I was eleven years old and it was fall time. For some people, fall might be football, or leaves falling, or soccer, or raking piles of leaves and jumping into them, or getting hot coffee with their friends, but fall for me was Nutcracker. The ballet. Auditions were august 27th, and I woke up especially early to get ready. There was one thing I wanted; to be cast as clara. I was finally the right level, had long enough hair, had enough experience, was the right age, and looked the right age. The criteria to be cast as clara was extremely tough, and I was so glad I finally met the expectations. The only problem was that there were four other girls who also met the expectations, and I was slightly too tall. I got ready anyway. I showered, got into my leotard and tights, pulled my hair back into a perfect ponytail, and carefully wrapped the ponytail around into a perfect flat bun. I then put a matching pink bow in my hair for extra luck, and so the auditioners would remember me. We were measured and put in height order. My friends in my level were all numbers 2-6 and I was number 14. The audition began and it was quite simple. Then they called the numbers of who was going to stay for the next round. I was so relieved that 14 was called. We had another round, and I was called to stay again, as well as numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5. These were my best friends, and I was battling against them for the thing I love. My artistic directer told us she knew how close we were and she wanted us to stay that way. “You all know what roll you are up for,” she said “And I know all of you could do it. It’s just about who is right for the part right now.” We proceeded to learn the combinations we would have to perform as solos. I felt so awkward because of how tall I was, and I was convinced that would be the final deciding factor in wether I would be Clara or not. I still remember the last combination we did to this day. I stepped out in front of the audition table and stood in fifth position, where we were supposed to start. The auditioners took down my name and number, and wrote some stuff down about me. I assumed it was about my look, because I had to perfectly resemble a 9 year old girl on Christmas eve. I smiled big and tried to embrace the character, but still maintain the best technique I could and look like I was having fun doing it. I remember finishing and feeling like I had done the best I could, and knew that no matter if I got the role or not, I couldn’t have possible done better. I hugged my friends goodbye, and on my way out of the studio I saw some girls crying because they didn’t get called back for the last audition. I suddenly felt lucky that I even got the chance to audition, and understood that I had a great opportunity wether I got Clara or not. I couldn’t sleep for the next 5 nights knowing that on Saturday morning I would find out the casting. When I walked into the studio, a crowd was waiting for me and cleared a path to the piece of paper with the casting on it. I looked to the top of the list immediately and read Cast A Clara: Juliana Kulak. I felt my heart drop but proceeded to read to the next line. Cast B Clara: Vanessa Meikle. I turned around with a huge smile on my face as my dance teacher snapped a photo of my reaction. I was so grateful, and performing the role of Clara was the best experience of my life.
(this video was at a small library show not the real performance)
This Story is really important to me because the day I found out I got the part was the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. No, I wasn’t in a huge ballet company or even a well known school, but for as long as I could remember the only thing I wanted was to be cast as Clara.
No comments:
Post a Comment