That Very First Audition - Part 1

Part 1

For my very first Disney audition, I pulled into the parking lot with unreasonably too much confidence. I parked, grabbed my keys and hopped out of the car.  It was a warm January morning, not a cloud in the sky. With a little skip in my step, I headed toward the backstage entrance.

Then, I froze.

There was a line of hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of beautiful, perfectly shaped dancers who were incredibly more prepared.  I walked in between cars and down aisle after aisle toward the end of the line. Each woman had a back pack full of who knows what.  I kept walking past girls chatting about their other auditions and previous experience. 

When I finally arrived at the back of the line, I stood there in silence - no backpack, no experience, no idea what I was doing there.  I was trying with all my might to keep my feet planted there.  Then, the girl in front of me pulled out her headshot and resume.  She turned to me and said, “I was thinking of redoing, my headshot.  Do you like yours?  Who did yours?” 

I didn’t have a headshot.  I didn’t have a resume.  What was I doing?

“I… um…”  My eyes shot from her, to her resume, to the long line, to my basic outfit, to the lonely keys in my hand, to her again.  With no explanation, I turned around ready to run when suddenly there was a woman in front of me.  She was holding a piece of paper, a sticky label and smiling.

She said, “Hi.” She started writing a number on the paper and handed it to me. “I just need you to fill this out.” Then, she wrote the same number on a sticky label, put it on my first finger.  “And put this right here.” She pointed to her Disney name tag.  For a second, I imagined my name on a Disney name tag and it gave me just enough confidence to put the sticky label on my shirt.  I was number 254 and the line had quickly grown behind me.

I looked down at the paper and the first thing they wanted was my name.  I could do that.  I sat on the warm black pavement of the parking lot.  Next, I had to fill in my phone number.  Easy.  Next was my availability.  Done.  Then my experience.  Uh oh.  I wrote down the small town studio where I danced, the company where I choreographed (which was actually just my high school dance team) and that was it.  I looked over and headshot girl had every line filled in.  Ok, now was when I was really leaving.

I stood up only to see the line was moving into the backstage area.  I wanted to see behind the scenes of Disney so much, so I followed along.  What was beyond that security gate?

A typical audition line half way through the day,
this line represents about 1/3 of the women auditioning.

(For Part 2 - click here.)