From auditions to Center Stage
SMU Diary is an occasional feature in which a student sharesher unusual Hilltop experience.
The sound of popping hips, continuous chatter and banging ofpointe shoes resounds from the bottom level of the Charles S. SharpStudio in Meadows School of the Arts. The day has finally arrived:the very first audition of the new school year. You may be askingwhat exactly this “Brown Bag” thing is, so for younewcomers, here is a little breakdown.
Every semester, the students of the dance department get achance to showcase their own personal choreography. These arepieces that may or may not have been previously created or piecesthat have been worked on for months and are finally ready for anaudience.
The date for this audition was announced in the beginning ofAugust when all of the new freshmen dancers arrived. Pumped,slightly nervous and ready for a challenge, all of us were present,when one by one, each student came out to demonstrate a shortcombination. In a room full of 50 or so people, that can be quitedifficult. Shoving and looking through other people’s armsand legs is a must when it comes to picking up the choreographyquickly. Even though these people are your best buddies, the spaceis limited. Accidental taps and hits occur, but a quick apology isall there is time for. These few minutes are all about you.
The segement is done maybe two or three times with thechoreographer before everyone is broken down into groups of five orsix dancers. If you’re lucky, you get to audition again, butfor the most part, you get one shot to show them what you have tooffer.
Following the audition, each choreographer has to fight for whoit is that they desperately want in their piece. Each dancer isallowed to be in two works and no more. One can only imagine howtough it can be when it comes to casting, especially when everyonewants the same dancer.
The worst part about the entire process is waiting. Two days issuch a short period of time, but when you’re anticipatingyour casting, it seems like a millennium.
Monday afternoon, the list is up. You’re walking to theboard and crossing your fingers. Your finger slowly glides down thelist while your eyes franticly search for your last name. YES! Thatwas the hard part. A sigh of relief, and now the real workbegins.
The callboard and bottom level of Meadows is your home away fromhome for the next month and a half. Since the school is open untilmidnight every night and everyone has such crazy schedules(including regular schoolwork and most have double majors),rehearsals tend to run pretty late. So considering that your daybegan at 9 in the morning and you were lucky enough to have adinner break from 5 to 6 p.m. (designated by the department),you’re ecstatic if you are able to make it back to your roomto take a power nap.
But wait, don’t forget to add study time, too.
Finally, after all the late nights, weekends, costumemodifications, cleaning and mock run-throughs, show day is here.Again, for the so-called “newbies” to Brown Bag, thiswill be quite an experience for you. It is staged and performed inthe middle of the Hope Lobby in the front entrance of Meadows.There are no technical aspects to this show except the sound, whichrequires a stereo and two large speakers on each side of the stage.The lighting is provided from the natural sun or stormy clouds fromoutside. The audience members can see the dancers walking on andoffstage in-between pieces.
Out of all the performances that come from the Meadows School,this is one of the most anticipated and exciting shows. It’samazing to watch the crowd grow from day one to day five. Studentsgather from all over the campus just to see five minutes of thishighly rated show. They get a little taste of jazz, modern, balletand improvisation. This is what we do, our lives in a very tinynutshell.
