Right, so, now for my next story… Laine Theatre Arts, better known as ‘Laines.’ Going into this audition I felt just as I did when I went into Bird, so there weren’t many nerves involved. The school is very dance heavy, however there is a stronger emphasis on Ballet.
Overall, the audition went as I thought it would, just as I thought with Bird. The dance was all fine, the acting workshop and my song. The day started at around 9 am, and we were told what groups we were going to be in. We were then escorted by the students to our changing rooms where we were to get dressed into our dance gear. I was in group 1 so I had Ballet first. I was actually the first one in my group who had arrived so I had to wait a while before everyone else arrived, including a girl at my current school who I had done the pre-audition day with! Next we were taken to watch a really long promotional video with our parents… it lasted half an hour, though then again it was very informative and the transitions between the different shots were very… creative! There was a short q&a after and then we went over the other building across the road to begin the auditions!
First off I had Ballet. The class as a whole was what I was expecting as I had done a class with the same guy who conducted it at the pre-audition day, however, the difference was that at the pre-audition day they were people who really did not know there right from left while in the actual audition there were some girls who were primas. The sorts of girls who I would always look up to when I was dancing as a Junior Associate with the National Youth Ballet at 8 years old, or those 16 year old ballet dancers who post videos of themselves on Instagram. Now don’t get me wrong, there were about 11 of us in my group and I’d say only 2 of them were amazing ballet dancers with perfect ballet physiques. The rest of us were all good as well, no one was shocking so I suppose the ballet standard was decently high, but then again we are talking about Laine Theatre Arts. The main thing to point out however, is that the primas seemed to be completely and utterly reluctant to perform, even though in the q&a they specifically said that even if you do an amazing ballet class you still need to SMILE! I really think that is what made up for my lack of flat turn out or my slightly less flexible left leg, the fact that I performed, even if it was just Ballet. The actual Ballet audition was actually quite easy, not that Ballet is but the steps and the exercises themselves were easy to pick up. I you’re worried about the Ballet audition or Ballet auditions in general, I really wouldn’t worry. Just make sure you are capable of doing all the basic steps and make sure you perform!
Next, I had the acting workshop. First we did an acting warmup. The lady on the panel ran it and it was rather amusing. She was very interactive and properly pretended like we were out of control of our own bodies when we were made to wriggle our fingers and shake our legs out, right to the point where when we stopped the exercise she said, “Whoa! How weird was that?” I was just stood there like, ummm ok then… After the warm up which also consisted of a lot of walking around the room, we went straight into the monologues. The panel didn’t really react to any of the monologue, but they warned us before hand that wouldn’t be so that was fine. We watched each other which I suppose was nothing new anymore to me. When watching the others, to be honest I thought that the standard wasn’t that great. I mean it is predominantly a dance school so mainly dancers audition but still. There was one girl who did the ‘dot, dot, dot!’ monologue from ‘Mamma Mia!’ where Sophie finds her mum’s old diary, and I was a bit taken back by that one but nothing was as bad as the girl singing while standing on a chair (which you can read about in my GSA Audition Experience post)! After the monologues they made us do an improvisation exercise! Now, I must admit I get really quite scared when it comes to improv. When I had to do the improv unit in my BTEC, I actually cried in one of the lessons… But nevertheless, I suppose I tackled that improvisation exercise head on. We were put into groups, each given a card that told us what sort of person we had to be (I had to be ‘an expert’) and then we were told where the scene took place (so we were at a nail salon). I suppose it was quite hard, I just ended up pretending to be a bossy Asian nail lady, trying to make the audience laugh (which none of them did). After they had to guess what we were, it was no surprise that no one could really guess mine! After that we were dismissed, and we went to eat our lunch which by the way I ate way too much of.
After lunch, we did the jazz workshop! We started off by doing a warmup where we followed what the jazz teacher (who did not smile once) did. At times it was actually quite tricky because it wasn’t your basic ‘step turn step clap.’ It was more commercial jazz which to be fair really warmed me up! After that we went straight into learning the first routine which was to a song from the musical ‘The Wedding Singer.’ The routine was taught very quickly and he made us think that the routine itself was also very fast, but when we first did it to music there so much more time for me to think about what I was doing! They also asked us to pick a person who would be at a wedding, for example ‘the jealous ex girlfriend’ or something. I decided on being ‘the underage younger sibling of the groom who decided to go to the wedding to simply get drunk’ which was fun. When we had to perform it in smaller groups of about 4 or 5, we also had to improvise to the music while being our character we created. Most people did basic ‘step kicks’ and triple pirouettes, but I though it’d be fun to just jump around rock out to the music as my character would do. I think there was actually a moment where I ran to the side and pretended to do some shots! In my opinion, I think that the improv section particularly at Laines is really not to show off how many pirouettes you can do, it’s really to show off how much you can act through dance. I mean think about it, the routines you learn are choreographed to test your ability and later on in the day you also have your dance solo which you can use to show off as much as you want! Anyway, that was fun. Next we did corner work and technique. The exercises were your standard level exercises that you would do in a normal class so it was nothing extremely hard. There was an odd number of us and I was the last one so they asked me if I wanted to go in a three or if I wanted to go on my own. If that happens to you in an audition, GO ON YOUR OWN! It shows confidence and you’re going to be notice even more because there isn’t someone else dancing right next to you who they’re going to also have to watch. After that, we learnt the second, contrasting routine! ‘Wait for it’ from ‘Hamilton.’ This routine was more aggressive, emotional and in general less cheesy in comparison to ‘The Wedding Singer’ dance. The same things went with this routine as well. He got us into character by making us remember a time where we ‘really felt like we deserved something but never got it.’ I personally couldn’t think of anything but I got the idea of what he was saying. Anyway, this routine also had an improv section where we had to do the exact same thing. I don’t think I have ever worked so hard in the dance call at an audition before. Multiple times throughout the audition I could not breath. I was a little worried because I had to sing next and it took me ages to get my breathing back to normal, but it was fine because I also had to wait ages before I had to do it!
When I finally went in after over an hour of waiting I got to do my song and my solo dance. We were split into 2 groups, one that performed for Betty Laine and the other performed in front of Sarah Wilson (the vice Principle). I performed for Sarah Wilson. My song went all ok as expected (my OG song ‘My Lord and Master’) though I should mention/remind you that your sheet music needs to be taped at Laines, it’s not a big deal if it isn’t but its just nice to show them that your’e good at following instruction. They then asked me a few questions, like ‘Why Laines?’ (you know, the usual) and they also asked me if my mum taught me dance?… I mean I had to put that my mother was a dance teacher on my application (which she is by the way) however she teaches Ballroom and Latin to professional competitors so I said no, and thus started a long conversation about Strictly Come Dancing and more about her job. Overall, they were really nice. I then started my dance. Before I was actually so worried that my CD wouldn’t work but it was fine! The dance I thought went ok, though to be honest I think I may have been over thinking it afterwards. I thought that maybe I could have performed more, stayed on balance more and could have tried harder to not run out of room during this specific section, but other than that it went well.
I finished the day at 5:30, which wasn’t unusual for me as that’s time I usually finish school. My mum picked me up and drove me home, and what happened to be there? Nothing but my Bird College letter! I must say my mum is a very good actress, she knew all that time and I wouldn’t have ever guessed that she already knew it was at home! I opened and I got offered a place! Finally after what? 5 weeks?! The biggest surprise however, came 2 days after while I was at school. My Laines letter had come and my mum messaged me asking if she could open it, long story short my Ballet teachers convinced me to say yes and I also got an offer, but they had also offered me a DADA (basically a scholarship). I’m am totally thrilled and I feel like it’s a lesson that everyone should learn, don’t overthink or doubt yourself!
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