After spending hours in the studio perfecting their moves, dancers enter their audition with confidence knowing each hour of preparation was worth it. These dancers know that just showing up to audition won’t cut it and that practice makes perfect.
A lot of preparation, like conditioning, mental prep and technique went into the audition long before entering the audition room. For some dancers, that meant showing up to clinics, taking advice and watching choreography videos
“They sent out videos and we had to learn it within a week and a half, and it was a really nice process because they gave us time to learn, and I could go over videos of me dancing and give myself notes,” freshman Itzeli Valentin said. “They provided a clinic for us about a month before the audition which helped me figure out how the coaches teach, and I really got to see what I needed to work on.”
Even with enough prep and practice, the auditions caused a lot of tension and nervousness. When auditioning, there was a lot of competition between dancers and the fact that dancers know they’re judged on their skill can be nerve-wracking.
“During the whole process, I was really in my head a lot, thinking that I wasn’t doing good, but in reality, I really was,” Valentin said. “Overall, I think I danced the best I could, but I was pretty nervous.”
The structure of the audition process impacted how dancers prepared. Auditions spanned through multiple days, and each day built on new skills and combos to show off their quick learning ability and proficiency.
“The first day was our skills test,” Arecco said. “[We did] turns, jumps, and then after, the group of people that [were] auditioning all came in the dance room and we just practiced the audition combos.”
With the first two days being learning and showing off skills, all the anticipation leads up to the third and final day of the audition. Each hour of preparation and practice comes together in their combo performances.
“On the third day we came back and everyone was in their slick back hair and performance makeup, and this time there were three judges as well as all of the coaches,” Arecco said. “We did four eight-counts of jazz improv, we did three consecutive hip hop tricks of our choice, and then we auditioned the two combos, then after that, we went into the old gym for callbacks.”
Dancers can base their preparation on the goals they set for themselves. These goals often reflect what team they want to make.
“For my audition, my goal was to move from frosh to JV or varsity, and to achieve these goals, I trained a lot, and I achieved moving up,” Arecco said. “Since I had so much practice, I also learned some new stuff.”
It was Valentin’s first year auditioning for the dance teams. Having experience with auditions in the past relieved some pressure, although some auditions can feel different: the atmosphere, intensity, and stakes.
“I have done auditions at my studio, and I’ve done lots of auditions, but this one was different since I’ve never auditioned for such a big team before, and so that’s probably what made me really nervous,” Valentine said. “Doing [auditions] in the past definitely made me relax a little more, because I knew that everything will be fine.”
