A former student from Stratford-upon-Avon College is now succeeding as a Presenter and Voice Over Artist.
Jodi Hutton studied Performing Arts at Stratford-upon-Avon College from 2002-2004 and credits her time at college with being the springboard into her career.
A career in the performing arts can take all shapes and forms and the routes into such a career can vary. Jodi’s route wasn’t as straightforward as others but started with a similar passion.
Jodi started dancing from a young age, commenting: “You know how some children come out of the womb dancing?” After joining various dance classes and then a youth acting group, she decided on taking GCSE drama. However, during that course she suffered a knock to her confidence and transferred to the dance course.
It wasn’t until joining Stratford-upon-Avon College to study Performing Arts that she fell in love with acting again.
Commenting on why she chose Stratford, Jodi comments: “I was part of a youth theatre group in Rugby who do fantastic summer projects. I worked with some fantastic people and the older kids always seemed to come from Stratford-upon-Avon College. I did live a five-minute walk from my local college, and I could have studied there, however I knew Stratford-upon-Avon College was for me so I got up at 6.30 every morning, got dropped off by my mum at the next towns bus stop and took a bus for an hour just to attend. It was good for me to go further afield, to do it myself and know I was in good company with people passionate about performing arts.”
Jodi during some of her College performances
Jodi loved her time at college: “The tutors were fantastic. I’d never encountered tutors that were so approachable. They wanted you to develop your skills and for you to shine as your own individual, so I do thank them so much as that was the start of my own identity. And overall, just being given the opportunity to try.”
So what did Jodi do next? Well, a lot of her peers went to musical theatre and drama schools but due to the cost of them, Jodi wasn’t in a position to do that. She then heard of another girl at college who was auditioning for Haven Europe as a dancer and she decided to go to an audition too.
Her audition was successful, so Jodi went straight from training at college to being a performer in the south of France. The job entailed dancing, singing and presenting. Going straight to work was ideal for Jodi: “I think of it as the University of Life!” She learnt so many new skills, including learning French!
Jodi worked for a whole host of companies including Haven Europe (pictured right) and Warner Leisure (pictured left in their Strictly Come Dancing show)
She worked with various leisure holiday companies including Haven, Thompsons and TUI but it was with Warner Leisure where she fell in love with presenting. The company ran a Strictly Come Dancing tour where guests could learn dance moves and were judged by Craig Revel Horwood who would also participate in a Q&A. Jodi would present these evenings which she thoroughly enjoyed; “Lovely man that Craig!”
Since then Jodi has continued developing her career in presenting and branching into voiceover work and now works professionally as a Presenter and Voice Over Artist. Career highlights include voicing the promo that went out every evening ahead of the Spice Girls World Tour shows and presenting the MXGP Motocross Championship: “Getting to do live television was an incredible buzz!”
Photos include: Top left – Interview with MotoGP rider – credit MXGP-TV. Top right – Pre-grid interview in Russia – credit MXGP-TV. Also a behind the scenes shot of a commercial shoot and Jodi presenting in Canada
Jodi is thankful for her time training at college: “It was literally everything to me. It helped to start of rounding who I was as a person.” She also advises students to follow their own path: “Never compare yourself to others and their journeys; mine wasn’t a straight road! But if you are open to all the goodness that comes you way you can succeed.”
