Greetings from dance auditions.

I’m here at summer musical auditions. These are the callbacks–regular auditions were earlier in the week. When I arrived I was told were were expecting almost 60 kids!

That was an ninety minutes ago. In the last hour and fifteen minutes, I auditioned 54 children.

They came in in groups of 10 to 15. I quickly taught their little 33-second combination, did it with them twice, then divided the group in half and had each half-group do it for me twice. There have been some familiar faces– a handful of kids from last summer are back again, most of them a little taller. 🙂

Now I’m at a bit of a lull (since I’ve seen almost everyone), but I’ve just been informed I’ll probably see one more group of “stragglers” before the day is out.

….so I’m going to sign off an get ready for that. Just wanted to “check in” with the blogosphere during my break. 🙂 Later!

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Competition, Choreography & Auditions

Competiton season for our studio kicked off last weekend. Last Friday I met up with the studio director and we drove up to a college campus for the first day of competition.

We only had three students competing that day, one of whom was my dancer. We arrived at the venue early, expecting to check-in early and have plenty of time to warm up our students. When we got there, however, we learned that the performance hall would not even be open until 30 minutes before the first act! We waited outside for an hour– luckily it was a beautiful day– and I played with the boss’ four-year-old while we waited for our girls to arrive.

It was my dancer’s very first competition and she had been nervous in the days leading up to it, so I wrote her a nice encouraging note to read before she went on. For this first competition she would be performing in soft shoes instead of pointe shoes, which I thought was a nice way to “warm up” to competing.
Finally, the performance hall was open. I gave my student a speedy- quick barre, she went through her solo once, and then it was time to go backstage. She was the second number on (no time to get too nervous!), and she did a really lovely job! Near the beginning she forgot a step, but she kept moving and didn’t let it show on her face, and the judges didn’t pick up on it. 🙂 I told her I was very proud of her.

I didn’t stay for the awards ceremony (they were at 9pm!), but I learned the next day that my dancer won first in her division.
***
Tomorrow afternoon is callback/dance auditions for the 2 musicals I’ll be working on this summer, Willy Wonka, Jr and Beauty & the Beast, Jr. I’m heading over there right after my classes to audition kiddos for both shows. They’ll be dancing a little combination to a fun song called “Think Positive” from Willy Wonka, and then they’re going to do some chasses across the room to another song. I’m really excited about working on these musicals– I had such a blast with Godspell last summer.
***
Throughout all this I’ve been plugging away at recital choreography. I only have ten dances this year (only ten!) and so far four of them are finished. Hopefully I’ll knock out another two next week. I love the feeling of satisfaction that comes from completing a dance. 🙂
***
That’s my dance update for now. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to eat a nice dinner and hit the hay early– I’ve got a long day of dance tomorrow.

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Aside: Sad news

We found out yesterday that Craig’s cousin Donnie passed away. We are on the road to East Texas right now for the funeral. Please keep his family in your thoughts & prayers during this time. Thank you.

I’ll update again when we get back.

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Aside: All in a day’s work

Today was the first day back at dance after spring break. It was a great night– I finished two recital dances for my Creative Movement classes, and made good progress on the Contemporary dance for my Level Threes (they’re the only non-beginner class I have, so their dance is…complex. It’s looking nice, and will look even better once it is finished and cleaned!). Competitions begin this coming Friday (!) and recital costumes have almost all arrived. There’s a lot of excitement in the air around our studio.

…but the nicest moment happened when I was sitting in a circle stretching a class of 3-and-4 year-olds. Out of nowhere the little girl next to me stood up, threw her arms around me, and declared “I love you!”

This prompted her classmates to follow suit, and within seconds they were all were near-shouting “I love you!” and piling on me for hugs.

I love my job.

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