First Call Back

And we have a call back!  The way that this company did it, was they emailed you after the auditions were over to let you know the outcome.  I was ecstatic to see my first positive response from an audition since I have been here in New York.  I felt really good about that audition piece.  It was a very high energy, classical jazz piece and was so much fun to do and perform, and luckily for me I guess my passion came through because they wanted to see me again.  Before that audition this week, I did a couple other ones for a touring show and another cruise line.   The cruise line one went well, but I did not make it past the cut.  I am not sure why, because it was the first one that I had felt more comfortable and felt better about my performance in the audition as well.  I actually enjoyed the piece instead of worrying so much about the judges, but that is the way it goes because you never know what they are looking for.  The touring show one was my first audition in character heels.  I was not comfortable in them, and I guess that showed because I was not kept.  The audition consisted of learning a 12 count technical combination.  The choreographer was very enthusiastic and strict about what he wanted, including very high kicks and a lot of facial expressions.  The next day after that audition, I went and bought the LaDuca character heels.  Although they were above my price range, they are very good shoes that show lines and are easy to move in, and hopefully could make a difference in my future auditions. 

City That Never Sleeps, But I Do

I have moved to New York officially!!!  It is weird actually being here.  Walking around in Times Square every other day is still mind boggling to me.  I am subletting an apartment up here.  I only know a couple of people who live in NYC, and I have not had the chance to see them yet, so at the moment it is kind of lonely.  Last Saturday, I took a class at Dance New Amsterdam, and although the instructor was very nice and gave good personalized critiques, the style of the jazz class was a little more modern style than I expected.  Sunday I took two classes at Broadway Dance Center, and truly enjoyed both of them, but especially the contemporary jazz class.  The combination was a good mixture of technique and emotion.  As I finished the serious combination when groups performed the piece, I felt my face light up every time with a huge smile, and I probably looked like a crazy girl who was enjoying herself way too much in class.  But I had not taken a good contemporary class in so long, so I actually was a crazy girl who was enjoying myself way too much in class. Haha.  Tuesday was my first audition I attended since I have been here.  It was for a cruise line.  Unfortunately, I did not get past the preliminary cuts.  Since they had too many dancers show up for the audition, they had to add in the preliminary cuts which entailed 6 kicks and 3 turns to decide your fate, although I think appearance played a big factor as well.  I realize after seeing the other dancers there, I was not dressed showy enough and my headshot was the wrong size.  It should have been a full page size, who knew?  Thursday was my second audition for a touring show of “The Little Mermaid.”  Unfortunately, I got cut from those auditions as well.  I was not expecting a ballet combination, so my nerves got the best of me.  I need to really focus on improving my confidence level for the future, because right now I think that is the biggest thing holding me back.  Hopefully I can learn from these mistakes in order to get a more positive outcome at my next audition.  I guess we will see.

Ending of RVA

February was a good month for me.  A lot of really great opportunities came up for me in this month.  I was able to go to Utah to teach a workshop and learn about their dance scene out there.  I got to collaborate with my friend Chris and our styles although different, were fused together well. Haha. It was definitely a different style than I see on the East Coast.  Most of what I saw from the dancers over there were very high energy pieces.  The group I went there with was an amazing collection of 6 other people from all over the DMV and NC area.  I was able to get to know them all a lot better along with meeting a lot of new people from the Utah area as well.  This was a very inspirational workshop and overall trip for me.  Their dance scene does not include a huge amount of people, but it is an intense and hard-working group.  They were so open and welcoming.  This workshop really made me stop and think about what to fully pursue. Contemporary? Hip-hop?  That is the question.  That is still the question I find myself thinking about a lot of the time.  In February, I also was able to teach a Kodachrome NC workshop with my good friend Matt.  This whole experience is one of the memories I will hold onto for a long time.  The KCNC dance family is such an amazing group of people and I am so happy and thankful to be a part of it.  Matt and I also created a concept video of our choreography, and if you are interested in seeing it, the link is below.  I truly love working with others when choreographing, especially others from different areas like Maryland and Virginia Beach, and getting to blend styles and learn from all of my partners as well.  The rest of the month was spent choreographing, spending time with my Blank Canvas family, and wrapping up things in Richmond the best I could.  The next chapter in my life awaits.  Here we go.

Never Close Our Eyes - Amy & Matt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbEcnSsSQhQ

 

Oops

Okay, it has been forever since I posted on here. My bad.  I did graduate in December.  Yayy.  However, a lot has happened since my last post.  Here is a brief summary.  In November, I was blessed enough to get flown out to Long Beach, CA to dance in ASIA Entertainment’s 32 annual celebration concert.  It was a very intense experience, but one that I will cherish for a long time.  I went with an absolutely amazing group of people.  In January, I got to spend most of my time with my Blank Canvas family.  I can not describe how much I truly treasured that time with those amazing people, new and old members.  We prepared all month for the Coalescence showcase hosted by JMU’s Mozaic.  I felt very proud of what we performed and of each member of the team because everyone worked very hard.  I am so incredibly thankful for how hard everyone worked for my piece, they have no idea how much it means to me, and I hope they were all happy with how it turned out!  I was also able to collaborate with some good friends Christian and Marbien to create out first concept video to Can We Chill by Neyo.  The final project I did around this time is another concept video with Teresa.  Both of those concept videos were done with great people.  I had so much fun choreographing and filming and I am very thankful I got to work with them.  All three of those videos have links listed at the bottom of this post, if you are interested.  Throughout the whole month of January, I was pretty much working at the VCU bookstore, choreographing, or spending time with BC.  So I would say it was a pretty good month.  I am actually not going to wait so long to actually post something on here now, or I will try not to. haha, alrighty. bye for now!

Blank Canvas - Coalescence 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiR5rkx_Xdc

Can We Chill - Blank Canvas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAA2xU7LUgw

Go - Amy & Teresa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W18VxxHD3ys