Most everyone I work with at Text100 knows I’m a dancer (jump to 2:30 in our Let’s Get Digital video to see some of my sweet choreography for our first-ever global Textie music video). Dancing is more than a hobby for me, it’s really a way of life. I’m happiest when I take a dance class at 7:30pm, only to finish at 9pm and launch right into a rehearsal for a flash mob I’m rehearsing for, or rush home to work out the kinks for a new piece of choreography I’m working on finessing (my favorite piece I’ve ever choreographed).

But at 25, pipe dreams of being a professional dancer are hard to hold on to. Luckily, I’m completely satisfied with being able to just dance regularly and perform at my awesome studio (shout out to PMT!) but lately I’ve been wanting to push myself, challenge myself to try new things.

Little known facts about my dance experience:

At both of these auditions, I didn’t make it past the first round. Either way, it was a great experience and I met great people at both of these events and had the opportunity to get outside myself and not think, just dance.

So five years later, I allowed myself to be persuaded by a fellow PMT dancer to audition for KCD (Knicks City Dancers). I signed up for and attended a Knicks Dancer Clinic prior to the audition, one of the best dance experiences I’ve ever had. Not only do you get personalized feedback and critiques from Knicks dance team coach Danielle as well as current team members, but you get a true leg up on the competition thanks to a sneak preview of the audition combo for the real day-of audition. We learned the entire routine and clinched a wristband to guarantee we’d make it past the first round of auditions (a technical across-the-floor routine).

Audition day finally arrived on Saturday, June 9th and I was shocked to find that I had made it past not one, but TWO rounds of cuts – having started auditioning with 500 girls and ending up in the top 100 that were able to perform the entire routine twice each, in small groups of four for the judges. The judges went on to choose their top 30 dancers from the open audition who would make it to the next round, happening the next day when these girls would fight with current dance team members for the 22 available spots on the 2012-2013 dance team. These auditions are hardcore, and go on for 5-6 days, with numerous cuts happening throughout. Sadly, I didn’t make it to the top 30, but top 100 felt pretty amazing.

Overall, I felt good about my audition, great in fact. I “left it all on the floor” — danced my heart out, produced the most cheesey, cutesy facial expressions of my life, and nailed the kip-up. Kip-ups are just plain awesome, and if this experience taught me anything it was about this  ninja-esque stunt, and that I can learn new things super quickly even at this “old” dancer age. 

I’m planning to head back next year to audition again for the Knicks City Dancers, and possibly the Nets as well. Why not, I’m still young, and as long as I can dance and love to dance, I’m going to keep on dancing.

See if you can spot me in the purple shorts :)

(Photo credits: Elizabeth Shrier for MSG Photos) 

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  1. text100nyc posted this

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