Peregrine Dance Observation

On Saturday, April 15, I participated in an audition for Peregrine Theatre Ensemble’s summer 2017 production of CHICAGO, at Ripley-Grier Studios in Manhattan NY. Kyle Pleasant, Derictor/Choreographer; Adam Berry, Executive Director (who can be seen in NBC’s Ghost Hunters); Ben Berry, Artistic Director. Auditionees were required to wear black attires that show line and appropriate dance shoes. I wore my ballet slippers, a pair of stretchy gym pants and a black turtleneck, which turned out to be one layer too many that caused me sweating way too much. It was not a large dance call — with only 15 guys in the room — so each dancer got a lot of attention. We were asked to stay in the other room to wait for the dance call to start, in which I did some light stretching. The artistic director Ben Berry was in the room, who collected the headshots and resumes and had us filling out a
Unfortunately, I got cut after the dance call. Before I left, Ben Berry walked into the room and informed those who were called back to stay and politely thanked those who were cut for their time. The audition in entirety is quite enjoyable and not as competitive as I anticipated. However, I had not foreseen the intensity of the dance call and was over-dressed, which resulted in being distracted that wasted a lot of my energy. My ballet slippers didn’t put me in advantage because of some “tappy" steps (it is time to invest in a pair of jazz shoes). Most of the dancers are still in college because the company encourages undergraduates to audition. Peregrine Theatre provides opportunities for college undergraduates to build up their resume with regional and professional credit. Being my first professional audition, it was overall very pleasant and encouraging. I learnt about the process of musical theatre auditions on a smaller scale that’s not overwhelming nor cutthroat. I’m looking forward to going on more auditions next year with more dance