Disney Cruise Lines & Kindness

Unexpected kindness is New York's saving grace, I think.

Over the past two days, I have had just had the most fortuitous of run ins with people who decided to be nice to me for the heck of it.

What a difference it has made!

Yesterday, I auditioned for Disney Cruise lines. I'm there all day long, doing different dances - a ballet combination to type out girls, then a charactery jazz bit, then a super competition jazz "So You Think You Can Dance - esque" bit of wonder. That last routine had a high battement, or kick, and a double pirouette (a turn where you spin on one leg while holding the other up in what's called passe, like a flamingo... errr, well, a flamingo at rest if it's leg was bent in the other direction from what it is below).

So the music for the last Disney routine had space to fit three pirouette turns. I must have been channeling my 17 year old self, because on the first run, I did three turns, and on the second I did four! Oh and I actually kicked myself in the side of my face on the battement kick - with enough fervor that some of the other dancers on the sidelines even said "weerrk" outloud. What an ego boost!

Then of course I get cut at the end of the day, and they keep two 5 foot dancers. Oy vey.

I would have been a bit irritated, had it not been for this wonderful young male dancer who had also been in the room. He went out of his way to say that I looked amazing and that he couldn't believe that the Disney casting people didn't keep me at the end.

After feeling for a couple of weeks like I wasn't a real dancer, that I wasn't serious enough about my "craft" or whatever, it made my day to hear some unsolicited positive feedback.

Oh and my Egyptian cab driver today said he couldn't believe that I was in between clients and working because he thought I should still be in high school.

... An age compliment to boot!!

Moral of the story, just live. Enjoy yourself, do your best, don't outsource your brain space to haters and don't over think, because all that really matters at the end of the day is that you've done something that you can be proud of.

Hugs and love,

A Broadway Baby
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