How do you unwind at the weekend?
I run and take part in an open hip hop dance class, OC Crew at Deanby Youth Club each Saturday afternoon. This particular class caters for intermediate and advanced level dancers, but I also run classes for all ages during the week. Later I'll usually meet up with friends at someone's house or go out to a club in the city.
What do you recall most about weekends growing up?
I would always go to my granny's early on a Saturday for tea and toast, but I'd have been dancing most of my spare time at the weekends. I got into dancing through a dance group called Rapture Crew and I started when I was five. On a Sunday, the whole family would go to my other granny's and my grandad would cook us dinner. He'd do a proper roast or a gammon and there would have been a seat to sit on with all the grandkids there.
Do you have a must listen radio programme or podcast?
I don't really listen to radio programmes or podcasts but if I am listening to music it would be R'n'B or hip hop. If there’s something specific I want to listen to I will find the instrumental track. For a dancer it's important to hear the beats rather than the words. Working with NI Opera on Nobody/Somebody has been such a different experience for me because it isn't about creating dance routines, but focusing more on creating movement with the acting. The music in opera and how it all works is really interesting and quite new to me.
Is there a must-watch TV programme or Netflix?
I just finished in one day the whole third season of Outer Banks. I am also very into true crime documentaries: I generally like to watch real life stories more than fiction.
Is Sunday still special?
Sunday is still very special. Although my granny has now passed, we all still go and spend time with my grandad to keep him company. She was my greatest supporter and as soon as this opportunity came my way as a youth counterpart movement director with NI Opera, I thought she'd really be so happy to see me go for it.
Do you have a favourite eatery or is it a takeaway?
I absolutely love Ryan's Bar on the Lisburn Road.
How do you feel on Sunday night about Monday morning?
As a kid I always had the Monday blues, always making excuses not to go to school, but now Monday to me is a fresh start, a new opportunity to get done what you didn't do the week before. It is a new way of looking at it for me.
Nobody/Somebody by Neil Martin and Fionnuala Kennedy opens at the Elmwood Hall in Belfast on Friday March 3 and continues until Sunday March 5, NIopera.com
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