It's all about the timing. And the costume, eyelashes and tights. And the ten years of training behind each candidate standing idly in front of a panel of judges with only a number to be identified by. People watching from a distance would probably mistake the event for a beauty pageant, but it's not. It's an NBA dance team auditions.
The Sacramento Kings Dance Team held a grueling, three-day audition this past weekend at Thunder Valley Casino. Over 60 women, some as young as 17, competed for 15 spots on the 2011-2012 team, and although there was a tiny audience, the pressure was on. Some women were cut in the first 20 minutes.
After performing various genres and advanced jazz dance technique, the dancers would smile ear to ear and stand in a straight line, waiting to be judged by seasoned professional dancers, but complete strangers nonetheless. Even veteran dancers have to re-audition yearly, and their spot is never a guarantee.
Why would any reasonably-minded person subject themselves to such blunt judgement? It seems artists will do anything for their art. Including dancing around in a bikini for six hours straight.
It's safe to say that a common perception of professional cheerleaders and dancers are merely pretty faces with bubbly attitudes who are willing to get paid for their image. But their talent is truly beyond that. The minimum requirements to be on an NBA dance team are for the women to be great public speakers, excellent performers, portray an image of fitness and to be committed ambassadors for both the league and the team. As mentioned before, the above is simply the minimum criteria. The judges must also consider ethnicity, height, hair color, etc.
The audition process consisted of dance auditions in three different genres, on-camera interviews, a photo shoot, a live performance and eventually an online poll. In between all these steps are cuts, cuts, cuts. The process of elimination is quick and painful for most, and the cold part is that none of the eliminated candidates will ever know why they were cut. It makes it difficult for them to improve and prepare for the next time around.
Performers in general are incredible risk takers; they create art to show to an audience who rarely realize the vulnerable position they're in and what it took to get there. The creation of choreography, a script, music, and visual art are all expressions of the soul. A professional dancer is simply defined as someone who will pay you to perform. Its incredible how some humans allow other humans to determine their worth.
It's not all bad, though. For a select few, the dream of getting paid for what they enjoy doing and the rarity in that is what gives it its value.
They say it takes ten years to make a dancer, but from the looks of it, it takes three minutes to categorize someone as a professional dancer.
Well done, straight and to the point with lots of good detail!
ReplyDeleteWhat could make it better? Well, the writer did a good job of reporting, but there isn't too much of her in this piece.
Still, a nicely put together column, with clear - and very clever - beginning and end.
Encore, encore!
I agree with Fitzgerald. I've always been interested in dance but I want to know more as to why it is your specialty.
ReplyDelete