excellent and others… well, more rehearsal wouldn’t have come amiss, to put it politely.\u00a0 But Shake It Out was fabulous on every level. The cast ranged from tinies, who couldn’t have been more than two and a half, to seniors.\u00a0 Tip Toe principal, Julie Carter (she has a whole alphabet of qualifications after her name and it shows!) has the keenest of stage-eyes and visually the show was stunning.\u00a0 The costumes were far superior of any I had ever seen in any theatre school show, I mean we are talking West End look here.\u00a0 The colours and styles were sometimes quirky, often surprising but always completely innovative.\u00a0 I especially liked the costumes in the Lady Gaga number, Burlesque, Starships and River Deep Mountain High.<\/p>\n
But the effect wasn’t just the costumes.\u00a0 Julie’s choreography was something else as is her creativity.\u00a0 I had never seen dancers in stunning black tutus\u00a0en pointe<\/em> to heavy metal before!\u00a0 And there were a couple of dances that had a wonderful fusion of tap and jazz\/street.\u00a0 And then I was frightened out of my fourth-row seat by a group of the scariest dinosaurs I’ve ever seen, average age four years old.\u00a0 But they really threw themselves into performing; they WERE dinosaurs!\u00a0 And the delightful Little Dudettes – how cute were they?\u00a0 I also liked the staging of the two singing numbers, involving most of the cast – Who’s the Man and Just Arrived.\u00a0 It was encouraging to see performers of all ages on the stage together.<\/p>\n On a personal note, I got a thrill to see Sam Chitty, once my drama student now Vice-Principal of Tip Toe, giving\u00a0totally professional\u00a0performances in every number she was in,\u00a0and that Spencer Carter, my right-hand man in my drama classes\u00a0for so many years still performing, too.\u00a0 And Elena-Beth Carter… not only has she turned into a stunning young woman but her stage presence is awesome.<\/p>\n All in all, a had a fabulous evening.\u00a0 On a weekend of sadness on a personal level, it was a show that made me forget everything for a couple of hours.\u00a0 It was pure SHOWBIZ.<\/p>\n Congratulations to everyone concerned; you produced a show to be proud of.<\/p>\n And Julie Carter – you are a phenomenal woman!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last Saturday evening I treated myself to a night out in Basildon!\u00a0 I was in the audience to see SHAKE IT OUT, a show performed at the Towngate Theatre by Tip Toe Stage School of South Ockendon.\u00a0 And what a … Continue reading