So I recently drove to Las Vegas for a dance audition, and I was told that I should journal all of my audition experiences, so here I am "journaling" and sharing with y'all.
About a month ago a friend of mine and fellow dancer told me about an audition being held in Las Vegas for female dancers 5'9'' and taller. We both fit that criteria and so we decided that we would make this journey together.
This past weekend was the audition. Now, originally we were going to start driving at about 2:45, then we changed it to 3:15. However, we didn't actually leave until 4:30, this was because as my friend was driving home from teaching her tire blew out.
Anyways, we were all packed and got on the road. Many of the snack that were supposed to also come with us got left :-( oh well.... It is amazing though how much "nothing" there is between the San Francisco Bay Area and Las Vegas. When we were hungry for dinner, we couldn't find anyplace to eat!! Finally we stopped in Boron, CA and ate the only restaurant they have called Domingos. It was actually pretty good, and it was also open late which good because we got there at about 10:30pm. The management liked us....primarily because my friend who is a tall white girl like me speaks Spanish almost fluently (definite plus in many situations). After a nice dinner and receiving pens for gifts we set back "on the road again". There isn't much to tell about the drive because like I said there was a lot of nothing so yeah...not very interesting. We just talked most of the drive.
Finally at about 2am we arrived at our hotel in Las Vegas and immediately crashed. Our check out time was supposed to be 11am but since we were sooooo exhausted and we didn't have to be at the audition until 1pm we asked if we could have a later check in, and it got pushed to 12pm. At about 10:30-11 we started waking up, showering, getting dressed, and getting all gussied up. the excitement was beginning!!! Then my friend pulled out her aqua leotard she was planning to wear for the audition, only to discover that somehow her pointe shoe glue had leaked onto her leotard, and there was now a big hard mess on her leotard. (and yes she did have the glue separate in a ziploc, but somehow it still leaked) She wanted to cry, and I wanted to cry for her, but she wasn't about to let a leotard ruin the experience or the audition and luckily she had brought a back-up (it was just black instead of a color).
We left the hotel found the dance studio where the audition was being held, ate a cliff bar, and went inside. We checked in, and submitted our headshots and resumes. We were the first to check in so our audition numbers were #1 and #2. Finally, other girls arrived, and we all went inside the room to learn the audition routine.
There were about 20 girls, and some were even taller than me, and I'm 5'11'' so that was pretty exciting. I was finally dancing with people who weren't midgets!! The routine was taught really quickly, and they didn't alternate lines or split us into two groups, so there was a lot of people trying not to kick other people. Once they taught the routine, they took all of us out of the room and brought us back in two at a time. My friend and i were the first two to be brought back in and do the routine, while everyone else practiced out in the hallway/lobby. The first time we did it, it was horrible. There were forgotten steps, wrong arms, ....yeah. Then we got to do it a second time, and we did it!! Yay!! It just wasn't as sharp and precise as we both know they were looking for. The entire audition experience lasted 1 hour, and then we left to have lunch/dinner and get back on the road. 20 hours of driving for a 1 hour audition...we are crazy!!
We probably won't get an email informing us that we are hired, but we both learned a lot from the experience. I first of all started getting an audition wardrobe together, because I bought all new stuff for this audition. I also learned that I need to be able to learn choreography faster and more precisely instead of being worried about how to "show off my personality". The overall technique of the audition wasn't difficult, the choreography was just insanely fast, and there was a lot of choreography for the arms so if you didn't do it accurately or fast enough they would get tied up in knots around your body. I think I want to start taking hip hop because even though hip hop is a different style than this audition it would get me used to learning and doing fast sharp precise movements with my limbs. Something that Ballet, Modern, and even a lot of Jazz classes don't emphasize.
After the audition we drove home, and arrived back into the Bay Area around 2am, just in time to get s"some" sleep before classes later that morning.
Were we crazy to drive all that way for this audition? Yes! Do we regret it? No! Would we do it again? Probably. Did we have fun? Absolutely! And did we learn things to take back with us? Most importantly....yes!!
Here is a picture I took of myself in our hotel room, just before leaving for the audition studio.
