So I had an audition on Sunday for a ballet performance that my studio is doing in February. It's a series of three fairy tales. Should be very cool.
Sunday morning I wandered around the house, already wearing my regulation black leotard and pink tights, trying not to be nervous. I listened through the music for a few of the pieces (I'm mixing the music for my instructor, so I had it on hand) and finally made myself sit down and chill out. I watched an episode of Firefly and had a bowl of cereal.
Jenny and I got to the studio a half hour early to warm up. I put on my pointe shoes, did a short barre, and practiced the pirouette that I knew I was going to encounter. It's a little above my head just now.
This was my first audition. All the usual suspects were there. We danced in front of a guest panel of judges sitting on stools with clipboards while our instructor paced and whispered and pointed.
Somethings I did well and others I didn't. I didn't do the pointe work as well I could and I botched the pirouette. I tried a few parts out that were outside my comfort zone, and once, I managed to forget that the judges with clipboards were there and really dance.
In the green room, we stretched and paced, waiting (hoping) to hear our names called for a repeat performance. We clustered into groups to review choreography. A circle of yarn bunnies knitted and crocheted, well swaddled in leg-warmers and dance sweaters.
Some of my classes at the studio earlier last week were rather tense. You would have thought the audition had already started. People were demurely fighting for the spots at the front of the room and pushing into each other's dance space. Everyone was focused and sweating. Very little chit-chat. I was glad to see that most of that had evaporated by the time the real audition began. In the face of the four judges with clipboards, we huddled together for support.
After the audition was over, we all went back to what we had been doing for the weeks before it started: forecasting and fortune telling.
The cast list goes up today. There are two parts that I’d really like to have to opportunity to play. Everything I tried for would be fun. And, of course, I’ll be happy to get anything at all. Time will tell.