Dance Australia – June-July 2017

JUNE / JULY 2017 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

UDITIONING for a

full-timedancecourseisa

defining moment in a young

dancer’slife.Itrepresentsa

commitment to the sector;

ashiftfromdanceasan

interesttodanceasa

vocation;it’sthefirststepinto

theworldofthedance

profession. For many dancers it will also be

their first experience of an audition.

Whileauditionstrategiesvaryfromschoolto

school, participation in some kind of class is

probablytheoneaspectoftheauditionprocess

that is common to all institutions, and indeed

professional companies. With that in mind, we

have surveyed a selection of full-time dance

schoolsfromaroundAustralia,acrossarangeof

disciplines,tofindoutwhatstudentscanexpect

from an audition class. We’ve published their

responses after this article.

For me, as a wannabe full-time dance student

backin1996,theprospectoftheauditionclass

wasaterrifyingmystery.Morethan20years

laterIcanclearlyrememberthemomentthatI

turnedthecornertodiscoveracorridorof

limberingbodies;amassoflimbsstrivingfor

180degreeangles.Theterrorofseeingmy

competition was nothing, however, compared to

the fear of the great unknown... the audition

GREAT

EXPECTATIONS

A

36 / AUDITION SPECIAL

classitself.Wouldwehavetojostleforprime

positions?Woulditbecrazydifficult,designed

to weed out the faint-hearted and incapable?

Wouldexercisesbeshownonceandtoobadif

you missed something?

In retrospect, I had missed one very important

characteristicoftheauditionclass.Itisn’ta

Hunger Games-style elimination. Rather it is a

chanceforthepaneltogettoknowyouasa

dancer;toseewhereyouareattechnicallyand

artistically, how you respond to instructions, how

youabsorbnewchoreography.

Moreimportantly,asthisisanauditionfora

schoolandnotacompany,it’saboutlookingat

yourpotentialaswellasyourcurrentskill

capabilities.

As an audition candidate, one thing that

worriedmegreatlywasthedifficultylevelofmy

audition class. What if it was too hard?

Lookingattheresponsesfromtheschools

we’ve surveyed, two things are clear. One is that

mostschoolsarequitespecificaboutthelevelat

whichtheclasswillbepitched,soifyoufeel

unsureabouttheauditionclassforaschoolnot

listedhere,itisdefinitelyworthgettingintouch

with the administration and asking this question.

Theotheristhatmostschoolsdonotpitchtheir

audition classes “as hard as possible” because

they want to see a student’s basic training and

technique in action.

WhatIalsodidn’tappreciate,asayoung

dancer,isthatanauditionclassmightbemore

formalthantheaverageclassbutitisstillaclass.

Talkingtoteachersfromvariousschoolsand

colleges, it is clear that they anticipate that

audition candidates will vary in capability. Most

teacherssaythatitisacceptabletoaskquestionsif

you are unsure or require clarification.

That said, the pace of the audition and the

expectations of the teacher will vary from school

to school, and your experience of the audition

will depend, in part, on your training and

background. While I can recall being pleasantly

surprisedtodiscoverthatthecontemporary

audition class was a similar standard to the open

classesIhadbeentakinginpreparationforthe

audition, I can also remember asking if

something could be demonstrated on the left and

beingtoldwithafriendlysmile,“No.”Iguess

that was a skill they wanted to test.

It’s also important to bear in mind that, while

it’s normal to want to know what to expect,

auditions are, by nature, about the unexpected.

Intheleaduptoyouraudition,seeifyoucan

findsomenewclassestotake,withdifferent

teachers in unfamiliar studios. Look for open

classes with unset work.

So read up on the school’s audition

informationandthentakeadeep breath and

embrace the unexpected.

What will my audition class be like?

Nina Levy investigates.