Weekend over
Aug. 29th, 2005 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethlakshmiWell... it's done. I've now done both the Saturday paid gig and the Baby Dolls audition. The audition went pretty well, although there was some slightly embarassing costume failure. It didn't slow down my dance, or throw me off my game, but it was ...umm... sharing a little more with the audience than I necessarily wanted to.
Looking at it now - this is the first dance audition I've ever been to. All the other stuff I've done has been either open sign-up, part of a greater group - like Navarasa or Anne's troupe, by invitation, or done through friends. I did theater auditions long ago - most of them done within some existing structure - high school theater, summer programs, college theater, iSebastiani - so that the pool was very small, and the audition very structured. This was more a classic audition - bring a peice, do it, hand in your form, maybe a brief discussion with the auditioners. Even when you audition for friends, it isn't easy. In fact, it was surprisingly draining, emotionally.
Some of it is figuring out the balance between![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
new_man and mermaidlady as my dearest friends - the ones who I'd call to bail me out of the most delicate and embarassing situations I could ever imagine. Who also happen to be the producer and artistic director of the Baby Dolls - so there's a certain balance between being my friends and being my bosses and judges.
Some of it is just the sheer act of doing dance to be judged. I've done competitions before for SCA events - where you may win some kudo or prize for being particularly good - but most of the time, the competition feels more like an excuse to have a bunch of performances. Since I don't really need an excuse to perform - the audience energy is usually enough of a "payment". But in an audition, there isn't much audience energy - first, there's not many faces in the room, and second, the faces there are thinking analytically. Hopefully the audience energy comes later, when you prove you kick ass.
In the end - mission accomplished. I'm in the troupe, and that's all that really matters. I know that over time, my reputation, and therefore the amount of stage time (I'm a big ham, so the biggest payoff to me is more time with the audience) will be determined by the long term relationship with the troupe. I figure they will be looking for the typical things:
- leet dance skills
- good body
- charisma
- ability to follow through on commitments
- ability to follow direction
- teamwork skills - not being a diva
- other skills/labor - costuming, makeup, propaganda, etc
- general time invested in the troupe
And so... the harder I work - the better the return on investment. I like that trade. I'm can do that.
Here on Monday morning, I'm sitting, thinking, where did my weekend go? Usually dance is a heck of a lot of fun, but this was a lot of work. I think the difference is that a lot of prep work was done alone. I'm used to working by myself, but I usually spend a lot of time working in classes, and troupes, too. At least two nights, most weeks. This week - I spent no nights in dance classes - and every night Wed-Sat, I worked on some aspect of dancing. I'm gonna have to change that. I clearly need the people time to be happy.
But that should be doable. Aside from Thursday class, where I am sure the dancing ladies will be willing to provide an audience now and again, and where just dancing for the joy of dancing is a Good Thing, I have two other plans:
- more time spent withjezebelpussycat - of course, I'm the teacher on this one - but it gets me some person-to-person Indian dance time, which is sorely missed, now that Aparna is out of town again. And I bet I can ask her to witness me while I practice, just to have a little bit of audience energy. Might be a neat experiment. I so rarely get to watch Aparna dance, but thinking on it, just watching her might do me good - give me places to aim for and aspects of dance to think about.
- ropemermaidlady into some practices. Maybe, as the troupe grows, we will morph into a regular practice with the other dancers, but for now, at least, I bet I can talk her into shiny-thing sewing circles together, and practicing and critiquing each other's dances. Then, at least, it's not so lonesome.
Looking at it now - this is the first dance audition I've ever been to. All the other stuff I've done has been either open sign-up, part of a greater group - like Navarasa or Anne's troupe, by invitation, or done through friends. I did theater auditions long ago - most of them done within some existing structure - high school theater, summer programs, college theater, iSebastiani - so that the pool was very small, and the audition very structured. This was more a classic audition - bring a peice, do it, hand in your form, maybe a brief discussion with the auditioners. Even when you audition for friends, it isn't easy. In fact, it was surprisingly draining, emotionally.
Some of it is figuring out the balance between
new_man and mermaidlady as my dearest friends - the ones who I'd call to bail me out of the most delicate and embarassing situations I could ever imagine. Who also happen to be the producer and artistic director of the Baby Dolls - so there's a certain balance between being my friends and being my bosses and judges. Some of it is just the sheer act of doing dance to be judged. I've done competitions before for SCA events - where you may win some kudo or prize for being particularly good - but most of the time, the competition feels more like an excuse to have a bunch of performances. Since I don't really need an excuse to perform - the audience energy is usually enough of a "payment". But in an audition, there isn't much audience energy - first, there's not many faces in the room, and second, the faces there are thinking analytically. Hopefully the audience energy comes later, when you prove you kick ass.
In the end - mission accomplished. I'm in the troupe, and that's all that really matters. I know that over time, my reputation, and therefore the amount of stage time (I'm a big ham, so the biggest payoff to me is more time with the audience) will be determined by the long term relationship with the troupe. I figure they will be looking for the typical things:
- leet dance skills
- good body
- charisma
- ability to follow through on commitments
- ability to follow direction
- teamwork skills - not being a diva
- other skills/labor - costuming, makeup, propaganda, etc
- general time invested in the troupe
And so... the harder I work - the better the return on investment. I like that trade. I'm can do that.
Here on Monday morning, I'm sitting, thinking, where did my weekend go? Usually dance is a heck of a lot of fun, but this was a lot of work. I think the difference is that a lot of prep work was done alone. I'm used to working by myself, but I usually spend a lot of time working in classes, and troupes, too. At least two nights, most weeks. This week - I spent no nights in dance classes - and every night Wed-Sat, I worked on some aspect of dancing. I'm gonna have to change that. I clearly need the people time to be happy.
But that should be doable. Aside from Thursday class, where I am sure the dancing ladies will be willing to provide an audience now and again, and where just dancing for the joy of dancing is a Good Thing, I have two other plans:
- more time spent with
jezebelpussycat - of course, I'm the teacher on this one - but it gets me some person-to-person Indian dance time, which is sorely missed, now that Aparna is out of town again. And I bet I can ask her to witness me while I practice, just to have a little bit of audience energy. Might be a neat experiment. I so rarely get to watch Aparna dance, but thinking on it, just watching her might do me good - give me places to aim for and aspects of dance to think about.- rope
mermaidlady into some practices. Maybe, as the troupe grows, we will morph into a regular practice with the other dancers, but for now, at least, I bet I can talk her into shiny-thing sewing circles together, and practicing and critiquing each other's dances. Then, at least, it's not so lonesome.