Carol Walton trained at the London Contemporary Dance School and her professional work includes The Muppet Show, Dick Whittington and various television appearances in London and Paris. Carol is pleased to be returning to Starlight Express London after touring with the show in Japan.
Taking Part[]
Carol Walton appeared in the London production of Starlight Express. She was also a member of the Company which took the show to Japan.
At School
"I went to school in S.E. London. At primary school I did very little drama or dance though I will never forget taking a very small role in a nativity play. I was standing at the rear of the stage, moved very slightly and fell off backwards. I felt absolutely humiliated.
When I was 11, I went to Sydenham Comprehensive School. It was in the second year that I really became intested in movement. We were lucky because, unlike most schools, we had two dance teachers. Often students would join them, usually from the Laban Centre. In my second year we had a Laban class and I found myself fascinated in how you could communicate through body movement.
At Sydenham it was possible (because of staffing) for the teachers to organise a "performance group". We met after school and took our dance creations to festivals as well as to the Cockpit Theatre. I even took dance as a CSE subject.
It was whilst I was at secondary school that I began to take dance lessons. I learned tap and modern.
I stayed at school to take my "A" levels, but continued to involve myself with dance. I took leads in school reviews and got great pleasure from performing.
Out to Work
"A" levels came and went. I decided that I ought to "get a proper job". I applied to a number of banks - without success - and also took an interview for adission to the Civil Service. Now I had considered going to a dance school or college on leaving school and it might be that my failure to get a position in a bank shaped my career. So whilst I was waiting for a reply from the Civil Service I took an audition at the London School of Contemporary Dance and was offered a place. I managed to get a grant, left the Civil Service (who wanted me too!) and went to study dance for 3 years.
Training begins...
Whilst I was at LSCD I spent many of my weekends at Interchange, an art college in Kentish Town to study jazz. It was there that I met Michelle Scott. She ran a contemporary jazz group called Corps De Jazz which choreographed all kinds of movement to jazz music.
...but what then?
College life ended. The experience ended. The experience I had had with Corps De Jazz together with the professional training I had undertaken at LSCD gave me the confidence to work with adults - teaching keep fit, jazz. I was continuing to perform with Corps De Jazz but the group was not commercial. I was just given expenses.
Into Theatre
I decided (in about 1985) to try to take my career further. I began auditioning. I joined an Afro Caribbean Dance Company (Dance Company Seven) and for the first time I was paid as a dancer! It felt marvellous.
At about this time I took an audition for the Muppet Show on Tour and was offered a part... Miss Piggy. We worked for 3 months in Liverpool followed by a 3 month tour of England and 3 weeks in Paris. Unemployment followed, relieved by a Skipping Tour (called Jump Hope for Heart) for the Co-op. The tour party consisted of ten dancers. We travelled across England meeting children in schools. We tried to encourage our classes to take exercise in their leisure time - rather than just sit in front of TV sets and frow fat! The tour ended. Unemployment once again.
Developing a career
I was soon back at work, in a pantomime at Bath. But pantomimes have a limited season and once again unemployed. I earned money as a temporary clerical assistant.
Something would turn up...
Starlight...
I had tried to get into the cast of Starlight several times. I had auditions, but was not offered a place in the Company. I could dance but I could not sing. I realised that if I was to take my career further I needed to sing. So I took lessons.
My third audition for Starlight was successful, though the very idea of dancing on skates was mind-blowing, and I became a "Swing" (understudy).
...as a swing
Being a swing is particularly hard. You are not on every night, so you never really have the chance to grow into your skates. I covered three minor parts - the three female components. The rehearsals were fine. I could do the toe-stop work although the choreograpy was quite difficult to learn. The real problem was mastering the set. It's a nightmare going down that S-bend for the first time.
Rehearsals were physically demanding. You are on skates pretty well all day. Every time you stopped you felt cramp in the feet and aches in the most unusual places. Incidentally, all the time I was a swing I continued to go to singing lessons. This was to prove most valuable.
On Tour
In 1989 Starlight toured Japan. I had tried to become a carriage "swing" in the London Production and was very happy to be chosen to "cover a carriage" for the touring Company. This company was made up of some of the London Company and some new players. It was a marvellous experience for me. I did Ashley quite a lot - including the first night in Tokyo.
Back to London
The tour over, I rejoined the London Company and stayed as a "swing" until Autumn 1990. I then began rehearsals for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat... the new production which opened in the summer of 1991 at the "London Palladium".
Looking Back
I suppose I've come a long way since falling off the stage in my Brockley primary school. But I've learned a lot. To succeed in theatre you need to work hard and make yourself the best that you can possibly be. I think the tough things which happened to me after I had left college - looking for work, improving my skills and techniques, unemployment, auditions - gave me the confidence to go on. It's so very easy to give up and run away.
