You better WERK!

Aaaarrrghh. Today is the first time in my life that I have actually had to turn down not one, but TWO performance job opportunities!!!

Positives first.

To all my dancer friends out there, I learned today that it IS possible to get to four, maybe five auditions in one day - even with call backs - as long as you're willing to hustle! So wave bye-bye to having to choose between auditions (unless you want to).

This morning, I got to Pearl Studios at 9am, just in time to sing for the musical Damn Yankees. I'm going back to dance for Damn Yankees tomorrow. After singing, I walked a block north to Ripley Grier Studios and got there around 9:30am to sign up for the Newsies singing audition. To my surprise, I also found a Disney Cruise line singing audition that was a total ghost town. I walked into the holding room (where you wait before they call your name), gave the monitor my headshot & resume, and literally walked into the auditioning room about 30 seconds later.

In a rare experience for me, I actually received feedback and direction from the Disney casting people while I was in the room. The main guy (eek I forget his name... that is such a NO-NO and I better Google it) actually recognized me from the battement (eye-high leg kick) picture on my resume before he recognized my face. It was so nice to have a real conversation and feel like a real person to them! He told me he liked my headshot, that I should never take off the kicking picture, and asked me how I had been.... he and the other lady - even the accompanist - genuinely seemed to care!

At their request, I sang one of my songs ("Gimme Gimme" from Thoroughly Modern Millie) three different ways, then sang another song as well! He said that he was impressed with the adjustments I made, and I'm thinking to myself the whole time, is this a dream right now!? Completely unplanned, yet extraordinarily valuable audition. In the room, out of the building, and on my way to the next destination in less than 15 minutes.

Then I booked it down to Chelsea Studios (ten blocks away from Ripley Grier), to sign up for the 2pm dance audition for a revival of Mame, which is to be choreographed by hottie Vince Pesce. After that, I doubled back to Ripley Grier studios and brought a yummy vanilla rooibos tea to my namesake, since she kindly signed me up for an 11:30am Arizona Broadway Theater audition. (It's all about karma, people! Why NOT do a nice thing whenever you can?)

For the first time in TWO months, I received not one, but TWO callbacks, which was - I must say - a much welcomed surprise validation. Arizona asked me to sing, sing, sing again and read some sides, but I had to get to Mame and finish dancing there (ten blocks away) in a narrow one hour window. Suffice it to say, I cabbed it back to Ripley Grier so that I could make it on time for my call back appointments. Between Disney (I'm not sure I want to go on a 10 month cruise contract) and Arizona Broadway Theater ($200 a week to move back to Phoenix .... not sure that works for me financially) this Wednesday was something else.

I was also shocked when I realized once the option actually became viable, it was clear to me that neither of those contracts would really work. After a year of lusting after whatever job I could get, today's experience was a bit weird. To make matters MORE frustrating, I was recently asked to be part of the cast for the Met Opera's production of Gotterdammerung (which is really well paid) and I can't do it because rehearsals are during the holiday season, which also encompasses my best girl friend's wedding shower and bachelorette party. Chicks before contracts any day!

Long story short, after a significant dry spell and a persistent feeling of self suckiness, I seem to be back on my feet. I am so so so thankful to the universe for being nice to me today, and I plan to keep being nice to it. Hopefully what goes around will continue to come around. This post is also dedicated with humility to my closest dance friends, many of whom are much more talented than I, because I realized today that booking work is so rogue. There is no order to the chaos. These women I know and audition with deserve to book work ASAP and I just know they will soon.

Love you dancer girls!!

A Broadway Baby