UGA's Ballroom Performance Group will host its semesterly audition on Tuesday, December 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the New Dance Theatre in the Dance Building on campus.
These auditions will place you in the Apprentice group, which serves as kind of prep school for BPG. While in the Apprentice group you will have lessons every Tuesday with the director of BPG, Eddie Bonnell and the option of a special lesson on Thursdays. These lessons are a part of your training as a dancer, and will become more frequent after you have graduated into BPG. This is not to scare you off, but you should be aware that there is a significant time commitment in joining these groups. You must have at least 3 semesters remaining here at UGA, to consider auditioning.
If you are interested in auditioning there is an information and practice session tomorrow, Thursday, November 29 at 7 p.m. in the Carver studio of the Dance Building.
Preparing for the audition -
- Be early - You should arrive at the New Dance Theatre at about 6:45 so that you will have time to sign in and get settled.
- You should dress nicely.
- Men: button up shirts with a tie and a nice pair of slacks
- Ladies: dresses or skirts and nice tops
- NO JEANS
- Keep in mind that you will be dancing so that super short skirt may not be appropriate for dips and spins
- Remember to smile and exude confidence - BPG is a performance group so it is important that you can look relaxed and confidant even though your partner just stepped on your foot.
What you can except in the audition There are two parts in the audition process: social dancing and choreography
In the choreography section everyone will be taught a simple series of moves. These will not be advanced moves but merely intermediate to basic moves strung together in sequences with some flare. Everyone, in groups, will then be asked to perform those moves. They are looking for how accurately the moves are performed, how closely you stay on beat and sequence, as well as your overall performance of the move ie did it look fun, did it look sexy, ect.
In the dance portion of the audition you will dance three dances with members from BPG as your partners.
Ladies: BPG men should not/will not lead into to anything but basic and intermediate moves.
Men: You are allow to lead anything you know, or think you can pull off -
The three dances are
Cha Cha, East Coast Swing and
Waltz
Recommended Moves
Cha Cha
- Basic
- Cross over breaks
- Outside(right) turns aka pivot turns
- Cross body lead
- The Chase
- Men:
Waltz
- Rotating American Style Basic (There will not be international waltz- if you don't know what that means, no worries)
- Walk around turn (outside turn - 6 counts turns)
- Progressives
- Arch and loop turns (3 count turns)
- maybe Twinkles,
East Coast Swing
- Triple step basic
- Open and Closed positions
- Cuddle
- American Spins
- Arch and Loop turns
Other recommendation
If might be helpful to know a few other moves, just in case they came up. In East Coast Swing,: twisties
and
Back walks with kicks. In Waltz: right turning boxes. In Cha Cha Mens turn, and loop turns .
