Students in the School of Dance may be mastering their craft now, but each started as a high schooler who came to campus and auditioned with dreams of being a part of the program.
Dance auditions will be held this weekend for admission to The School of Dance for Fall Semester 2014. Formal dance auditions are held twice a year, once in the fall and once in the early winter.
“To be accepted to the dance program, you have to audition,” said Debbie McAdoo, assistant to the director for school. “You have to be accepted by the faculty review and Ohio University admissions as well.”
The candidates auditioning do not need to have anything prepared; they will be placed in a class-type setting. During these auditions there will be a ballet technique portion taught by Chengxin Wei, the second portion is modern taught by Nathan Andary and the third portion is either jazz or African dance. This Saturday, the third portion will be Jazz taught by Travis Gatling.
The three categories will last no more than two hours to avoid the dancers’ bodies reaching exhaustion and to avoid overloading the brain with choreography.
At the end of the session the candidates will be given certain criteria and will be asked to come up with a short improvisation to perform for the faculty, the director of dance, and student representatives.
“We can have anywhere from 10 to 30 auditionees,” said McAdoo. “But, we don’t have a set number on how many we accept for the program, it depends on the group and the talent that they display.”
While many may look back on their audition with anxiety, pride, or mixed emotions, those within the school say the audition is no different than other materials one would submit to different school programs.
“Just like when students apply to get accepted to Ohio University and then submit something to the college of their choice, that’s what this audition is,” said Andary, visiting assistant professor of dance.
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