The Corona Diaries: Evonnee Bentley-Holder

These recent times have been some of the hardest challenges we've faced and as a community, it hit us pretty hard. However during these difficult times, here at Pocket Size Theatre, we wanted to spread a little positivity and share some peoples experiences because we are all in this together. Each day we'll be speaking to our friends in the industry to share their experiences with you all so take a read and see how people are getting through these hard times. 

Let's stick together, share the love and get through this as a community!

Evonnee Bentley-Holder was most recently seen in Sleeping Beauty at the York Theatre Royal. Her other credits include Ensemble in Doctor Dolittle (UK Tour); Mimi and Dance Captain in Guys and Dolls (Royal Exchange); Dancer in Reflection Route (Union Dance) and Dancer in Bridgerton (Netflix). 

On Monday 16th March 2020, The Society of London Theatre announced the closure of all Theatres in London. This followed suit with regional venues. Where were you when you found out and what was your initial reaction? 

I was in between performing work therefore I would have been either teaching, auditioning or working part-time. And although the news was sad, I expected it to happen and was slightly surprised that it didn't happen before. When you put things into perspective, everyone's health comes first in a major event like this.

Can you tell us anything productive you’ve been doing?

I've definitely tried to be productive and some days I'm on it and other days I'm really not! I do like to be busy so I try to fill my time with loads of little projects to jump into. I started lockdown by tentatively trying to make a showreel and it actually turned out to be pretty good so I have kind of discovered a new talent for editing and have put together showreels for a friend. I'm in the process of studying to be a Level 3 Personal Trainer so I'm continuing to study this and I've done a little bit of teaching for an online charity event called Dance Against Racism Day, which was awesome! I feel like I've been bitten by the choreographing and teaching bug again so I'm setting up some more workshops for children and adults, as I can't wait to do more! Also I've done a bit more cooking, more specifically cake baking! I also gave myself the goal of completing a 10k in lockdown- I only achieved 9.8k but I'm to still take that as a win!