Season 03, Ep. 08

(A cheesy) Season Finale. 

It's nearly the end of this year. It's definitely the end of the school-academic year over here. Therefore, in light of the end of an era, the end of a chapter, this season finale is going out to my beloved students. Past ones, current ones and future ones. It goes out to the teenagers we are growing today for this rapidly changing world which they're about to enter tomorrow. 

Wake up with a purpose. Wake up with a goal. What is your goal today. Even if it’s as simple as to say 'thank you' more often, own it, succeed, it, exceed it. Go to bed each night, ticking off daily goals. 

Success is not always in money, or fame or power. Success is in little things. Success is waking up knowing that you're about to spend a day doing what you love. It's about working with people you love. It's about going home to the people you love. Success is finding that drive, that passion, that purpose that puts a smile on your face when you hear your alarm going off in the morning. This can be different to everybody, so find your own drive but don't compare it to others', because they are not you. 

It's also about going to bed at night knowing that you did your best today. That if you saw someone on the street in pain, or in distress, you would stop to help. That even if you hated Physics at school, you still gave it a good go because you knew it can open your eyes about everyday things you didn't know. 

If you didn't know the answer to a problem or a question, but you did everything you could to find the answer, that's success. There's two types of failure. There is failure because you never even tried, and there is failure after we gave it our best shot. Never apologise for failing after having tried your best. Apologise for never trying. Apologise for not caring. But apologise to yourself, not to anyone else, because at the end of the day when you not care, it's only you staying behind, not anybody else. When you give it your best and you fail, own up to it. Take it away, learn from the mistake and come back for another go. And then another. Success is the total of failures plus the person who never gave up. 

Success is also joy, success is being free, falling in love, building a friendship, a bromance, a sisterhood. 

Success is in realising that there is always room for improvement in ourselves and that learning never stops. Not at 18, not at 25, not at 60. 

Find your passion. Find your joy. Succeed in all the above. Tick your boxes. Say please and thank you more often. It will get you a long way. 

Develop skills in all possible areas when you are at school. It's your only time to figure out what you like, and what you are good at. Develop manners. Care about your planet. It's your heritage to your sons and daughters. Your school is your fuel station. And there is nothing more attractive than an educated, smart, ambitious person. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2017.

Toodles,

Katerina

Season 03, Ep. 05

The Audition

This shall be a brief(ish) post...

I was in the car yesterday on my way to the city and "Apologise" by One Republic came on the radio. It's a song that comes with many memories. The first one is the fact that when I still owned an iPod, this song was the top song on my Top 25 most played songs playlist. With a whopping number of plays of 372 times. Yes, I was obsessed. It is a crazy good song after all, the words, the music, the angelic voice of Ryan Tedder. There is even a video of me singing it a Capella with two friends, back when I was still a University student in 2008, on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TJSgDyuG7s -see?).

In spite of all this, yesterday, a more chronologically progressed memory popped into my mind. It's 2009 and I am about to graduate from University and I was itching to move on to my Musical Theatre training. I have just applied to a dozen of Drama Schools in London and I have just heard back from a few of those asking to see me for an audition. One of them was Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in the heart of London. Knowing that a few names were part of their alumni including THE Judy Garland and the quite controversial Russell Brand, you can imagine my excitement. I had to nail this. 

Every Drama school's audition process is different but most schools due to their vast amount of applicants they receive every year, they decide to offer very limited audition time to each candidate, having the confidence that within 5 mins of a monologue, 2 mins of a choreography and 16 bars of any Musical Theatre song will help them make their final decision. And it's true, sometimes, this tiny window of a shot each applicant receives, shall be enough to sift the goodies from the baddies judged by industry 'experts'. Show-business usually works this way anyway, everyone's time is money and if you have what it truly takes, you may as well be able to show it within 180 seconds. 

Italia Conti has a bit of a different approach. Their belief is that every candidate deserves a thorough examination in order to see if this is their ideal place of training. So they dedicate weeks to auditioning every applicant in the following areas: A monologue, a solo dancing piece, an entire solo song followed by three classes of dance and acting classes. This way the judges get to see how each performer works with another, how they cope within a classroom, how well they take direction etc. 

I see both different audition approaches' point, but let's be honest, Italia Conti's thoroughness is definitely helping a little more, both judges and performers. If you screw up your dance, you get a chance to redeem yourself within the class that follows. Everybody messes up, especially when under pressure. And come to think of it, all applicants are ages 16-23 max. Tinies. 

So as I am at home thinking and preparing for my dance solo on the day, I decide to go with 'Apologise' for my song and create a dance with it, since my background training was ballet and contemporary dance. It was perfect. I had it all prepared and on my iPod. I just needed to make sure they have a lead that I could connect to my iPod so I wouldn't have to burn a CD for the day. Kids, a CD is a round disk we use to burn songs onto and pop them into a thing called a stereo and listen to our favourite songs. Just FYI. 

I gave the school a ring and they said that they surely have an iPod lead I could use on the day. Phew, all ready. 

So I show up and I am ready to go, having practiced my dance again and again, since out of the "Triple Threat"* package, dance was my weakest. I walk in the room and I ask for the iPod lead. They look at me, I look over at the stereo, no lead. "Oh sorry there is no lead in this room, do you have a CD with your song?". "Um, no I called to ask if it's okay to use my iPod and they said it's okay". There was only one lead on the floor and it was being used by another class. After what seemed the longest and most awkward pause, in order to figure out what to do, the director of the course says "look, we only care about your dancing abilities and your moves here, not so much about the music, would you be comfortable doing it without music then?". I stood there and put on my uber confident suit and said "Sure thing". And then straight after that, without even thinking about it again, I blurted out "Actually, it's a slow song and dance, I can try to sing along while dancing". WHAT. So here I am singing "I'm holding on your rope got me 10 feet off the ground..." and doing my little twirl and slow walk along the room...Needless to say the courage and multitasking skill I portrayed despite my 'technical difficulty' on the day, secured me a place in the school. Well, that and my big talent and dancing technique of course LOL LOL LOL. And the rest is history...

Lesson to be learnt. Don't let minor hinders stand in your way of your dream. You want something, go get it. Technology will always be letting us down. It's up to us to carry on and do well. 

Huh. Maybe this wasn't a brief-ish post after all.

*Triple Threat: an all rounder performer who is able to act, sing and dance exceptionally.

BYE

Season 3, Ep. 02

The One With The Stage Challenge

Wow, here we are. My first taste of the so-called 'Stage Challenge'. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, Stage Challenge is a New Zealand National dance/show school competition. Students from all regions from the North and the South Island create a dance based showcase and compete against each other. Each region crowns a winner each week. Students are 100% responsible for creating their show. They create the story, choose the songs and choreograph it. They announce their team leaders plus they get a team together who will be in charge of costumes and make up and the set.

Teachers are pretty decorative at the start to be honest. We are just there to make sure there won't be any teenage drama over who gets the solo, and to avoid anyone ripping another's hairs off over who is the better...dancer, I guess? As time goes on and the dances are coming together, I guess a more expert eye is an asset to the team, in order to give them some constructive feedback as far as polishing their dances goes, staging them and getting into character. I feel honoured to have been asked to be that person. If you have just started following The Moo Point, I have been involved with theatre and dance since I was 6 years old. Having the kids respect that and take all the feedback into consideration was fantastic, and I suppose all this brought me closer with some students.

The actual day was a blast. We drove up to New Plymouth, the main city of our region, and spend the better part of 13 hours at the theatre. Staging, setting up, practicing, but most importantly, mingling with the competition, aka the other schools. I'm not gonna lie, I was expecting a bit of healthy rivalry to go on, some bitchy comments, picking on every little thing about each other, no, on the contrary, those kids were the epitome of support, unity and fun. Pretty much proves my point why I will always be so passionate about the performing arts. They are the epitome of being united and leaving your troubles at the door. The second we stepped foot at the theatre, they started having random dance offs in the middle of their changing area. Next thing you know they are all resting together, or having another dance off. 

The themes were completely free choice, therefore completely different from each other. The other schools went down the melodramatic route and created a showcase out of big life issues such as the refugee crisis or cancer. Our school decided to get in touch with their imagination and create a show based on that minimum chance there'll be a zombie apocalypse. Dead people, skeletons, zombies and eventually SATAN, all came together on stage for a bit of hip hop jiggle. But boy did they look amazing. And boy did they work hard. Pretty much until the last half hour before they went on stage they were practicing at the back. And what do I always say? Hard work pays off. Best choreography award, plus best costume and make up award. Not too shabby ae. I have never felt more proud of someone in my life so far to be honest with you. This is why this job is so fulfilling, this is why I love teaching. 

And how are you?

Season 2, Ep.11 (Season Finale)

Miss G

You see this? Now take a moment to think about it. What were your dreams 10 years ago? Are they the same today? If not why? What happened to have altered your dreams? 

Remember, I'm still talking about dreams here, there is no sour note to this whatsoever. They are still dreams and goals. They are still your happy gateways. They're just not the same they where when you were 18. 

For me, it is teaching. 20 years ago it was a 7 year old's valid dream, yes, but then it just faded away to let room for the flashier dreams, the ones about show-business. And believe me I went for it. And I did it. I worked for it, I paid my dues, boy do I know I paid my dues. And then, how can I explain it, I grew up? I grew out of it? I saw a little too much of the rest of that iceberg that put me off it? All of the above? Anyhoo, the calling had not been found yet. But let me get this straight, my bossiness was always there, the thrill I would get from being in charge of things, choreographing, directing, teaching...teaching...teaching!  And the best part is I never asked for it, it just tapped me on the back and said "erm, hello, what about me?". 

Yeah yeah yeah, I know what you think, those who can't, teach, well maybe there's a reason for the existence of the stereotype yes, but for me, the one thing that I will always believe in, preach about and lead, is to always do things that make you happy. Always. Even if it means you have to be patient to 'get there', as long as you are doing it, as long as you are on that journey, it's enough. I would not be doing this now if I wasn't 150% passionate about it. Even more than I was when I was performing. 

Students always ask me why I became a teacher. I was lucky to have been raised with amazing values and morals and within a close family, but I am aware not everyone can be as fortunate. Enter teachers. If I can help even one teenager become a decent human being with integrity coming out of High School, I've done my job. Our motto is to raise good people for a rapidly changing world. And that's it. That was my calling, my purpose, my talent. Being a mentor, a role model and an model of influence is my thrill, my kick. 

I can ramble on so much about this, this is how much it thrills me. For the record, I will always be an artist. I teach the arts, believe me, I haven't changed that much. I haven't changed at all. I've evolved. 

And you?

"The more you listen the more you learn, the more you learn the smarter you become, the better you are able to tackle anything that comes your way"

See y'all next Season, till then, Miss G out.

Season 1, Ep. 04

I Have A Dream. (A Song To Sing)

London. I grew up in Greece but I really GREW up in London. Which is why there probably will be a marathon of 'episodes' on the London chapter. Nevertheless, it was all a moo point. Or was it? 

I've been thinking about the blog's episodes. How many per season etc. American TV shows have had huge runs of around 24 episodes per season so far but suddenly the newest trend seems to be the way the British TV has been going on about their shows with a sad 8-12 episodes per season. But now it's a fact that Americans have made cool. Empire, Rush, True Detectice, Ray Donovan, 12 episodes max, make us thirsty for more. LOVE Ray Donovan by the way. So I thought I should keep up with the trend and keep each 'Moo' season to 12 episodes.
Anyhoo, I will be quick on this one, gotta a wedding to catch end of this week. My big -not fat at all- Greek sister's wedding. OH YEAH. Can you hear the bells?
Now, when was the last time you had a dream? Anything? Good. So here I am 16 and thirsty. Thirsty for many things that I wasn't even aware of. I just had an itch to move out and discover. I could not fit in my hometown. I tried. Nah. By 16 I had gone through the whole teaching phase, just like every other little girl (I reckon), where I would line up my stuffed toys at home and pretended I was their teacher. I went through the ballerina phase in my early teens, since my training was becoming more and more hard core, the ballet fever was rising by the minute, then there was the release of the movie 'Centre Stage', which just literally made me want to be like Maureen in the film, and try out at the American Ballet Academy. Jokes. But honestly, I was living and breathing dance for at least a couple of years. No life. Remember the 2004 Summer Olympic games in Athens? One of the biggest events in the history of Greece? People were so keen to go to down to Athens to be part of it and watch? Well I went abroad to do a summer ballet course instead and I ended up watching the games on TV during my sweet 16th. Fact. By the way, since 'Centre Stage' is an uber cult movie now that I think of it, and not many of you may know it, it is the film that established Zoe Saldana's career. Another fact. Yeah, we all love our Avatar girl.
Nevertheless, passion or no passion, I was shoved into competitive environments since a very young-and tender-age lol. Honestly, the whole reason why I chose the high school that I chose was solidly for its Drama Club. It was pretty popular in Thessaloniki. I remember I COULD NOT sleep before the entry exams. Hash-tag, dramatic story. I lost an eyebrow over it because of the stress. Aw, 11 year old stresses. To this day, the right eyebrow is still thinner than the left one. But I passed my entry exams, enrolled at the school and made it my MISSION to audition and get cast in the Drama Club productions by the age of 13 even though it was theoretically supposed to be a club for Seniors and students over 15 years old. Did I lose another eyebrow over it? Nah, but a few pimples later and the use of then popular group Atomic Kitten's  cover 'Eternal Flame' for my audition, I eventually became a young member at 13. Hash-tag bragging, hash-tag, show off.
So what were your biggest worries and your biggest stress when you were 12?And was it worth it? Yes, totes.
I haven't even gotten to the London part yet, meh, we could stay in Greece for few more episodes before we move. I told you I can ramble. This is gonna be one looong season. Apologies. Or not.

Here comes the ballet gallery.

 

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