We All Want to be on Broadway (or some kind of stage)

Before I came to New York I had a vision in my mind that I would use my accounting job as a way to break into the city and pay rent while auditioning to become a dancer.  Accountant by day, dancer by night. That was the goal.

4 years later, I'm an accountant by day and (wait for it, wait for it) sometimes......an accountant by night! Whomp whomp. Such is the life of a CPA.  Although I didn't become the famous dancer I initially thought I might, I did make some half-hearted (or 3/4-hearted) attempts to pursue a career (or at least a part-time, low-paying gig) in dance.  I auditioned... for 2 Broadway shows, 2 professional sports teams, a random music video, and a small unknown film.

That's something New Yorkers do. We audition for things, because we can (there's always something being filmed), because we want to be in the limelight (with millions of people around, you'll always have an audience), and because it's the concrete jungle where dreams are made of (sing it, Keys!)

In chronological order of appearance, my dates with dance on the NYC stage..

1) The Pulse gala, pre-move to NY, circa summer 2007. The Pulse is an amazing dance convention put on by Broadway Dance Center. I sent in a video audition to be in the special intensive program led by Brian Friedman, dancer/choreographer extraordinaire. We spent 3 grueling days learning 3 routines from Brian and performed them in front of an audience of several hundred, which also happened to include some other choreographers (Laurie Ann Gibson, Tyce Diorio, etc).  This gave me a little taste of what dancing in NYC would be like...

(for more info on the Pulse, check out:  http://www.thepulseontour.com/... I highly recommend it :)

2) Knicks City Dancer auditions - July 2008.  Made it past the first cut (from about 300 down to 150 beautiful, talented girls).  

(the MSG.com cameraman recording my reaction to my performance. "Pretend I'm not here." Really??)

(my parentals and Matt E. came to support me [Matt, how do we not have photos of us this day???]. It was pretty cool to dance on the court of Madison Square Garden, even if just for a day.)

3) Sex & the City II -  August 2009.  If "auditioning" can be defined as playing hooky from work, dressing up as "trendy New Yorkers", and waiting in line for a few hours before prancing up to a table of judges so they can take a picture and dismiss you in 5 minutes or less, I auditioned for Sex and the City II to be an extra.  Me, Matt, Laura and her adorable son Noah made an event of this. And we met some fun strangers along the way.  Good times :)

4) Little Mermaid, Central Park live.  Summer 2009.  Since my dance/acting career wasn't panning out as planned, I took actions into my own hands and held an independent performance in Central Park. When I become famous, you can all post this on Youtube and say you knew me then :)  (Note: if you're not my Facebook friend, you may not be able to access this link. Sorrs!)

Little Mermaid

5) Chorus Line and West Side Story on Broadway.  Fall 2009. I put my Little Mermaid skills to use and decided to crack down and take a voice lesson to equip myself for a real live Broadway audition.  My biggest fear of an actual Broadway audition was the fact that I knew I'd have to sing.  So, I decided to stop making excuses and sign up for voice lessons to conquer that fear. I went to an amazing vocal coach, Bob Marks (check him out:  http://www.bobmarks.com/cms/) to get prepared for these 2 auditions.  Bob was fabulous.. he didn't judge me (at least not to my face), but gave me encouragement, practice and techniques to prep me.  We chose the song "Part of your world" from the Little Mermaid. How appropriate :) I made my roommate/friend Jill listen to me over and over. God bless her soul!  Anyway, I never even made it past the first rounds to show off my new-found singing skills, but it was an experience nonetheless :)

6) Jets Flight Crew. Summer 2010. My amazing boyfriend Matt drove me and my college dance friend to Fairleigh Dickinson University for two long days of try-outs. We both made it past the first cut, but sadly didn't get to the finals. It was a great day though, filled with hairspray and shattered dreams. :) (again, if you're not my FB friend you might not get to see the video).

jets flight crew

So, although it's kind of sad that I didn't succeed at any of these auditions or at becoming a professional dancer, I became a little braver by putting myself out there on the big stages of NYC.  Who knows? Maybe it's never too late and you may see me on the big screen yet :)

When have you done something you were afraid of?  What's a dream you think it may be too late to pursue? And what are you going to do about it?

xoxo