Part 4
At my very first audition at Disney, I had made it passed two brutal cuts and found myself in a rehearsal hall where I learned a routine with a lot of angles and jumps. After we had a pretty good grasp of the routine, they suggested that we add the feeling of being a monkey. Before the choreography started they wanted us to improv like a monkey. Ok…
I was trying my best, but in the middle of the routine there was a jump I had never done before. To be honest, it is a common move, but at this point I had only been dancing for three years and I just hadn’t ever had the opportunity to do it. I aggressively flung myself into the air not knowing if I looked confident and powerful, or just a crazy ball of spaghetti flying aimlessly through the air.
We danced in groups of five, but this time I didn’t float off to that place I go when I’m dancing with every part of my soul. I couldn’t get there because I had no confidence in what I was doing. I knew this was where they would realize I was a fraud. I danced as hard as I could. I was too nervous. I was too much of an amateur. I felt dumb.
When we were done, a list of numbers was called.
Not me.
“If we called your number... thank you that is all we need to see….”
I. could. not. believe. it.
Then they called another list of numbers, not me. That list was asked to step outside. I watched as those women were talked to, they all smiled, cheered and then left? What was going on?
Now there were only about 20 of us. We learned one more routine. This is what I would call a character routine. If you can imagine Mickey, Minnie or a chipmunk doing it, that’s what we learned. This felt so very different because as we learned, they watched. They hadn't done that before. It was hard for me to focus on the choreography because I could feel the jury’s eyes watching us the whole time. When we got done learning, they didn’t have us do it in groups of 5. (Thank God because I honestly wasn't sure I could even remember it). Instead they had us sit down right there in the middle of the floor.
“You are being invited to our call back tomorrow night.” Everyone cheered. (Now I understand what happened outside.) “It is your job to come back prepared with all the routines you learned today including this one. Because you have a day to practice, they should be perfect.” My heart jumped from my chest to throat. Perfect? I’m not perfect. I’m a small-town dancer who loves dancing, but this was just over my head.
They dismissed us and I headed home. When I got home, I called my brother and told him all about it. (He was the one who told me about the audition - he worked the rides.) I told him how I couldn’t do the jump and I just didn’t know if I would go back. He said, “You will be going back and in the morning you will come over and I will help you.” I had no idea how he could help me, but I was going to take every bit of help I could get.
The next morning, I arrived at my brother house to find that he had found the audition music. He put speakers in the windows pointing outside. Put the music on a loop so I could practice as many times as I needed. I danced out on his lawn. Every now and then he would encouragingly yell, “Jump higher!” I did it over and over until I could disappear to that other place. Then I rested for a few hours before heading back to Disney. Here we go….
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