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Crystal Belcher announces at PoleCon 2017

My First Audition and Not Making the Cut

Maybe you read my other blog post that was a play-by-play (with emotions!) about my very first audition experience.

Well, the selection committee got back to me very expeditiously to tell me they decided to go in a different direction.

Now, if this was before I got on the right mental health meds, I would have had a total break down and had so many gremlins (Rachel Strickland’s term for self-limiting beliefs) attacking me. But, since I am appropriately medicated, I let out a deep sigh and told myself “there will be other chances.”

The Missteps I Saw

One thing I didn’t think about until I started writing this post is that I didn’t write a thank you email after the audition.

Auditions are the job interviews of the performance world, so interview rules should apply: arrive on time, be pleasant, put your best foot forward, and write a thank you after the interaction. I did the first three, but not the last one. Would this have changed the outcome? Unlikely. But the panel may be more inclined to remember my kindness and degree of professionalism had I remembered the thank you.

The other thing that was a huge mis-step is I listed every skill I had on my resume, even things I’ve only done once without having something prepared. That’s fine for my main specialty, especially because I coach that every week and can always pull out last week’s lesson plan as the sequence. That’s not  fine for the skills I don’t practice as often, like silk fans, juggling, and stilt walking.

So, the take-away here is for skills you don’t do as often have a routine prepared heading into an audition, but be flexible enough to work under any condition presented.

If you read my other blog post, you’d know I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to on fabric. Sometimes the fabrics just fight and don’t want to go where you put them. This is especially true of fabrics with tails that are either too long or too short. Too long and the weight of them will drag them down into places you don’t want, too short and there’s not enough weight to keep them where they’re placed for certain moves. Well folx, the tails on these fabrics were very short and made all my movements floof-tastic.

TL; DR: I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been, and I let it rattle me making even my primary skill lackluster and I didn’t write a thank you note.

The Mis-steps They Saw

I did email the committee back thanking them for their time and asking for criticism.

As of this writing (about a week post-decisions) they have not responded. If/when they do respond, you’ll likely hear from me again on this blog.

Other Follow Up Actions

I reached out to the other specialty performer who I knew prior to the audition. She was selected, and I’m honestly so happy for her! I met her 2 days before the audition when we did a very small gig together and she’s new to town and was looking to get on the roster somewhere, so I’m really glad it worked out. Being new to town is pretty tough, but she’s finding her people quickly <3.

 

Even though I’m disappointed (in myself) for not making the cut this round, I’m reminding myself that this isn’t the end-it’s the beginning and I have a long journey of auditions, rejections, and selections ahead of me.

Cora
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