How To Prepare For A Dance Audition (From Someone Who Runs Them)
I've been on both sides of the audition table for over twenty years — dancing for artists and sitting behind the table picking people. Most dancers don't get cut because they can't dance. They get cut for things they could have fixed the night before.
Show up to be seen, not to blend in
Wear something that lets the panel read your body and your personality at the same time. Fitted enough that we can see your lines, distinctive enough that we remember you when we're going through numbers at the end of the day.
Do not wear brand-new shoes to an audition. Do not wear anything you have to adjust mid-combo. If you're fixing your waistband while I'm watching your groove, I'm watching your hand, not your dancing.
Learn the count, then learn the feeling
Everyone in the room can eventually hit the counts. What separates people is texture — where you delay, where you snap, where you sit in the pocket. Get the choreography in your body in the first two run-throughs so the rest of your brain is free to actually perform it.
If you miss a section, keep moving. A dancer who recovers cleanly looks more hireable than a dancer who stops and apologizes with their face.
What I'm actually watching for
Retention: how fast you pick it up and how much you keep on the second group run.
Musicality: are you dancing to the track, or dancing next to it?
Presence: can you hold the front of a stage without doing too much?
Attitude in the room: how you treat the assistants, how you handle a correction, whether you're warm with the other dancers. Tours are long. Nobody hires a problem.
The week before
Condition. Most auditions are a full day of repeating the same eight counts at full-out energy, and stamina fails before technique does.
Freestyle every day, even for ten minutes. It keeps your instincts loose so you're not stiff when you're asked to add your own flavor.
Sleep the night before. Nothing you cram in at 1am will beat being alert at 9am.
Come in prepared, come in kind, and come in ready to be picked. That's the whole job.
// Ready to work
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