God's Amazing Provision

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I wrote a blog post and I have so many things to share with you all! The last term in my second year was full of tears and I was overwhelmed by God's grace and love. I want to will share some of my emotional journey and struggles over the last 5-6 months.

In May, I had an emotional break down. I had so much fear that I would not get to do my third year at Rambert. Earlier that day, I had been having so much fun, I felt confident and strong and I was enjoying dancing to the point that if I had to stop then I felt like I would not be able to live anymore. After I finished my classes at school, I remember calling Rachel and before she even asked me how my week had been, I burst out in tears and told her that I wanted to do my third year so badly. I was desperate and Rachel was not in a position to say yes or no. She listened to me and encouraged me by saying that it will happen if God wants it to. Rachel and I talked about what could be done from our end. Then we prayed and knew that we woud have to trust that God would provide if it is His will.

Since then God has provided in so many ways - I want to share them with you.

A few weeks after this, I received an email from school telling me that they were awarding me a scholarship towards my fees. Then about a month later they contacted me to tell me that I was also recieving another scholarship that they had applied for on my behalf.

Then in July, Rachel and I made a video and we set up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise the final amount of money that I need to cover my school fees and living costs. I shared this with all my friends and family here and at home. The morning after we shared the Go Fund Me page Rachel told me to go and look at it. I was speechless and could not believe what I was seeing. I recognised all of the names on the donation list because they were all my friends from school. They also shared my page on media platforms and wrote messages to encourage me. This has been such a blessing to me because they are also students and do not have much themselves.

Since then so many other people have given money to help me and we have now raised over half of the amount that we asked for in the Go Fund Me Campaign. It has been very moving to see how my story has reached so many different places and people. There have been people who have given who I have not seen for a long time and even people who I have never met.

I am praising God for always being there to protect and provide for me in his perfect timing. I am so blesed. Rambert has been nothing but loving, caring, and always passionate to help me as much as they can. My friends and their friends have also given and blessed me so much.

Sometimes I wonder what I have done done to deserve so much help and support.

I know we do not have all of the support I need yet but I am excitied and believe that I am going to do my third year! Thank you everyone reading this for being a part of my journey!

Highlights From Year Two

I am now back at Rachel's house and we are celebrating the fact that I have passed my second year at Rambert. I cannot believe that I have now been in the UK for 2 years. Time has gone so fast and it I know that I have changed and learned so many things in that time, more than I ever thought possible.

I want to share with you some of the exciting things that have happened and things that I have learned this year.

Solo Performance

To finish my second year we had to perform a ballet and contemporary solo to the rest of the school. This was part of our assessment. In the contemporary solo we had to learn a piece of choreography from our teacher and we were then allowed to add our own movements in some places. The ballet solo was a variation from the ballet La Bayadere.

This was my first time performing solo at Rambert, I was very nervous but it helped me to overcome my fears. The challenge was for me to work on how I was thinking. I needed to trust my body, that it knew the steps and let myself relax and perform to the audience.

Here is a video of my contemporary solo.

Working with a visiting choreographer and performing

In May a choreographer from the US came to Rambert to work with my group to create a new piece of choreography that we performed in the Linbury theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. This was an intense project. We worked with him for 2 weeks from 9 - 5 each day. The piece was called The Madness of Love.

This experience helped me to understand more about creating work with a group of students. It was interesting to watch how the choreographer cast the piece and observe ways he got us to work together. This helped me to see how much work and dedication it takes to create a great piece of work and move through the process of creation and rehearsal to performance.

Helping backstage at the student platform

In June I volunteered to help run the backstage for a Rambert event. The event was a student platform where students showcase work that they have chreographed themselves. This was useful because I know in the future I will need to understand how things work behind the scenes as well as on the stage. This was the first time I was able to watch other students perform this year, in person. It was exciting and inspiring!

Working at Rambert summer school

In June I applied to work for one week at the Rambert Summer School as an assistant. I wanted to gain the experience and it was a paid job so I knew that this would help with my finances for next year. I was given the job and worked 9 - 5 everyday from Monday to Saturday on the last week of July.

This was a great experience that I know will help me in the future. I got to see how the teachers run the classes, engage with the students and put together a week long prgram. On one morning one of the teachers was running late so I even had to step in and start the class.

Here are some photos from all of these events - the performance, the summer school and after my solo!

Life at school after the third lockdown

I arrived back in London at the beginning of March and had to do the first week of school online. This was because all the students had to have a PCR and 2 lateral flow tests before we were allowed back in the dance studio. We did the flow tests at school and were welcomed back onto the campus by Judy, who is Ramberts student support person. It was really great to be back and see people. All the students were desperate to come back to see each other and be able to dance in the studios again. There was so much energy and excitement from everybody.

The school understood that we all needed to spend some time in the dance studios alone before starting classes again so they made them available for us to use once we had finished the testing. All of us have been dancing and doing classes alone from small spaces so we needed time to get used to being back in the big space again. I booked a studio for the afternoon after my second test.

Lying down in the tent studio build for Covid times!

Once I got into the studio I just lay on the floor, with my eyes closed and played my favourite music before starting to dance. They were right, it was a big shift and was actually quite emotional. It made my cry and I spent some time reflecting on things and praying. It was a sad and joyful moment. Things that came to my mind were:

• The fact that I am still at Rambert - it is crazy and amazing! This made me feel so blessed and grateful. This could have been someone else but God chose me.

• Also I thought about how far I have come and how strong I have been to survive 3 lockdowns away from my country, family and friends back home.

• I asked God not to take this opportunity away from me. I know that I have to trust Him to provide so many things if I am going to finish the three years at Rambert. I want to be able to complete my training and do it well.

After a few weeks back at school I opened my locker for the first time and found my tutu and an old pair of pointe shoes. These were from my first year and they made me realise how much I have changed and how long it has been since life was normal. (Right now we do not really use the changing rooms as we have to arrive ready for class and stay separate as much we can.) I am a different person than I was in my first year. In my first year I was quiet, I was struggling to adjust to a new culture, to training all day, to try to fit in and make friends. I was adjusting to doing live performances in front of the other students and teachers.

In tutu and pointe shoes at school in the first year.

What's been really great this semester is that my church, St Michael Fulwell, and I have been much closer. I have started to hang out and go for a walk with some of them. Since March I have started to get involved with church activities. At Easter I was asked by the teen and kids program leaders to help in the worship service. I learned a dance that someone had made and we stood at the front and the people all copied us. I couldn't stop smiling and I felt really good to be able to worship God in this way with everyone. This was very different from the dance I do in my training at school but it is still dance. People could easily follow us and join in. This was really nice to see and I loved being able to use dance in this way.

After church on Easter Sunday I was invited to eat roast lamb at a garden picnic with people from church. We played basket ball and they even taught me an English game - spike ball.