A few hours ago I got home from what should be my last college dance audition. I'll probably have more auditions in the future, but hopefully none of them will be to get into a college dance department.
At first, I wasn't nervous at all, because I wasn't too interested in the University of Southern Mississippi. USM was my Plan B at that point. But after taking the tour and figuring out numbers and thinking about things, I realized that USM is actually pretty awesome.
They've already given me a scholarship which won't cover everything, but covers a lot. Add my financial aid in, and I'll pretty much be okay. I'll need a job on campus, but one of the students we talked to said it's really easy to get a job on campus.
Plus, their dance department is really good. They're very centered around modern, but they still have plenty of ballet. And apparently, they've started doing pointe classes once a week for the first time in five years. Most days students have two dance classes, one ballet and one modern, and they have all kinds of assignments and dancing opportunites. It sounds like a real challenge, but a challenge I need.
Aand it's not too far away from home. Right now, my other college option is Texas A&M, which is 12 hours from home. I wouldn't mind so much, except that I really want to be able to come home fairly often to see old friends and attend Briarwood Ballet performances. If I was in Mississippi, it'd be a piece of cake.
So after thinking about all of these things, I started to get a little nervous about the audition, but I tried to maintain my cool. I tried to go in wanting only to dance. I must say, I think I did well. I felt fairly relaxed, for the most part, and really enjoyed all the dancing and the teachers. Which is saying something, since I was dancer #3.
If you know anything about dance auditions, you know that when you check-in, you are given a number and you pin that number to your leotard. The class is organized by number, so once you start doing things in groups, it'll be "Numbers 1-8, then numbers 9-16," etc. Being in the first group is torture. You have the least amount of time to learn the combinations. And I was #3.
There were only 16 dancers, so we went in groups of four. That made it very intimidating, being one of only four people standing in that huge studio. It's kind of a stupid feeling, though. I mean, you want the judges to look at you, right? But anyway, I feel like I did pretty well, aside from a few mishaps such as the "Jesus" pose... so christened by a girl in my modern class at Briarwood. Long story, but suffice to say that I suck at it, and we had to do it in a combination.
And then there's the matter of solos... USM requires each dancer to perform a one-minute solo. Since I was #3, I had to go near the beginning. I actually choreographed a pretty cool solo, if I do say so myself. I was proud of it. And I forgot the last half of it.
I don't know what my problem was today. I got my angles messed up some time after my shoulder roll and then I guess I got confused and then just blanked out. So... IMPROV!! I honestly can't remember what all I did, but I'm pretty sure it was boring as heck. But hey, I still enjoyed it. My basic thought process was this... "Um, what am I doing again? Dancing. Can't remember the next step. Oh well. Use your ribcage, there you go. Better roll here. Good. Aaah, dancing! Thank you, Lord, for letting me dance! Maybe if I look inspired they won't notice that I have no idea what I'm doing! Oh, the end of the song is coming up. Throw in a cool arm and look satisfied. Good job, Dexter."
And that was my audition. I should get my results in mid-April.
--Dexter
