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This is my London Children’s Ballet Tour Diary, we performed our ballet 12 times over 5 days.

5th July 2017
Dear Diary,
Today is my first day dancing with the London Children Ballet touring company of 12 performers and I am so excited. I am getting onto the mini bus nervous but very keen. Our teacher Victoria is with us and her calm smile is encouraging. I am 9 years old and a year 4 student in London and it is going to be my first visit to the special needs school.  The venue is a school for kids with autism.

We arrive at the Springhallow School. The stage is so big – so much space to dance. I climb into my first costume and run on. I started to dance the energetic party girl dance I had learnt with my friends Daniela and Kayla. We do perfectly. Everyone applauds as I run off. I feel amazing! My second role is an icy winter wind. As I dance, I smile enthusiastically, even through a couple of the mistakes as the audience don’t know we’ve made one. The next role is my favourite: I am a butterfly. An elegant, soft, flowing, delicate costume is perfect with beautiful rainbow colours. I am flying around my friends who are petals and roses. We are the blossoming Secret Garden.

After each show we get to talk and teach some moves to the children from our audience. . They are not able to go to the theatres and happy to receive the gift of dance. These kids are so kind and friendly and a few are touching my flowing butterfly wings There were so many children at this school that we get to performe The Secret Garden ballet again, now to the older students at the same school. When we got to talk with the older children, one strong looking boy from the audience approached me, he knelt down and kissed my hand. What a polite young gentleman! Then we all got back on the bus to drive to our second destination.

At our second venue All Soul Clubhouse we performed to a club for elderly people. We danced wonderfully and then were able to talk with the audience members. One lady said she used to come to see LCB performances with her friend but she had passed away recently so this lady came on her own.   

The Secret Garden ballet is about a girl Mary Lennox. Mary is very lonely and unloved by her mother. The setting is in colonial India about 100 years ago, her family dies of cholera after a big party. She had to move into a manor in North England to stay with her cold and sad uncle. Together with her new friend Dickon they find a young boy Colin who is on a wheelchair locked away in a room. Kids find the dry and neglected secret garden. Children’s friendship and care for each other change their lives. Mary becomes a happy child, Colin becomes healthier and learns to walk and the garden blossoms.
I finished the day happy and couldn’t wait until the next day. 

6th July 2017. Dear Diary,

It is the second day and I am no longer nervous. I step onto the coach flaring with excitement. As we approach the Greenmead School I begin to understand what type of school this would be. Most children were in wheel chairs. I changed into my party girl costume and started to dance the energetic dances I had learnt recently. I felt as if I was flying! We performed twice to that school and then we moved onto the next venue.

We came to The Children’s Trust school for the children had the same disability of autism. We performed and then showed the children how to dance. I am now proud of everything we have done. We tell the story through the dance moves, it feels so amazing every time we performed, I understand why our audience is so moved with the story, ballet and music.

7th July 2017
Dear Diary,
Today our first venue is St Ann’s school, a senior school for children with autism. We danced well and one boy stood up and tried to join in. We had fun walking around and seeing people so interested in very ordinary things. That was our last school for the tour.
The second venue is Swanbank Court, it is a care home for elderly people. One nice lady said that she liked the robins in the balled the most, especially because she fed one every day.

8th July 2017
Dear Diary,
I stepped onto the bus bursting with excitement. We arrived at the first venue The Grange and quickly got changed and started to dance. We were surprised to find out the stage was really small: it felt approximately 2m wide and 4m long. We adjusted our moves and squeezed in our dances despite the fact the stage was very small. The elderly people really enjoyed the performance even though we were late.
Surprisingly we came an hour early to the second venue Cherry Tree Manor so we performed early. Everybody smiled and enjoyed our performance. Funnily enough, we were half an hour late on our way home.
We had so much confusion but still managed today. What a fun day. I can now recite every word narrator says and remember every dance move of my friends.
After returning home my Mom and Dad handed me a letter from The Queen. It was the reply to the letter I had sent earlier offering to have our LCB touring company dance for her at the Buckingham Palace. The letter said The Queen thanked me for the invitation, but was not able to accept it. Her Majesty also appreciated the birthday wishes in my letter.

9th July 2017
Dear Diary,
Today is the last day at LCB. I am going to miss the touring experience. As I get onto the bus, I get a rush of pleasure. I am from now on a real LCB member, I think to myself, blushing a bit at my self-confidence. I rethink: I am lucky enough to be a member of the LCB touring company. Then I realise I had been daydreaming. I sit down ready to prove myself.
Our first destination Glebe House is a care home with a small (but bigger than yesterday’s first stage) performing area. Everyone enjoyed the show even though 1/8th of the audience had fallen asleep. After that we had a wonderful snack and got onto the bus to our next venue.
The next venue is Abbey Ravenscroft Care Home for elderly people. This time we had a wide stage, but not so deep. We did the best performance so far and had really good conversations with the audience.
When we got back to London, I was sad to say farewell to my new friends, but left LCB feeling happy overall and with amazing memories of my adventures. Thank you, LCB, you are very inspiring!
With love,
Anna-Sophia, your party girl, a strong northern wind and a fluttering butterfly.