Links Of Interest - Health and Fitness

Being a dancer it’s very important to keep fit, especially when out of work. I got to the gym at least 4 times a week, as my personal fitness is very important to me. When I'm in a show I can be required to do a lot of partner work where I have to life girls so having strength is important.
When I have done musical in the past you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to sing and dance at the same time. When you go to a show its made to look so simple but physically it is so challenging as you need very good breath control to sing but you also need all of the air you breath in for your muscles when dancing so putting the two together put such a strain on your body. In ‘Fame’ I used to see some of the cast run off stage at the end of a number and collapse to the floor they had exhausted themselves so much.
So going to the gym and keeping onto of your cardio fitness is also very important.

The thing we eat can have a big impact on our health too. I eat a lot of protein and carbohydrate fuelled dishes as the protein is so important for your muscles and muscle repair and carbohydrates give you a lot of energy

http://www.nutrition.gov

This is a great website that includes lots of different information about nutrition in food and how you can improve your diet.


You can also you YouTube to search for dance workouts to keep fit at home. This is a dirty dancing work out currently sold in the shops.



http://www.gl14.com/manchester

This is a link to the gym I go to in Manchester. It’s important that you find a gym that has a good range of equipment and fascilities. A swimming pool is also good to use, as this is a great way of keeping cardio fitness. If a gym offers fitness classes it’s always best to try and attend at least one or two of them, as they will offer exercises you possibly wouldn’t think of using. You can often feel more disciplined in a class that’s being led by someone.

Links of Interest - Musicals

My absolute passion in life is Musicals. I can’t get enough of them. I tend to know about all the new musicals coming out and I generally get an audition through my agent for most of the UK tours and west end shows.

I’m forever going online to watch musical preview clips of shows yet to come or just generally watching clips of shows I've already seen. YouTube is my top resource for watching the videos.

3 Musicals I am mad about at the moment are Sister act of which I saw the previews in May 2009, Wicked of which I've seen numerous times in the UK including the original UK cast and on Broadway and legally blonde which I flew to New York to see the original cast. Legally Blonde is soon to open at the Savoy Theatre in London.

I'm so passionate about musicals and spend a lot of my free time reading up about them because its what I do. The feeling I get when I'm on stage performing is just immense. Being part of a group of performers all passionate about creating an art and having fun doing it. When I watch musicals I can instantly feel what the artists feel and that’s why I devote my time staying interested in the art.
Below are some video clips from YouTube of these shows.


This is the Promo Video of 'Raise Your Voice' from the new musical Sister Act. This was realised as a little sneaky peak before the show previewed. When i saw this i knew i had to book my tickets straight away!



Legally Blonde was a BIG hit on Broadway, It's soon to open its doors in the West End this coming December. Here's a clip form the end of ACT 1 on Broadway.





This video is the last song of ACT 1 from Wicked the musical. Its a special video as its the last performance from Kerry Ellis (Elphaba) She was the original Elphaba in the UK and has been so successful in the part that she was asked to play the part on Broadway for 6 months.
I have seen this actress play this role so many times i made sure i was there for her final performance. The atmosphere in the theatre was electric. Ive never seen anything like it!

People I Admire - Katy Harris

Katy is currently the main show director at DisneyLand Paris. She started her career with Disney in 1994 dancing in the stage show of beauty and the beast and then went onto doing many of the other shows that were created in the park.

After a 5 years dancing for Disney she became an assistant show director and then eventually became the show director of Disney Land.

Katy was my director for the Winnie the Pooh show. I first met her on the show I did before Winnie, which she also directed. It was the Disney on Ice show ‘Mickey’s Winter Wonderland’ in which I played goofy. She was such a fantastic director to have on the Winnie show as she had entered Disney the same way I had. I was the first English boy to play the bi-lingual role of Christopher Robin and she helped me loose my northern accent when delivering the French lines. She herself moved to Paris not being able to speak a word of French and is now fluent in the language.

I admire how far she has come in 15 years and although I haven’t been on the journey she has I started in the same way and can see why she would stay with the company for so long and climb within it to achieve greatness.

She has a list of shows she has directed for Disney now and has even travelled to Florida, California and Disneyland Hong Kong to direct. What an achievement to say you are the entertainments director for a Disney Land park, one of the largest corporations in the world!

http://www.dlrpmagic.com/interviews/katy-harris-disneys-once-upon-a-dream-parade/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/katyharris

People I Admire - Laura Churchill

Laura is a friend of 7 years. We both started working for DisneyLand together at the same time and lived in the same house. Originally from Liverpool she danced from a tender age and carried it on through her teen years into her adult life. She has so much passion for dance and you can see this when she performs.

She left Disney to pursue further dancing and travelled to different countries to do this.
Laura decided quite early on that she wanted to settle down in England with her fiancée (from London) and so moved to London to set up her own dance school. A very big ambition for a young girl in a big city!

She started off in a church hall where she advertised a Saturday school for young children, advertising it in local shops. She now has over 300 students, 10 staff and a timetable of dance classes that run from a Monday to Saturday.
She invited me to teach a few classes whilst I was living in London and it was then I felt so proud of my friend and the achievements she had made. The children aged 4 – 18 were all very talented and were really enjoying being apart of her school.
It was also teaching at her school that made me realise I had a passion for teaching as well as performing and this is what has sparked me to study for my degree.

All of this was achieved in as little as 5 years and through the success and hard work she will soon be able to give her school its very own building. All this hasn’t come easy though and she has sacrificed so much to make it work. I really admire her for having a dream and making it reality. I cant wait to watch it blossom even more.



www.honeyzschoolofdance.com

Disney Holiday Memory Music Video

I thought i would demonstrate how useful Youtube is (one of my top 5 resources) by sharing a video i edited myself of different clip from my holidays to Disney World in 2001/2002/2004.

I used to do video editing as a little hobbie and Disney is something that has always been in my life and inspired me (People I Admire)

In the video you can also see how i age from being a spotty teenager into a young adult.

Im really glad i took the time to edit this 5 years ago as i can look back on it now and realy smile at the fantastic times i had at Disney with my best friend.

I hope you enjoy it!

People I Admire - Walter Disney

Born December 5th 1901
Died December 15th 1966

The man who made dreams come true!

I can still remember Christmas 1990 when I received my first 2 Disney movies. I can still remember the feeling as I opened the presents to discover I had been given The Little Mermaid and Fantasia. There aren’t many childhood memories that are so vivid so I ask myself why I remember this one so much. Disney has played such a key role in my life, I have always been a dreamer and Disney let me dream through his art of animation and telling us “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes”


I grew up collecting every Disney Classic Animation that came came out.
I remember at the end of The Little Mermaid there was a short film where a child fell asleep and in his dream he drifted off in a balloon to a magical land, DisneyLand Paris. It was basically an advertisement of the new park that was soon to open in a year. That video only made me dream of being there and enjoying all the magic that all the other kids were enjoying.
As I grew up and became a lot older Disney never faded in my life, I applied for a job at the Disney Store and was over the moon when I’d got it. For years id watch the Disney shows and parades on videos and wished that I could be in one. Id always put my music on and fantasise that I was in the Disney film.

In August 2002 I auditioned to be in the Disney parade knowing that before I started the audition, if I got the job it would mean the world to me. In September 2002 I started working at DisneyLand in the Parade department.
My work for Disney only grew from there, I played goofy on ice and my proudest achievement was playing Christopher Robin in the Winnie The Pooh Show. I was the only real boy on stage surrounded by the characters who’s voices were on ‘playback’. To perform that role really was a dream come true.



I eventually left Disney having created a bigger dream in my life. To better myself in the entertainment industry and to perform in bigger things. That’s when I decided to go to The Northern Ballet School to better myself as a dancer so I could enter the Musical Theatre industry and on graduation that’s when I got into my first musical ‘Fame’
Without realising, Disney has helped me achieve the wonderful things i've achieved in my life because he taught me “all our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them”

My favourite Disney Quote - "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."

www.justdisney.com
www.brainyquote.com

My Top 5 Resources

Facebook - www.facebook.com

One of the most popular resources used throughout the world!
You can post pictures and videos of yourself, share pictures and videos from other interesting sources and keep up to date with all of your friends and family. You can become a fan of anything that you could possibly be a fan of. Your favorite celebrity, TV show, film or even as i saw recently, you can become a fan of 'Naked Cuddles In Bed'.

I love using facebook as i can constantly see what all of my friends are getting up to without having to send them a message to ask them how they are. With working in many places
throughout the world I've made a lot of very good friends, too many to be able to call them all individually to keep in touch. I often have people i have worked with professionally contacting me offering me work or telling me about an audition coming up. Facebook helps me stay in contact and up to date in a very fun and visual way.







Google - www.google.com

Known as a 'search engine' Google provides the power to search for almost anything you could possibly want to find on the internet. The address of a business, Phone number to your favorite takeaway, images, videos and maps are to name a few of its powerful capabilities. Personally i use it for everything i have listed and more. I currently hold an email address with them which i use as private address. Recently i took some chicken out of the fridge which smelt a little unusual, so i type into Google 'What does chicken smell of when it has gone off'. It instantly brought up a list of responses to people who ha asked the same question and the answer i found confirmed the chicken was off. in a more professional way i use Google reader for my new course at Middlesex University where i have created a blog and follow other students blogs. Theres been times in the past when i have been to an audition with nothing but an address to find where the audition is, so i have used google maps to locate the place and help me find it quickly. It really is such an important resource for me.






The Stage - www.thestage.co.uk

The stage is a fantastic resource for all sorts of performers and people within the performing industry. It is a weekly newspaper published every Thursday and includes lots of informative stories about the entertainment industry. At the back of the newspaper is a Jobs section where it lists auditions coming up and other jobs such as various positions for lighting designers, sound engineers and so on. All of the infomation published is posted online on their website and auditions can usually be seen online before being released in the newspaper. I often read this paper to find out whats going on within the world of the theatre and to see if there are any auditions in the pipeline that i am interested in. In 2002 i saw an audition to dance for DisneyLand Paris so i went along to it and got the job!






YouTube - www.youtube.com

YouTube is an online video/Audio website which can be accessed for an home PC or Laptop and now from new technology such a the Ipod or mobile phones.

Ive used YouTube for simply watching videos of new musicals that have opened or pop videos that i havnt seen and TV clips that i missed for example Xfactor. Ive also used it to share my own videos, When i Living in Amsterdam doing the musical 'Fame' we performed a live performance at a concert that was broadcast on TV. I posted this on Youtube so my friends and family could see what i had been doing. I also posted a video of my singing one of the solos from the show so my friends back home could watch. Go to www.youtube.com and type in 'Danny Jackson Fame' and it will bring up the video for you to watch.

Its also been very useful for when I've been teaching, recently i taught 'All That Jazz' from Chicago. I needed to refer to a video of it as i couldn't remember a part of the dance. This was done very simply and quickly. A very useful resource for myself as a performer.







Spotlight - www.spotlight.com


Spotlight is used by those in the entertainment industry in TV, Film, Theatre and Radio.

It allows you to have your professional photo and CV both online and in the Spotllight directory for casting directors to see.

There are over 30,000 Performers in the directory and many are employed through having their details listed here. Some casting directors only use spotlight invite performers to auditions. I have an agent in London who puts me forward for most of my auditions but even still i was advised by them to get myself into spotlight as i was missing out on commercial castings and such like. its a very valuable source for performers both young and old and for some its a crucial link to getting their next job. You have to pay a subscription for this services but i feel its well worth it for the representation you get in return.

My CV

DANNY JACKSON



D.O.B: 15/08/1984


HEIGHT: 5’ 10” HAIR: Brown EYES: Blue


Training: Northern Ballet School (full scholarship)

Skills: Ballet, Jazz, Advanced Tap, Contemporary, Pas de Deux, Acro, Street Dance, Piano, Singing (Ab above Middle C), Acting (playing range 18-25), Ice Skating, Basic Acrobatics, Sign Language, French, Video & Music Editing, Driving.



Production Role Director/Choreographer/Venue

Film
Gulliver’s Travels Dancer Director: Rob Letterman
Choreographer: Francesca Jaynes
Theatre
Fame Ensemble European Tour
u/s & played Nick

Disneyland Paris Parade Dancer Paris Parade

Time and Tide Actor / Singer UK Tour

Winnie The Pooh Show Christopher Robin Disneyland Paris

Common Wealth Games Backing Dancer Opening/Closing Ceremony

O4E Ensemble Actor Opera North Company

Lets Dance 2000 Tap Dancer Palace Theatre

High School Musical Dancer Disney International


Commercial
High School Musical Rally Dancer Odeon Cinema, Leicester Square



TV
This Morning - ‘Parent Power’ Actor ITV
Lets Dance for Comic Relief Dancer BBC


Performance Experience
A Musical World Principle Singer/Dancer Northern Ballet School
Swan Lake Corps De Ballet Manchester City Ballet

Testing...

Ok.... So this is the FIRST time I've ever blogged or been apart of 'blogging' so lets give it a go...

Testing Testing, is it working? lol