We started the day off by learning a brief 32 tap combination, which had to be done one at a time. I didn't have too much difficulty with it tap wise, but the nerves of having to tap by yourself can cause anyone to mess up. Luckily my solo went fine and I made the first cut. Next, we had to learn an actual tap combination from the opening number of the show. We only learned a portion of it and the steps themselves weren't difficult. The real difficulty was the speed at which they taught the combo. They told us they teach it that speed to test if we could learn the entire show in only eight days. Once we learned it and reviewed it a few times we did the combination three at a time. Unlike my previous WC audition I did not mess up! They made another cut and then asked us to come back and dance for Randy Skinner in a couple of hours.
I returned back to White Christmas, after running to another audition, and Randy Skinner was there to watch us dance. We added on to the tap choreography we learned previously and the second portion of the combination had jumping and more rhythmic difficulty than the first part, but was taught just as fast. When it was time to do the combination three at a time, I discovered I was in the first group so NO time to practice! Each group got a chance to do the combination twice in a row and once everyone was done another cut was made! We are up to three cuts now if you are keeping track!
Those of us that made the third cut, changed into our heels, and started to learn a jazz combination. It was a beautiful 1950's style jazz number, with fast feet, and a calm upper-body. I loved dancing it and picked it up pretty quickly which was good since I was now obviously going to be dancing in the first group from here on out. After everyone performed this combination for Randy he made another cut. Cut #4! Then we put our tap shoes back on and learned a completely different but much shorter second tap combination. After we danced it in groups, we were done! No more cuts and no singing for the day! Hooray!
Those of us that made the third cut, changed into our heels, and started to learn a jazz combination. It was a beautiful 1950's style jazz number, with fast feet, and a calm upper-body. I loved dancing it and picked it up pretty quickly which was good since I was now obviously going to be dancing in the first group from here on out. After everyone performed this combination for Randy he made another cut. Cut #4! Then we put our tap shoes back on and learned a completely different but much shorter second tap combination. After we danced it in groups, we were done! No more cuts and no singing for the day! Hooray!
Binder Casting called me the next day to come back in and sing at the end of the week (making it the infamous audition #7). I decided to dress a little bit the part and wore this adorable vintage dress I bought in Sacramento during the Young Frankenstein tour with black patent leather flats. Sometimes when I go in to sing for shows that aren't "tall shows" I will try to avoid sky high heels so they don't think I'm a giant. I sang "Oh Diogenes" for them and was asked if I could sing legato. I told them "yes", and was going to offer to sing something else but the accompanist was handing me my book so I just let it go. I felt really good about this audition, but I also know that I most likely won't book the gig. They usually hire the same people year after year and so unless the track I'm right for opens up, my name will just get filed away for future reference. Still, a good way to end my record breaking week!
