Even though Katie Holtom is still in her second year of university she's already making waves in the performance world.
Sat in her uni bedroom, she tells us how she's been dancing since she was a kid.
"Because the whole family did it, I think it was one of those things that we all did together.
"We started off with one [style of dance] and went through the rest.
“[We started our medals] between the age of 5 and 7 at Lyntone [dance school] in Wythall Park.
“I finished my medals when we were in about year 8 or 9, there’s 35 medals you’ve got to do to finish the whole thing.
“And I finished my international supremes.” She adds.
“That was with Peterbrook Players, all the musicals that I did: ‘Singing In The Rain’, ‘Annie’
“‘Annie’ was the first one. I did that for 5 years and then I had to come to uni.
“My uni course is physical theatre, it’s not like musical theatre. Rather than acting, singing dancing altogether it’s kind of like just a mess of everything all at once”
But she’s not just a performer, she also teaches and choreographs.
“Outside of my course at the dance society I’m the contemporary teacher and the competition squad teacher.
“We got second at my first comp as chorographer,” she squeals, clearly excited and proud of her students.
“Next weekend I’m in Sheffield doing a comp.
“Three hours on a coach.” She adds, groaning, not happy at the thought of a long drive.
As well as her teaching, she’s continuing to develop her skills by performing at a physical theatre festival.
“It’s called First Bite Festival in Leicester at Attenborough Arts Centre, its run by a company called China Plate who try and get new companies and new talent out there so that they can get their work seen.
“It’s quite a big deal that were in this festival, we’ve had to apply, there’s a whole process to it.” She says, obviously proud her group have this opportunity.
“Our company is called Turkey and Cranberry Sauce,” She laughs. “Because of funny things that happen in lesson.
“The piece that were doing is called ‘More Than Just A Number’. It’s about how many people die in a natural disaster.
“We’ve got 6 chairs which are white being moved around and because they’ve got this nice flat white surface they’re being project on.” She says, waving her arms around to demonstrate.
“There’s a cup of sand and it gets poured behind these chairs and the sand that going down gets turned into a drop of water on a projection, that then fills up on these chairs, so it looks like that stage is filling with water.” She explains, clearly excited about the technicalities of her piece.
“That’s a physical theatre piece.”
Katie goes on to talk about her future in a candid way “It’s less dance, its more physical theatre that I want to go into.
“I did theatre at sixth form and I think that kind of got me into physical theatre so that’s why I took it at uni.
It’s clear to us that Katie has a natural talent but is very modest with her ambition.
“That’s what I want to do, but we’ll see.” She laughs.
Thank you to Katie for speaking to us and we wish Turkey and Cranberry Sauce all the best in their upcoming festival.
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