Amateur dramatics changed my life

‘Performing for theatre groups changed my life, I was in a wheelchair or on crutches untill I was 11’

‘Am Dram’ fanatic Sara Pittham was diagnosed with ‘Perthes disease’ as a child and spent most of her childhood in a wheelchair or on crutches with no confidence. She began to recover from her condition in her final year of primary school where she joined a theatre group her former teacher set up.

‘It’s a massive confidence builder, I was so shy and kept myself to myself and because I’d had problems with walking all my childhood I wasn’t very independent.’

Perthes Disease is a condition where the top of the thigh bone softens and breaks down. It occurs in around 1 in 1000 children and causes a limp and problems walking, the bone gradually heals and reforms as the child grows.

Sara has been a member of many theatre groups, Kaleidoscope Players, Good Companion Stage Society, Belper Stage Production and Foot Light Stage School. She now teaches musical theatre in her spar time.

‘I’ve performed in hundreds of things, I just love it. I first discovered I could sing when I got left to do a solo at secondary school, now you can’t shut me up!’

Sara worked professionally at Alton Towers as a part of their entertainment and theatre teams.

‘I loved working at Alton Towers but when I had a baby I ended up just going back to working a normal 9-5 and doing my theatre and performing in my spare time.’

Sara is a member of theatre groups in Derbyshire, which offers a sustainable programme of high quality performing arts with many opportunities and support for local professionals and the amateur scene. Theatre doesn’t simply have to be a route to follow for a career, it can be an escape, an artistic outlet or just simly a hobby. The 29 year old recommends theatre to anyone,

‘I know it sounds cheesy but it genuinely did change my life.’

One applying every minute

With the current phenomenon of the Television show ‘One born every minute’ and the recent hit BBC drama ‘Call the midwife’ applications for midwifery have increased.

These successful TV series have caused a mini-boom in the industry with applications in 2012 increasing by 20 percent from last year.

BBC drama ‘Call the midwife’

‘Call the midwife’ gathered an average viewing audience of around nine million, proving to be very popular. The drama highlights the plight of mums in London during the 1950s and shows a newly qualified midwife who begins her career alongside other nursing nuns. The series shows the harrowing, poverty stricken times and the complications midwifes faced. However, there is a light-hearted aspect to the drama that shows the joyous roles within midwifey.Kathryn Ratcliffe, a community midwife in Long Eaton has been in midwifery for nearly 30 years. Working in hospitals and on the community as well as being a part of many new projects, Kathryn has seen many changes to the job role of a midwife in the past 30 years.

‘There is a lot more paperwork as with many other jobs these days, we are involved in the social aspects of midwifery a great deal and there are much more obstacles we face as a public service. For example the multi cultural communities we work in mean we face language barriers effecting our communication with patients and obviously birth rates have risen since I first began. This means there is a lot more pressure on midwifes and there simply isn’t enough midwifes to meet the targets.’

The NHS are constantly battling with the health issues caused by drinking, smoking, drugs and obesity is a huge problem in this country. Midwifes also face the battle trying to warn their women of the dangers and there job is made harder due to health problems such as obesity.

‘Times have changed and technology has developed so we have better equipment and the standards of the health service are better, but the job is no longer about simply delivering babies and looking after pregnant women. We have to identify deviation from the normal and refer our women to the appropriate consultant. Making sure the right person gets the right care.’

Equally, although times are tough for midwifes in this country Kathryn highlights how there are advantages to the depths and extents of their job expentancies.

‘There are more policies in place to keep staff, mums and babies safe and although we deal with a lot more as midwifes these days it brings a variety to the job. Each day is not the same, and on the community we help families from all cultures, backgrounds and positions.’

‘Call the midwife’ shows through it’s storylines how the art and science of midwifery has progressed over the last 50 years but the basic needs of women and their babies has remained unchanged.

Kathryn shares her views on the show

‘One born every minute’ is a reality show which shows footage from inside the labour ward. Although the programmes very popular to the public and supposed to be a ‘reality’ show, the show isn’t as appreciated by midwifes themselves.

‘I have seen it, but I wouldn’t particularly sit down and watch it, firstly it’s too much like being at work! I just feel shows like that are somewhat unethical. I know the women agree to be filmed and it’s great to show people what the birth process is like, but they chose the women that are most entertaining to watch.’

TV depictions of birth can be annoying for midwifes as the drama of giving birth has to be contained to short episodes with as much excitement, alarm, noise and agitation as possible. The advantage to these shoes is they have definitley increased peoples interest in the job.

‘It’s great that shows like these have influenced people to want to join midwifery, I’m not entirely sure they understand how much of a demanding job it is, from just watching ‘one born every minute’ but it’s great people want to. It is a very rewarding job, meeting the women and families and supporting people is a great feeling.’

To become a midwife there are more requirements than there used to be, you must hold a pre-registration qualification in midwifery at degree level. It’s great that entertainment such as these shows can have a positive effect on our country, an increase in people wanting to do a worthy, respected job is always a success.

 

If your interested in becoming a midwife there are some relevant links below

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/midwife_entry.shtml – NHS careers

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/midwives/midwifery-training/how-to-train-to-be-a-midwife/ – More info on being a midwife

http://info.britishjournalofmidwifery.com – All the best info

TV dance shows enhance attractiveness in dance

Dance is now becoming a popular activity for people to participate in; Britain’s Got Talent, Got To Dance, Dancing On Ice and Strictly Come Dancing have boosted people’s perception of dance and has encouraged thousands to strut their stuff.

 
The huge rise in people taking to the stage and having a go at dance has resulted in more and more schools offering students dance as a subject involving in a range of genres from hip hop to ballet to jazz. Social dance is also being participated in by women all across the country doing the latest craze called Zumba, which is a Latin inspired, calorie burner as a form of exercise.

 

 

11 year old Callum Nicholls from Chesterfield, also known as bboy monster has entered the dancing scene by being a member of Sky’s 1 Got To Dance series 2, Trinity Warriors. Callum said he got into dancing by: “local activity day in Barrowhill where a street dance crew (Neo Angelos) came to put some classes on and noticed me straight away.”

 
Trinity Warriors is a break dancing/bboying crew from Derby, it has opened many doors for Callum. He said that he has been recently touring with the Diversity Digitalized Tour but juggling school work when touring can be a struggle, he said: “I make sure I do all my school work before I dance and also take lots of breaks.”

 

Callum said that even people who think they can’t dance should give it a go, he said: “Just be yourself and look for ways to stand out and bring new stuff to the table.”

 

 

Dancing is not everybody’s cup of tea; you might be shy or embarrassed to hit the dance floor even on a night out. Here is a video of people from Sheffield’s views on dancing and their signature dance move.

 

 

According to the Royal Academy of Dance, 1 in 5 British adults are now hitting the dance floor, and 21% of people have become more interested in dance as a result of TV dance shows. Why not give it a go by joining your local dancing crew and enjoy having fun, meeting new people and keeping fit.

 

Relevant Links

Callum Nicholl’s Twitter: @bboytwmonster

 
Trinity Warriors Twitter: @TrinityWarriors

Diversity Twitter: @Diversity_Tweet

Neo Angelos

Directory of dance schools in the UK: UK Dance School Directory

Just why have geeky men become so popular?

The rise of the geek has been a fast and unpredicted one but now it seems more and more women want a man with intellect rather than muscles.

Recently, geeky men are becoming more and more attractive to women with men like Benedict Cumberbatch [who plays detective Sherlock Holmes], Professor Brian Cox and the current and previous Doctor Who actors, Matt Smith and David Tennant appearing on many ‘most fanciable male’ lists.

But just why have they ended up in these charts reviling the six pack clad men of Hollywood? What is it about a geek, whether the man themselves or the character they play on tv, that appeals to us women?

Though we have a very stereotypical view of geek that comes to mind as soon as we mention one, these men aren’t stereotypical in the way that they don’t hang around computers all day etc. These men are just simply actors or musicians who have a love and know a lot about what they do or love.

The characters Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith play on TV are geeks but in real life are they really geeks? What is it that women are in love with the men themselves because they are good looking/talented or is it in fact the geeky and intelligent men that they are playing on TV?

Quite frankly, were not all that sure which one it is ourselves, but either way let’s take a moment to appreciate the rise of the geek from bottom of the food chain to a very fanciable male.

Let us know your opinions on whether you find geeks attractive or not, and what exactly you think it is that has attracted women to them recently.

Pick and Mix Podcast 3

Check out this weeks podcast, we are discussing Tulisa’s sex tape, the S Club 7 reunion, the hot weather and our Easter plans.

“I’m not going to sit here and be violated” said Tulisa after her sex tape leaked online

Day’s after the sex tape emerged N-Dubz singer, 23, Tulisa denied rumours that it was her performing a sex act on somebody. The tape got on to the internet on 19^th March, charging viewers £3.90 to download it. The tape was suspended just hours later.

However, she was forced to come clean after the sex tape circulated the internet and released a confession and apology to her fans via YouTube two days later. The video was linked to her Twitter account, during the video she holds up two photographs of her and the other person in the video. The X Factor judge said that she feels ‘ extremely betrayed’.

The apology consists of Tulisa publically identifying the man in the video as her ex boyfriend Justin Edwards AKA MC Ultra. She says: “This isn’t unexpected for me; I got a call from a lot of mutual friends, people that know me that know him saying that apparently he has this footage of me that he’s been threatening to bring out for whatever reason to make money or to ruin my career”.

 

MC Ultra used his Twitter account @officialultra to deny her claims. He tweeted: “It’s nothing to do with me. #backtowork.”

The whole sex tape saga got even messier when Tulisa wanted payback by suing her ex boyfriend for breach of privacy and confidence at the High Court. DJ Ultra appeared in court on 26^th March with Tulisa demanding £100,000 for the leaking of the sex tape, he strongly denies the claims. He also released a written statement saying: “Tulisa persuaded me that we should film ourselves”, and was implying that the footage was taken on his mobile phone.

The Pick and Mix crew discussed the leaking of the footage:

Meanwhile Tulisa has released a new song days after called “Young”.

The CD’s Death? And the Vinyl Revival.

With CD sales dropping, is this the end of the music CD? And since when did vinyl become so popular again?

Throughout the years, the way in which we buy our music has changed starting out with vinyl records, onto tapes, then CD’s and now an electronic file on your computer also known as an MP3 file. The CD has been the prominent option for many years now but it is in trouble with sales falling, are we about to see the death of the CD?

CD’s first hit the music industry in back in 1982 with the release of Billy Joel’s ‘52^nd Street’ in Japan. Since then it has grown and grown overtaking previous formats and making them obsolete. In 1997, music downloading first became popular when Napster was released. Downloading music off of the internet has become popular fast because of its speed, ease and in some cases because you can get it for free by downloading it illegally.

When I was a teenager going to HMV to buy a CD was a big thing for discovering music and our parents all talk about the first record they ever bought and being able to remember it as some special event. The artwork and reading the booklet from cover to cover is definitely something I miss about a file downloaded onto my computer.

Even though the internet has opened our eyes to more music that we may never have heard of and a quicker, cheaper way of getting hold of music, has it ruined the connection that you get from buying a CD?

I spoke to Dave [@jmyorks], a journalist from Leeds about whether the internet is destined to wipe out CD’s; “the mainstream market I think will be almost exclusively served by the net in coming months never mind years. A whole generation has grown up without having a physical release to queue up for and hold.”

“I think this is purely and simply because of the culture we live in, we want it all, we want it now. Its immediate availability, hear the record, click the link, a minute later it’s on your iPod, android whatever…The fact that with albums now you can pick and choose what tracks you want.”

However, it is a good time if you are a fan of vinyl at the moment as it is making a return to popularity years after going out of fashion. More and more people are buying record players and 12’ singles/albums are making a return to shops. A lot of bands put out limited edition vinyl over the past few years to get people buying actual physical copies of music again but now it is becoming the popular way to buy music again.

I spoke to Dave about the recent revival of vinyl; “Certainly some dj’s are going back to vinyl… for some people they are becoming merely something to own and display, others it’s something to show off and collect as they usually come in limited numbers. I am tempted to think it is more about the collection and sound aspect as many vinyl releases are of albums previously released so it’s not being bought for content – maybe the sound but not the content.”

But is this just a short lived fashion statement by a culture of youngsters obsessed with reliving the past or can vinyl really make a comeback and have a place in the music market like it once did?

Again, I asked Dave his opinion; “I think it will last yes because all of the reasons above will remain and more people will discover what it’s like to hold a vinyl album and look at the sleeve notes, its old school and retro and there is a love for that.”

“if you look at the releases that are coming on National Record Store Day they are for want of a better phrase, established credible artists. Other vinyl releases tend to be artists, I would imagine, appeal more to dj’s – for example the new Ting Tings album.”

“I think once you get into vinyl you will always love it, it’s not this generations fault they never had the pleasure.”

Let us know your opinions about CD’s and vinyl.

Two vinyl records

DJ’s using vinyl

Pick and Mix Podcast 2

Have a listen to this weeks podcast about leap year, women proposing and what we hate about men and womens fashion.

Get in touch and let us know what you do and don’t like about mens fashion!

Girls getting Inked

Tattooing has been around since the Neolithic times, however it wasn’t until the 1990’s that tattoo’s became a common place in mainstream society.

The rise of girls getting ‘inked’ has risen dramatically over the last few years. As the designs become more feminine and colourful, more women are choosing to perminately mark their bodies. Celebrities like Rihanna, Katy Perry and Angelina Jolie proudly display their tattoo’s to anyone who’ll look and girls around the world are following this growing trend.

Do a spot of people watching and you’ll notice that us girls tend to go for more colourful or meaningful designs than our male counterparts, we also tend to put more thought and research into our ideas before we sit underneath a needle.

Flowers, animals, star signs, famous sayings/lyrics or a speical someones name (just don’t do a Katie Price and have to put a big cross through your ex-husbands name) are the most popular choices for women. A tattoo has the power to make you unique and give you a sense of style, they can even be worn in place of an accessory. A simple design on your wrist stops you from losing all your bracelets on a night out. Some girls even design their tattoo’s using colours that compliment their skin tone.

Although more girls are getting tattoo’s, most girls still choose a place where they can cover them up if needed: a rib cage or lower back are popular choices.

The stigma that used to be attached to tattoo’s is slowly fading and even Barbie dolls proudly show that it’s not just Sailors and Bikers that can get tattoo’s on their skin, even the Prime Minister’s wife has a tattoo!

I hit the streets and asked people what they thought of girls and tattoo’s:

Lucy 24: “I’ve only got 2 tattoo’s at the minute but I love them and want more. I don’t think any girl should be afraid to stand out.”

Hannah 18: “I got a bow tattoo’d on my wrist for my birthday and I definitely want another. Tattoo’s are just artwork on the skin they should be celebrated.”

Alan 50: “I don’t have any tattoo’s and I wouldn’t want one. I don’t understand why a beautiful girl would want to destroy her body. They’ll regret having them when they’re older.”

Sophie 35: “I’ve got a tattoo on my foot and one on my back, I got them years back and prefer to keep them covered at work, plus I’m getting older.”

Ian 43: “My daughter has a tattoo and when she first mentioned it I was a bit worried but it’s small and girly so I can cope with that. I just hope she sticks to that one.”

Here’s a few images of Girls with tattoos from Sheffield.

Is this the end of rock bands?

There has been a lot of talk about the state of rock music recently and apparently it is dead. All these articles hold no truth for me personally because I look at the rock/alternative music scene and right now especially in the UK it’s probably the best it has been in a long while and it’s set to get even better over this year.

The singles charts are full of indie, dance and r’n’b but there are bands making a name for themselves in mainstream music. Over the past couple of years, Bring Me The Horizon released their third studio album and received amazing praise from critics and fans, entering charts all over the world and getting a number one album in Australia. You Me At Six released their third album and scored a number 3 album in the UK album chart which is no mean feat for a rock band these days in a music industry saturated by pop acts. Architects released their fourth album, The Blackout and Kids In Glass Houses released their third albums and together all these bands have put the British alternative scene back on the map. Even American bands such as All Time Low and Foo Fighters put out two of the best albums of last year. So far in 2012, St Albans’ Enter Shikari and High Wycombe’s Young Guns have put out two groundbreaking albums and scored a top 5 and top 20 album respectively. Enter Shikari especially have been dubbed the voice of young people today with their lyrics which focus on society and politics, something real that you can relate to.

Magazines such as Rocksound and Kerrang! are heavily promoting the Best of British too, with both magazines putting out special issues dedicated to British rock bands of today, surely this wouldn’t be possible if rock music was ‘dead’. It seems like there has never been a better time for the alternative scene in the UK. Speaking in Rocksound magazine a couple of years ago, Josh Franceschi, lead singer of You Me At Six, spoke about why British bands are doing so well at the moment; “I think British bands have stepped up recently. There are only so many times that the same-sounding US music can come in and take over.”

If you look at festival line up’s from last year with its heavy presence of rock bands from the UK or US. Also, on daytime Radio One you will hear songs from Bring Me The Horizon and Architects, if you are not familiar with these bands their music contains screaming vocals and heavy guitar riffs, music you wouldn’t expect to hear on this station apart from on The Radio One Rock Show but to hear it in the day surely shows that rock music is making a mark that can’t be ignored.

In terms of the alternative scene it is amazingly strong and full of talent whether established like Bring Me The Horizon or up and coming like My Passion and Young Guns. But in terms of big, stadium rock bands it is not really a brilliant time for them. The UK has about 2 or 3 really big bands such as Muse and Kasabian and the US is not that much better with Green Day, Foo Fighters and Metallica. If this is what they are referring to by saying rock music is dead then I guess they are sort of right. A messed up music industry is never going to help these bands and more time and money needs to be put into finding these new artists and giving them a chance on records labels instead of dropping them straight away if record sales are bad.

But all that doesn’t mean that one of this new wave of British rock bands can’t become the next big stadium filling band to sell plenty of albums and have success worldwide as well as on these shores. It is inevitable that it will happen at some point, it is just a matter of when and who.

But don’t just take my word for it, I hit the streets to find out what other people thought about the current state of the rock music scene in the UK and in general and here is what they had to say:

• Ben Jones, 22, student from Norwich says “I think rock music is in the best place it has been in years especially in the UK. There have been so many brilliant albums and tours over the past couple of years, that if anything we are spoilt for choice.”
• Sian Halfpenny, 20, student from Sheffield says “I don’t think that rock music is having a particularly brilliant time right now, it’s not in the charts at all really. I don’t listen to rock music anyway but I think it needs to do something in order to be more popular.”
• Adam Barnes, 23, retail assistant from Leeds says “I really think the rock music is having a bit of a revival right now, being updated for the 21^st Century. There are so many amazing bands around right now which is brilliant for me as I love rock and metal music.”