Ep 40: Gareth Valentine, composer, conductor and musical director.

02/14/21 • 42 min

Gareth is a Welsh composer, arranger, conductor and musical director. He has worked extensively in London's West End on musical productions and also conducted orchestras worldwide including the BBC Concert Orchestra, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Pasdeloup orchestra, RPO Concert Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, ENB Sinfonia, Orchestre de chambre de Paris and many others. After graduating from the Royal College of Music, London, he studied with Sir Peter Pears at Aldeburgh.
As Musical Supervisor his theatre credits include: Kiss Me Kate, Chichester Festival Theatre; Crazy For You, Open Air Theatre and the Novello Theatre; INTO THE WOODS, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre (captured by Digital Theatre); End of the Rainbow, Royal & Derngate, Trafalgar Studios; Strictly Gershwin, ENB, Albert Hall and the Coliseum; Sondheim At 80 Concerts – Merrily We Roll Along and Company at the Donmar Warehouse; The King and I, Royal Albert Hall; Wicked, Apollo Victoria; Acorn Antiques, Haymarket Theatre and UK Tour; Porgy & Bess, Savoy; Sinatra, London Palladium; Aladdin, The Old Vic; Children Will Listen, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; Musicality, Channel 4; Anything Goes, RNT and Drury Lane; My One & Only, Piccadilly. As Musical Director his credits include: Kiss Me Kate, Victoria Palace; Merrily We Roll Along, Donmar; Chicago, Adelphi London, Madrid, Gottenburg, Moscow and Japan; Damn Yankees, Adelphi; Nine, Donmar; Camelot, Covent Garden; Company, Donmar; Kiss of the Spider Woman, Shaftesbury; Miss Saigon, Drury Lane; The Baker’s Wife, Phoenix; Cats, New London; Closer Than Ever, Vaudeville; Kiss Me Kate, RSC; Cabaret, Aldwych; 42nd Street, Drury Lane.

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Ep 39: Laurretta Summerscales, professional classical ballerina.

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At 18 Laurretta joined English National Ballet under the Directorship of Wayne Eagling. After 6 months she had the opportunity to dance the Principal role of Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis in Mary Skeaping's Giselle at the London Coliseum. Following the success of this role Laurretta got to perform the Pas de Trois in Suite En Blanc along side Vadim Muntagirov and also participate in the new creation of the ballet Firebird, choreographed by George Williamson, dancing the roles of the Firebird and the Purist Lady.

In 2013 under the new directorship of Tamara Rojo, Laurretta got the opportunity to dance the prestigious role of Odette/Odile in Derek Deane's Swan Lake ‘in-the-round’, at the Royal Albert Hall. Following this she travelled to Beijing where she competed and won the Gold Medal, in the 2nd International Beijing Ballet and Choreography Competition, being coached by HuaFang Zhang and partnered by James Forbat, both from the ENB Company.

At the end of the 2012/13 season Laurretta got promoted from Artist to First Soloist, one of the biggest promotions made at the Company. From this Laurretta started to dance many Principal roles. In January of the 2015/16 season she finally got promoted to her dream rank of Principal on stage at the London Coliseum.

In September 2017 she also joined the Bayerishes Staatsballett in Munich as a Principal under the directorship of Igor Zelensky, and in 2018 she decided to continue in Munich full time.

Over her career she has performed in many countries, Australia, China, Columbia, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia,The Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and Ukraine.
She has also been a Guest for Acosta Danza, Roberto Bolle and Friends, The Kremlin Palace Ballet, The Shanghai Ballet, The Kazan Opera Ballet, The National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Mongolia and The Satratov Opera Ballet Theatre.
For more information see https://summerscales.org

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Ep 41: Nikki Belsher, professional performer, West End director and resident choreographer.

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Nikki Belsher was trained at the Jeannine Greville Dancing Academy.

At 11 she made her West End debut in the musical Annie at the Victoria Palace. By the time she was 15 she had followed this with two further seasons in Annie, a season with Kids International at the Dominion and the leading role of Morgana in Tin Pan Ali at the Edinburgh Fringe.

She left school at 16 to join the cast of 42nd Street at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where she understudied both female leads - Peggy Sawyer and Anytime Annie - and remained there for two years. Nikki left 42nd Street having already started rehearsals for Cats playing the part of Jemima and understudying Jellylorum and Gumbie Cat.
Her other credits include: Pearl in ‘Starlight Express’ (Australasia Tour), Ensemble in ‘Can Can’ (Strand Theatre), ‘Ashley’ and Dance Captain in ‘Starlight Express’ (Apollo Victoria), ‘Sue’ and Dance Captain in ‘A Slice of Saturday Night’ (UK Tour), Ensemble in ‘Carousel’ (National Theatre), ‘Candi’ in ‘Oh What a Night’ (Opera House, Blackpool), Ensemble in ‘Fame’ (Scandinavian Tour), ‘Marty’ in ‘Grease’ (Scandinavian tour), ‘Delores’/’Miss Cashdime’ in ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ (National Theatre), Ensemble and Dance Captain in ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (UK Tour), ‘Nickie’ in ‘Sweet Charity’ (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Barelli Sister in ‘The Rat Pack’ (Haymarket Theatre), ‘Sheila Bryant’ in ‘A Chorus Line’ (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield).
Nikki assisted Peter Darling on the choreography for the original West End production of ‘Billy Elliot the Musical’ in London. She then joined Peter in New York to stage the show on Broadway, after which, she then re-joined the show in the West End as Resident Choreographer.

Nikki also assisted Peter with the choreography of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, the Musical, which opened in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

More recently she has worked with Peter as Tap Dance Advisor for the West End and Broadway Productions of ‘Groundhog Day’, and the workshop for the Broadway Production of ‘

She has also been Resident Director for ‘Rainbow Rocks, My Little Pony Musical’ (Asia Tour 2016). Resident Director/Choreographer on ‘Me and My Girl’ (UK tour), ‘Footloose the Musical’ (UK tour and Playhouse Theatre in the West End), ‘The Rat Pack live from Las Vegas’ (Haymarket and Strand (now Novello) Theatres.)

Nikki's TV appearances include: ‘Agony’ (Live TV), ‘2.4 Children’ (BBC), ‘Dramarama’ (ITV), ‘Campion’ (ITV), ‘The Eurovision Song Contest’, 1991.

Nikki is an adjudicator for DWC. She has taught guest workshops at home and Internationally.