Thursday, January 12, 2012

What a Feeling! Flashdance Comes to Broadway

Yes ladies and gentleman, you read that right.  The movie Flashdance has been made into a musical and will soon be making its debut on a Broadway stage near you.  The musical already had a debut in London (see here) and is making the big puddle jump over to the USA.  It is choreographed by Sergio Trujillo the wonderful choreographer of Memphis, so I was excited to go audition and see what he planned on doing with the show.  Getting back on the audition scene was a little bit of a shock to the system, there were just sooo many girls there.  They refused to see any non-equity dancers and the even closed the call to equity girls promptly at 10am.

I signed up on the chorus call list at the Actor's Equity building before hand, and made it to the audition in time to here the list called *see note if you need further explanation* I was number twenty-six and made it into the first group of dancers to be seen.  When we get into the room Sergio wasn't there but two of his assistants were.  They began teaching us a contemporary ballet combination!  What a surprise!   The combo was not at all what I was expecting for Flashdance and I immediately had to lose my shoes because it was so slippery in there.  The routine was fairly short and was a mixture of ballet, body rolls, and off the leg kicks to the side.  So much fun, but a little hard for me to do since I am NO concert dancer.

After we all learned the combo we went in groups of five  and I was in the last group to perform.  We did the combination twice and it went fine, but I had a hop on my double pirouette which is never good and felt a little awkward all around.  They made a cut and I was not asked to stay, boo!  They kept a lot of shorter girls, but there were a few taller girls in the mix.  I know that afterwards they did a second combination which was a mix of hip-hop and jazz and that no one sang that day.  While I was bummed not to continue on I am excited about what Sergio Trujillo is going to do with the show.  It looks awesome so far!


*side note: For every equity chorus call, both singers and dancers, there is a list that is put up at the Actor's Equity building about a week before the audition.  Anyone who wants to audition can sign up on the list.  Then 30 minutes before the start of every audition the names on the list are read and those people are given numbers in the order in which they are called.  Anyone who does not sign up on the list, must wait until all the names have been read and then they will get a number.  Signing up gets you a lower number and better odds at being in the first group, thus less waiting around time.  But you must get there in time to hear the list read or you miss your spot and have to wait until the end like everyone else.

2 comments:

  1. I love your blog!! I appreciate your honesty about auditioning and the ups and downs. I'm a non-equity performer in NYC, it already looks like it will be one heck of a spring! Break legs at all of your future auditions!

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  2. Hi Erica! Thanks for reading, I hope it's helpful. Good luck with auditioning!

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