NOLA Auditions

Ever since the show, So You Think You Can Dance, started, my daughter, Ashley has had the dream to audition for the show. The year she was old enough--2008, she had ankle surgery to cut and repair her tendon. After being on crutches for most of the summer, she was told that she probably would not be able to dance at the level she had been in the past. This did not stop her, and she proved everyone wrong.

In the fall of 2008, she headed to Brigham Young University. She wanted to major in dance. This requires an audition. She had a very successful audition and is now a dance major. She had a great year at BYU, and was determined to get her strength back. After staying a month longer at school because she was on a dance group that did local shows, she came home to try to find a job and earn money for her next school year. Shortly after returning home, she found out about the New Orleans So You Think You Can Dance auditions.

As stated in my July blog: She had no luck in finding a job, and was really wanting to go down to the auditions. There were several problems with this, though--she had left her dance stuff in storage almost 2000 miles away, she did not have a place to practice or choreograph, as the dance floors were being resurfaced and the studio was closed. When she found out about the audition, there was less than a week to come up with a dance number, costume, find dance shoes, and get down there. Seemed impossible! I was a little apprehensive on going to to NOLA (New Orleans, LA), as I had never been there and was concerned about the safety factor.

Ashley realized she had an old pair of bright blue tap shoes in her closet, and decided to choreograph a piece around them--in her teeny tiny carpeted bedroom. I happened to mention our delima to my walking group. One of the ladies said she would be glad to come with us. She is also a die hard fan of the show, and use to live in NOLA, and loves the place. I proceeded to check into where the place was, get info on motels in the area, and Ashley proceeded to seek a pair of dance heels, come up with a costume, and "practice" her routine as well as she could, not having a place to really dance. I found a good price on a room, Ashley borrowed some old character shoes that were an ok fit, and with her daddy's blessing, we took off on our 6 hr trip to NOLA.

I can't go into detail as to how the audition went, because they ask that in order to have the surprise element for the show, that we need to keep quiet. I can say we had a really good time. Ashley did get sick the day before one of her auditions (there are several auditions one can go through), but was able to rest and feel good enough for the audition. We don't know if she will be on the show or not. I know of one girl who auditioned for a past season who made it all the way to the picking of the top 20, and was never on TV, so you never know. They did like her blue tap shoes, where impressed with her tapping, and interviewed her quite a bit, so we just don't know if they will do anything with it or not, and if they do what they will do with it.

Well, now that the show has aired, it was very interesting to see how they put it all together. Everyone there was so nice and we had so much fun. Ashley was not featured in the show, but we were able to see a little bit of her in the coreography part of the show. She had made it to choreography, but not to Vegas. She is preparing and hoping that the show will return to Salt Lake City in the Winter of 2010, as she plans to audition at that time. Hopefully, if they return to SLC, it will be a time that she does not have another show, practice, or exams and will be able to try again. One thing I will have to say, everyone who watched the show asked me where all the girls were. There were quite a few very good female dancers (including my daughter) but for some reason they did not highlight very many of them. Why? Good question...