Never been so close part 1

Living. It has been a crazy venture actually living here in this Metropolis. This city is absolutley the place that makes or breaks you.

Since I have gotten back from Florida, I have really started understanding what it means to live here, and truly be pursuing this whole lifestyle, and dream experience. It hits me every now and then, either when I leave a really great dance class, or am standing in a high rise that looks out over timesquare, how amazing it is that I'm here. That I'm actually living and walking around new york city, pursuiing something that I have been dreaming about since Highschool. I just think Gees, I'm really here!

But Also what comes with really living here, and being in this environment, is the anxiousness, the discouragement, the reality, disconcernment, fear, and even the feeling of no hope. Thats why New Yorkers are strong and hard, cause this place will eat you up and spit you out. So it's a matter of finding out how to be strong and hard, and when you need to apply that.

This spring audition season was absolutely brutal. It was absolutely packed, I think there was only 4 week days in march that I didn't have an audition on, and some days I literally had up to 4 auditions. And everybody has been there, it has been nothing but survival for dancers, no less. We need jobs. That has been the main reason why I haven't kept up with all the auditions, there has just been way too many of them, and most with not much to talk about. From Broadway shows, National tours, regional theatres, to cruise ships, dance agencies, and circus entertainment companies.

However, some of these auditions have made me absolutely alive! and feel Like I was really living for the first time. I auditioned for the newly returning broadway show MEMPHIS, and the combination was so hard, and demanding, and awesome, that it created this atmosphere of fun, and true commorodery. After we had broken up in smaller groups so we could actually use the whole space, and my group went, I realized how good of job I did by the hand fives I was recieving. I as sat down to watch the next group go, And just was over whelmed by the live music and great dancing, and encouragement we were all giving I almost broke down and cried. There was another moment like this when I was auditioning for the Nat'l tour of A CHORUS LINE. In this audition they have you line up by 2s and come down the room doing the combination while everyone else claps in time for you and screams out the starting counts. I literally felt like I was dancing for my life! You wanna talk about dancing fiercely.

The most awesome experience of this season has just happened this past week, and so worth remembering forever. I have never been as close to Broadway as I have been this past week.
On friday of the week before I got a call from a big Brroadway casting agency, asking make an appt for an immediate replacement audition for the show, THE LITTLE MERMAID. I don't even know how this agency got my information cause I haven't auditioned for anything they were doing in a while. I ended up finding out thru friends in the show, and around that they were looking to fill the black track, so all the 5'9" guys were getting called. I got another call from them asking me shoe size, and making sure I was available immediately, So I was like man they are really looking to fill this role now. They were going to have us do a jazz number, and tap number, and there was going to be no way I didn't get this from not being able to tap so I decided to take as many tap classes as I could. The appt was for wednesday at noon, so I had at least 3 days to take class. I also found out that my friend Tyrone was going. He is like my direct competition. He's my height, a dancer, and alwasy placed next to me in a group it seems, he's just not as dark as me. So I knew I had to be prepared. Well Sunday night came and I decided to look at the audition sites again to make sure I had everything down for the week, and then I saw a random audition for SPIDERMAN, that was happening the next morning,Monday. Oh crap, I was so thankful that I had looked. Anyway, So I decided to make sure I hit this one as well, and planned accordingly for the rest of the week.

to be continued.....