Dancers Need More Respect!
Show up on time choreographers! This is one thing that makes me despise the L.A dance scene. It makes me MAD. For dancers, it is hard enough to endure the endless charade of maintaining a look, a body, a wardrobe, headshots, you name it! I see people wearing sunglasses in class, wearing skinny jeans to jazz, and my favorite, the people huddling around the water fountain name dropping a little louder so people can hear who they have worked with; and these people are my age! (not that i am by any means old, but seasoned and experienced, right??) Come on, really? I teach at a studio in L.A , I walk in, teach my jazz class in my Target brand sweat pants, and leave quietly and quickly. But it is what it is.
While I MAINLY go out on choreography meetings and create submissions, I still go to a dance audition here and there. At this particular dance audition that I recently attended, I showed up 15 minutes early to sign in, stretch, and do my thing. No sign in, no anything as of T - 15, so I just started stretching in the hallway. Call me CRAZY, but when I attend an audition at 12 p.m., I expect it to start at 12 p.m. The choreographer, assistants, and sign in sheets walked in 30 minutes late. I stuck around with the other 100 girls that were there but I seemed to be the only one that was annoyed. Finally, the choreographer walked in and gave a noncommital sorry in passing, and then went straight to combo. UGH!
Is that what it takes to be a dancer these days? What happened to type casting, and having casting directors know what they are looking for? Why do agents cattle call dancers to auditions when a specific look is actually requested? Is it that hard to be punctual? All I know, is that I have held numerous auditions in L.A and have gotten 50 dancers in and out in less than an hour because I video tape it, tell the agencies to type cast, and I always have a plan going in. Dancers are so used to working for less money, longer hours, they are the first ones to be cut out of a budget when there is one; is it too much to ask for choreographers and the creative team to be organized and on time? Dancers have it hard enough don;t you think?
erin
www.erinlamont.com
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