July 28, 2024 • 24 mins
Welcome back to another episode! Today, we're diving into how to pick up choreography faster, especially during auditions and classes. Whether you're new to dance or looking to sharpen your skills, this episode provides practical steps to boost your confidence and clarity. Thank you for being part of this amazing community!
Highlights:
- Personal Story: Insights from my own experiences with picking up choreography and overcoming challenges.
- Mental Preparation: Strategies for boosting confidence and staying positive before auditions.
- Physical Preparation: Importance of warming up and getting your body ready for the demands of auditions.
- Observation Skills: How to keenly observe choreographers to capture style and nuances.
- Patterns and Sections: Breaking down choreography into manageable chunks for better retention.
- Awareness: Techniques for staying present and aware during auditions to enhance performance.
- Reflection: The power of reflecting on your audition experiences to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
- Feedback and Follow-Up: Importance of seeking feedback and how to use it constructively.
What to Expect:
- Part 1: Preparation:
- Mental Preparation: Techniques for boosting your mindset and confidence.
- Physical Preparation: Effective warm-up routines to prepare your body for auditions.
- Part 2: Performance:
- Observation: Tips on how to watch and learn from the choreographer.
- Patterns and Sections: Methods for breaking down choreography into sections to make learning easier.
- Awareness: Importance of staying present and breathing techniques to enhance focus.
- Part 3: Reflection:
- Self-Review: How to reflect on your performance to identify what went well and what to improve.
- Feedback and Follow-Up: Tips on asking for and utilizing feedback to grow as a dancer.
By the end of this episode, you'll have actionable steps to help you pick up choreography faster, ensuring you walk into auditions and classes more confidently and clearly. Enjoy the episode and thank you for tuning in!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to another episode.
I'm so keen to talk on today'stopic, which is all about how to
pick up choreography faster,specifically with auditions and
class.
I know it can be tough,particularly if you're maybe
starting dance later in the game.
You can feel maybe left behind.
I know really going into italready a few steps back.
(00:23):
So after this episode, I hopeto give you practical steps that
you can actually utilize anduse to go ahead and go into the
audition or even a class with abit more clarity and confidence,
knowing that you can pick upthe choreography a lot faster.
So, as always, thank you somuch for being here.
This community is so awesome.
(00:43):
I'm definitely biased, but inthe previous few days, even of
recording this, I have beenspeaking to a lot of you on here
and if you're new to thepodcast, welcome in, welcome,
welcome, welcome.
I love connecting with studentsand anyone that listens in onto
the podcast, because I reallyjust honestly have loved
connecting with you and bringingthe community together.
(01:05):
I think it's super importantand not to get deep, but not
only as like a human race, butalso just as a community within
the arts.
I think there is that gap thatwe are not talking about the
things we're struggling with,we're not connecting in a way
that can benefit us all.
So that is what we are allabout within the dive and I'm so
excited that you're here.
So I wanted to start off with abit of a personal story, coming
(01:29):
to picking up choreography.
If I'm looking back, I wasalways able to pick up
choreography fast in a way, Iguess.
But I do remember, and still tothis day, when I'm going into a
specifically challenging class,and maybe it's not even about
the technique of the class orthe audition itself.
(01:50):
It's got more to do with theintricacies of the routine
itself.
So maybe you can agree with meor, if you've felt this way
before, comment and definitelyshare your thoughts on this.
But to me it's as though ourbrains are kind of like hard
drives.
You know when you're like onyour phone and you go to record
something, or you go to take aphoto or whatever, and then a
(02:13):
thing comes up, or anotification comes up and says
you've run out of storage.
Now that's how it feelssometimes, right, when we're in
auditions.
It gets to a point you'renailing it.
You're like, oh yeah, oh yeah,oh yeah.
And then there's some pointwithin the class that it gets to
it and I'm like, oh, I'vechecked out, it's all done, like
I'm at capacity.
So I know for a lot of peopleand friends, and if you're a
(02:35):
performer, this is so true foryou, and if that hasn't happened
to you, well, amazing, pleaseteach me your ways.
Amazing, please teach me yourways.
But a lot of the time we get tothat point where we are full,
like the hard drive's full, weneed to delete some files.
It's as though that we need toalmost drain or let go of a few
files or store them somewhereelse so that we can create more
space for us to keep learningthe choreography, stay focused
(02:58):
and perform at our peak.
So today we're going to betalking about how to exactly do
that, because, of course, okay,it's very fair to go and say
that, okay, let's delete somefiles, but maybe we need those
files.
So let's talk about it.
We're going to go into mindset,we're going to go into
practical, physical steps thatyou can take and steps that you
can take right after this call.
So let's get into the episode.
(03:19):
So I'm going to be splitting upthis episode into three parts.
Three parts and each part isgoing to kind of complement the
next.
So if you're a pen and papersort of person I definitely am
I've got my pen and paper here.
Take a moment, grab that out.
Or, if you just want to listenalong and then, you know, grab
more information.
I have all of it in the shownotes so that you can kind of
(03:41):
get a little bit of a list ofwhat we speak about today.
Part one is preparation.
Preparation, we know, is key,and especially when we're going
to an audition and I'm going tomake this more specific to
auditions, because I know thatthere are a lot happening at the
moment or maybe you're justwanting clarity right now You're
about to go into an auditioncongrats and you just want to be
(04:02):
able to pick it up faster.
So the first thing we need todo is preparation.
Preparation is always splitinto two parts, so the first
part is mental and then thesecond part is physical.
So when we're looking at thefirst part of part one, which is
the preparation, the mentalpreparation going into it is so
crucial have a look at yourselfand just notice, when you're
(04:23):
coming up to an audition, what'shappening in your mind.
Are you taking yourself out ofthe game.
Are you going?
Yes, we're about to kill this.
We're going to do the best thatwe can.
Nine times out of 10,unfortunately a lot of artists
we feel self-doubt.
We don't know how well we'regoing to do in the audition and
we, a lot of the time, takeourselves out of the game before
we even get in there.
(04:44):
Why this happens is because,mentally, maybe you've had a bad
experience in the past that youhaven't been able to pick up
choreography, and so your bodyand your brain is simply looking
to protect you.
It's looking to go.
Okay, don't do that again,because you may feel this way
and just know that this is sonormal.
And how we get to move throughit is by taking a mental note of
(05:06):
what's happened in the past andjust starting to see things as
a fresh start.
For example, if you go into anaudition, know that you can ask
for feedback.
If you're someone that doesn'tknow this, you can actually ask
for feedback.
Get your agent to ask feedbackafter the audition so that you
get quality, almost likeobjective feedback, because the
feedback where we give ourselvesright is always like it was
(05:28):
terrible or we just focus on thenegative.
So get the feedback and thenwhat you're going to do is
you're going to start toimplement some action steps on
how to improve that section ofyourself that needed a bit of
improvement.
It could have been the dancing,singing, acting so that's one
thing you can do, but with ourmental preparation it's all
(05:52):
about.
Okay, how are we living a life,or are we living in a place
where we can mentally feel Idon't want to say ready, because
I feel like auditions are justcrazy in themselves and you can
never feel ready but justwriting out or taking a few
moments before going in tomentally put yourself in that
position of all right, I'm goingto do my best, I'm going to
have fun, and something that Ido for this mentally that really
(06:13):
helps me are affirmations likeliterally just saying in your
mind the best case scenario,because we're either going to be
doing both and you have achoice to do both.
You can choose.
On the way to audition, youknow, talk yourself out of it.
This is going to be terrible.
Oh, I remember that last timethat happened and this is
probably going to happen again.
You're actually choosing tothink those thoughts, and so one
(06:34):
thing you can do is just startto do the other and you don't
need to do many.
Just get yourself in a place ofI can do this, or it could be
that I'm just going to give itmy best shot and show my best
self.
And actually how you get betterat talking to yourself like that
is by showing up in yourday-to-day life.
See, sometimes and you may, ifI'm calling you out, this was
(06:56):
definitely me not long ago thatwe get to our auditions and we
mentally psych ourselves outbecause we actually haven't been
doing the work we haven't beenshowing up in dance class.
So, of course, when you get tothe audition and you haven't
been working on your danceskills, you're going to be
nervous about your dance skills.
I don't know how it sounds sosimple, but it's true.
So maybe having a look at that,what ways can you preempt or
(07:19):
help yourself in advance?
If you know you're not going tobe good at picking up
choreography and you're notgoing to dance class and trying
out beginner classes or othersort of classes that are in a
low stakes environment for youto learn how your brain works?
It's going to be so much morehighlighted when you get into a
full audition with pros that arepro dancers and it's just going
(07:44):
to reflect basically badly onyou and kind of, you'll just end
up going into a little bit of acycle mentally.
So that's the first one.
We need to mentally bringourselves into a preparation
that is, preparing us to take onboard not only the information
that we get into the auditionbut also mentally support us, no
matter the result that comesout of it.
(08:04):
The second thing that we can dois our physical preparation.
So, oh my gosh, the amount oftimes I've gone into an audition
and physically done oh yeah,there's a few little stretches
and then got in and it was afull on dance round and even
though I consider myself astrong dancer, like I could
barely get through because Ijust wasn't warm, I wasn't
(08:25):
bringing my body to a level thatwas at least halfway to what
will be in the room.
An example of this is crucialof any time that you've gone and
done a show right.
Or even in my own experience,when I'm doing eight shows a
week, I've always felt so muchbetter if, by the time that the
(08:46):
show has started, I've at leastmoved my body to about 70 to 80%
of the capacity of what theshow is going to do.
And I know that for a lot of us, you may be hearing this and
you're like, oh, come on, I'mnot going to be doing that every
single day.
But maybe it's not that, maybeit's 50%, maybe it's 40%,
definitely just something.
This can be a walk, this can bea little jog, a run, a yoga
(09:08):
class, a Pilates, like somethingthat's more low impact, and
what you will find this actuallydoes to your body.
I like to think of our bodies or, in our terms, of our
performance, on a scale from 1to 10.
We've got to get this body inthe mind from a 1 to a 10, to
perform either each night oreven into an audition.
So, coming back to thataudition, if you know that it's
(09:29):
going to be particularly astrong dance round, it's so much
better to get up in the morning.
Do something that at leastmoves your body, to bring
yourself, instead of going froma zero to then all of a sudden
doing a 10 plus in an auditionroom.
It's really hard to sustainthat.
So get your body movingbeforehand.
Get it to at least 50 or into aplace where you feel like, okay
(09:52):
, my body has moved, it's readyand it's not only going to help
you perform well, but yourbody's going to be able to
retain choreography a lot fasterbecause it's not focusing on oh
my gosh, I'm just trying towarm up as I'm learning the
choreography, yes, so let's takea little breath there, because
there was a lot of justinformation.
(10:12):
So just take a moment,breathing in, breathing out,
great, amazing.
So that's the first part.
First part mentally prepareourselves and physically prepare
ourselves.
One little note on that isauditions are tough.
They're tough A lot of the time.
You just can't get muchexperience unless you're just
there in the room, right?
(10:32):
So, doing all the things thatwe're speaking about today, or
at least starting to I'm alwaysa big believer in don't take my
word if it doesn't ring true toyou.
Just take what you need fromall the episodes and all the
content we share in the dive andtest it out.
Try it on for size, I like tosay so.
Part two is the performance.
(10:52):
So we're there, we havementally prepared ourselves and
we have physically preparedourselves, and now it's all
about actually performing.
So in part two, which is theperformance aspect, I break it
down into three sections.
So the first one is observation.
It's really, really crucial, asyou're learning to pick up
choreography faster, to reallyjust watch the choreographer
(11:15):
there are so many little thingsof the style, how their body
moves, and seeing how you cantranslate that, because that's
essentially what is mostimportant.
How can you move in a way thatis in alignment with what the
choreographer is looking for?
And this is beyond thetechnique.
If it is specific ballet dancetechnique, great, but a lot of
(11:39):
the time it's this style, it'sthe character behind what is
actually coming forward.
So by being really observant ofwhat they're saying and this
could be about the rhythm, itcould be about the timing really
just zoning in on them,blocking everyone or at least
moving everyone else out of yourperipherals, if that means
coming to the front.
And just, you know, I rememberone.
(12:00):
Even a class I did, I think itwas Sophie Holloway's, when she
was back here teaching inMelbourne.
I hadn't done a class inforever, and so when we got to
actually learning the routine, Iwas like I need to be at the
front, because if I'm at theback I'm just going to
completely lose the choreography.
I need to be like right there.
So maybe that's something thatyou can do.
So observe, which is the firstone really look at what they're
(12:24):
saying.
Not only what they're saying,but how they're moving and the
character that they're wantingyou to bring across.
The second thing of part two ispatterns and sections.
This is probably the number onetip I always give out, because
it's always been something thathas helped me and that can be
verbally, the lyrics, the rhythmand visual.
So what I mean by that is, whenyou're picking up choreography,
(12:47):
you need to start thinking ofit into sections, because it can
be so overwhelming if you'relooking at a count of eight as
eight different sections.
Instead, find ways and you cando this with, for example,
verbal.
If there's lyrics involved, youcan use that as a section.
It could be that verse one ofthat lyric is to that specific
(13:10):
section.
In your mind, it could be withthe rhythm.
You know is one little section.
So instead of thinking as, yeah, like seven or eight counts,
whatever that was is as allseparate sections in themselves,
by the time you do four countsof eight, your brain is just
going to already feel like it'sat that capacity again.
(13:31):
By blocking things out andfinding patterns in the
choreography itself, you'regoing to be able to minimize, or
it's almost like you're puttingeach section into separate
folders so that you can easilyunderstand each section.
How else can I help you withthis?
You can also do this visually.
(13:51):
I'm a highly visual person whenI'm learning, so this could be,
I mean, generally in a dancecall they're looking for
technique, style, and maybethat's all together in one, or
it could be in differentsections.
Like, okay, is this sectionasking for more style?
Is that section asking for moretechnique?
So you can block things off inthat way.
(14:13):
It's really going to be a tryyourself and please give it a go
and find if that is helpful foryou.
I find it so much helpfulbecause it really brings that
overwhelming feeling that you'reprobably feeling down a little
bit.
It brings that gigabytes fullof capacity down a little bit
because you're actuallysectioning things off and you're
(14:34):
basically deleting all thethings that probably don't
matter If your head was forwardor side, you know, really don't
focus too much on super detailedthings.
Just focus on the characteryou're bringing to it and really
trying to convey what they'representing and how that works in
(14:54):
your body.
One of the most big or onemistake that many performers
make and even when I was firststarting out is I was trying to
be a carbon copy of what they'relooking for, and then I didn't
add myself to it.
So I learned that very, verystraight away and so as soon as
that didn't work, I was like, oh, that automatically feels
(15:15):
inauthentic to you, right?
So what I mean by that is lookat what they're trying to give
you, take it on board and thenmake it your own.
We do this a lot when we teach,so a lot of teachers give this
out in class and this isn't toscare you.
This isn't to do anything otherthan really connect with you
and see like, okay, where is thepersonality, where is the human
(15:35):
behind all of these dance steps?
The third section of part two isawareness.
Have you ever felt a moment inyour audition, and specifically
dance audition, where you'vegone in and you've come out and
it's just been like how it allwent was just a blackout.
(15:58):
You don't remember a singlething, you don't know who was
there, which way you were facing, maybe even what you were
wearing, and then you're homeand you're like what just
happened.
Don't worry, sometimes I docontracts, like for a few years,
and I get home after and I'mlike what just happened.
So adding in awareness is justgoing to help you magically.
This section is reallyimportant, and it's important
(16:20):
because, by adding awareness,you're not only able to slow
down your body's ability toprocess the information coming
in, but you're going to be moreaware to your surroundings.
And this is really important,especially when you're going
down to groups, because you wantto stay in that formation and
yeah, just opening the awareness.
So how do we do this?
Number one is really focus onyour breath.
(16:42):
Is it short and sharp or is itlong and smooth?
Nine times out of 10, it's notgoing to be long and smooth,
because you're probably nervousas hell.
So how do we do this If you aredoing a dance school and you
don't need to sing a really high?
Key tip that I want you tostart to implement that is going
to change the game for you isbreathing through your nose, and
(17:05):
I know a lot of you.
Maybe I lost you already juston that, but I have started to
implement this in the past fewyears and it is a game changer.
Our nose is designed to breathe.
Our mouth isn't actuallydesigned to breathe.
Our mouth is designed foreating and our nose is actually
designed to breathe and humidifythe air that's coming in and
regulates how much air thatcomes in as well.
(17:26):
When we are just breathing inand out through the mouth.
It can't humidify, it can'tfilter anything that's coming in
and out.
And there was actually ascience test maybe I can add it
in the show notes below that Iwas actually I think it was in a
book that I read and basicallywhat they did they hooked up two
football teams to technologywhere they could monitor their
(17:48):
performance and they made onegroup basically perform and just
breathe through their mouth andthen the other was just to
breathe through their nose, andthe information and the results
that came back was the peoplethat actually breathe through
their nose massively were ableto endure like so a lot more or
a big amount of time than thepeople that were breathing
(18:10):
through their mouth.
When they looked at the resultsfrom the mouth breathers in
performance, they found thatthey actually didn't perform
nearly as well and they wereexhausted a lot, lot faster.
So there you go, a little bit ofscience to the dive.
There you go Again.
Try this on for you.
It can be a big adjust ifyou're not used to doing that
(18:30):
and maybe if you havecomplications with breathing in
and out your nose.
Just give it a try and see howyou go, try it in class and, of
course, if you feel like you'reout of breath and you need to
take a breath in your mouth, trythat too.
Be careful.
I'm not a doctor, but it'sdefinitely helped me and it's
also going to just having thatawareness of I'm breathing,
(18:51):
taking a few mindful breaths inand out my nose I did this
previously in an audition.
You're bringing awareness toyour body and by doing that
you're taking yourself out ofyour head and more into the
space and the surroundings thatyou have.
The final part of part three isabout reflection, and if a lot
of you are going to tune outstraight, as you hear that, I
(19:11):
want you to know you're missingout on the most important part
of the whole process Reflection.
I talk about this a lot in theprograms that I've been starting
to launch with the dive andsome of the coaching that we've
been doing, but reflection ishonestly your gift.
It's like something, your magicwand to not only progressing in
the industry but also justsustaining a long and healthy
(19:34):
career.
So when we are talking aboutreflection, I'm going to split
this up into two sections.
The first one is aboutreviewing yourself and
reflecting yourself.
This can just be taking amoment.
A previous audition I did.
I, instead of just getting intoan Uber or getting straight
onto a train, I actually walkedhome a little bit, not for long
because I was like tired, but Ijust took a walk I made, allowed
(19:56):
my body to just regulate downand let the audition go.
And as I was doing that, in thewalk I was listening to just
calm music and just reflecting.
You know what went well, whatcould I work on.
Next time, if you want to goone step further, you could then
sit down and actually write, oryou can talk to the camera or
do a little voice note of thewhole experience.
You will be shocked.
(20:17):
You will be shocked at whatcomes up when you do this.
And please let me know when youdo it, what comes up for you.
Because when I've started to dothis previously, in all the
auditions I've done, I'veactually been able to notice a
lot more of what's gone well andI've been able to work clearly
on what went wrong or how tonavigate it moving forward.
The biggest mistake you canpossibly do when you go into a
(20:40):
dance audition is leave it andnever think about it again.
You need to be reflecting onhow you went.
Ask for feedback so that youcan go ahead into your next
auditions with a bit moreclarity, knowing the steps that
you need to take to go forward.
The second part of the finalpart of three is feedback and
(21:00):
following up.
I just mentioned a little bit,then, but know that you can ask
your agent to ask for feedbackon how you went.
It shocks me that a lot ofpeople don't actually know that
you can do this, and it'sdefinitely something your agent
should be able to do for you.
The company may not get back toyou.
It may be a few weeks.
Know that they're casting amajor show or they've got things
to do, but please know thatthat's accessible and nine times
(21:23):
out of 10, in my experiencethey will give you the feedback
and utilize that feedback tothen progress.
Take action steps.
Don't hyper focus.
If you felt like you did notwell in your singing audition
and they said you were great,don't go ahead and do like 20
singing auditions.
If they said oh, we just wantedthe person to be more of
themselves in dancing, go bookmore dance classes.
(21:46):
Really listen to the peoplethat are essentially there to
cast you.
They have seen so many people.
They know what works, they knowwhat doesn't.
They're there for a reason, soutilize them in the best way
possible.
I hope this has been a wonderfulpodcast episode for you.
If you are someone that has hadexperience with that doubt and
(22:07):
just really not understandinghow to pick up choreography
faster, you can use thisthree-part system to really
check in on yourself and startto not only prepare we talked
about how to prepare mentallyand physically to make you
prepared for the actual work.
And then we went intoperformance making sure that we
are being a keen observer, thatwe're putting into sections of
(22:31):
patterns and sections andblocking things out to diminish
the overwhelm of what we'relearning.
Then we went into bringing abit more awareness so that you
can be a little bit more in yourbody and aware of the space
around you.
And then, to finish off, wewere talking about reflection,
taking a moment for yourself,maybe going for a walk, taking a
moment to journal, and thenalso ask for feedback.
(22:53):
Ask for feedback and then takeaction steps to move forward so
that when you go into the nextaudition you're not the same.
You've been working on steps tomove forward.
So, as always, if you've lovedthis episode, please comment in,
email us at info at thedivecomau, and I can't wait to
see you on future episodes.
I love connecting with you ascommunity, so always reach out,
(23:13):
comment on our posts on oursocials and, if you're not
already, we have a free Facebookgroup that you can be a part of
.
Look in the show notes below,as I run weekly questions on
there.
There's about a hundred or so,at the time of filming this
students on there, and it's areally cool community to be a
part of.
It's free and if you haven'tlooked at other episodes of the
(23:37):
podcast, you can go ahead rightnow and be sure to look at the
resources and the tools that wehave on our website at
thedivecomau.
Check out our website, as wehave a bunch of free resources
for you to check out, tools thatyou can download for free to
really help you take your notonly your auditions, but your
career to the next level.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
(23:57):
My name's Taylor and I'll seeyou on the next episode.
Hello and welcome back to another episode.
I'm so keen to talk on today'stopic, which is all about how to
pick up choreography faster,specifically with auditions and
class.
I know it can be tough,particularly if you're maybe
starting dance later in the game.
You can feel maybe left behind.
I know really going into italready a few steps back.
(00:23):
So after this episode, I hopeto give you practical steps that
you can actually utilize anduse to go ahead and go into the
audition or even a class with abit more clarity and confidence,
knowing that you can pick upthe choreography a lot faster.
So, as always, thank you somuch for being here.
This community is so awesome.
(00:43):
I'm definitely biased, but inthe previous few days, even of
recording this, I have beenspeaking to a lot of you on here
and if you're new to thepodcast, welcome in, welcome,
welcome, welcome.
I love connecting with studentsand anyone that listens in onto
the podcast, because I reallyjust honestly have loved
connecting with you and bringingthe community together.
(01:05):
I think it's super importantand not to get deep, but not
only as like a human race, butalso just as a community within
the arts.
I think there is that gap thatwe are not talking about the
things we're struggling with,we're not connecting in a way
that can benefit us all.
So that is what we are allabout within the dive and I'm so
excited that you're here.
So I wanted to start off with abit of a personal story, coming
(01:29):
to picking up choreography.
If I'm looking back, I wasalways able to pick up
choreography fast in a way, Iguess.
But I do remember, and still tothis day, when I'm going into a
specifically challenging class,and maybe it's not even about
the technique of the class orthe audition itself.
(01:50):
It's got more to do with theintricacies of the routine
itself.
So maybe you can agree with meor, if you've felt this way
before, comment and definitelyshare your thoughts on this.
But to me it's as though ourbrains are kind of like hard
drives.
You know when you're like onyour phone and you go to record
something, or you go to take aphoto or whatever, and then a
(02:13):
thing comes up, or anotification comes up and says
you've run out of storage.
Now that's how it feelssometimes, right, when we're in
auditions.
It gets to a point you'renailing it.
You're like, oh yeah, oh yeah,oh yeah.
And then there's some pointwithin the class that it gets to
it and I'm like, oh, I'vechecked out, it's all done, like
I'm at capacity.
So I know for a lot of peopleand friends, and if you're a
(02:35):
performer, this is so true foryou, and if that hasn't happened
to you, well, amazing, pleaseteach me your ways.
Amazing, please teach me yourways.
But a lot of the time we get tothat point where we are full,
like the hard drive's full, weneed to delete some files.
It's as though that we need toalmost drain or let go of a few
files or store them somewhereelse so that we can create more
space for us to keep learningthe choreography, stay focused
(02:58):
and perform at our peak.
So today we're going to betalking about how to exactly do
that, because, of course, okay,it's very fair to go and say
that, okay, let's delete somefiles, but maybe we need those
files.
So let's talk about it.
We're going to go into mindset,we're going to go into
practical, physical steps thatyou can take and steps that you
can take right after this call.
So let's get into the episode.
(03:19):
So I'm going to be splitting upthis episode into three parts.
Three parts and each part isgoing to kind of complement the
next.
So if you're a pen and papersort of person I definitely am
I've got my pen and paper here.
Take a moment, grab that out.
Or, if you just want to listenalong and then, you know, grab
more information.
I have all of it in the shownotes so that you can kind of
(03:41):
get a little bit of a list ofwhat we speak about today.
Part one is preparation.
Preparation, we know, is key,and especially when we're going
to an audition and I'm going tomake this more specific to
auditions, because I know thatthere are a lot happening at the
moment or maybe you're justwanting clarity right now You're
about to go into an auditioncongrats and you just want to be
(04:02):
able to pick it up faster.
So the first thing we need todo is preparation.
Preparation is always splitinto two parts, so the first
part is mental and then thesecond part is physical.
So when we're looking at thefirst part of part one, which is
the preparation, the mentalpreparation going into it is so
crucial have a look at yourselfand just notice, when you're
(04:23):
coming up to an audition, what'shappening in your mind.
Are you taking yourself out ofthe game.
Are you going?
Yes, we're about to kill this.
We're going to do the best thatwe can.
Nine times out of 10,unfortunately a lot of artists
we feel self-doubt.
We don't know how well we'regoing to do in the audition and
we, a lot of the time, takeourselves out of the game before
we even get in there.
(04:44):
Why this happens is because,mentally, maybe you've had a bad
experience in the past that youhaven't been able to pick up
choreography, and so your bodyand your brain is simply looking
to protect you.
It's looking to go.
Okay, don't do that again,because you may feel this way
and just know that this is sonormal.
And how we get to move throughit is by taking a mental note of
(05:06):
what's happened in the past andjust starting to see things as
a fresh start.
For example, if you go into anaudition, know that you can ask
for feedback.
If you're someone that doesn'tknow this, you can actually ask
for feedback.
Get your agent to ask feedbackafter the audition so that you
get quality, almost likeobjective feedback, because the
feedback where we give ourselvesright is always like it was
(05:28):
terrible or we just focus on thenegative.
So get the feedback and thenwhat you're going to do is
you're going to start toimplement some action steps on
how to improve that section ofyourself that needed a bit of
improvement.
It could have been the dancing,singing, acting so that's one
thing you can do, but with ourmental preparation it's all
(05:52):
about.
Okay, how are we living a life,or are we living in a place
where we can mentally feel Idon't want to say ready, because
I feel like auditions are justcrazy in themselves and you can
never feel ready but justwriting out or taking a few
moments before going in tomentally put yourself in that
position of all right, I'm goingto do my best, I'm going to
have fun, and something that Ido for this mentally that really
(06:13):
helps me are affirmations likeliterally just saying in your
mind the best case scenario,because we're either going to be
doing both and you have achoice to do both.
You can choose.
On the way to audition, youknow, talk yourself out of it.
This is going to be terrible.
Oh, I remember that last timethat happened and this is
probably going to happen again.
You're actually choosing tothink those thoughts, and so one
(06:34):
thing you can do is just startto do the other and you don't
need to do many.
Just get yourself in a place ofI can do this, or it could be
that I'm just going to give itmy best shot and show my best
self.
And actually how you get betterat talking to yourself like that
is by showing up in yourday-to-day life.
See, sometimes and you may, ifI'm calling you out, this was
(06:56):
definitely me not long ago thatwe get to our auditions and we
mentally psych ourselves outbecause we actually haven't been
doing the work we haven't beenshowing up in dance class.
So, of course, when you get tothe audition and you haven't
been working on your danceskills, you're going to be
nervous about your dance skills.
I don't know how it sounds sosimple, but it's true.
So maybe having a look at that,what ways can you preempt or
(07:19):
help yourself in advance?
If you know you're not going tobe good at picking up
choreography and you're notgoing to dance class and trying
out beginner classes or othersort of classes that are in a
low stakes environment for youto learn how your brain works?
It's going to be so much morehighlighted when you get into a
full audition with pros that arepro dancers and it's just going
(07:44):
to reflect basically badly onyou and kind of, you'll just end
up going into a little bit of acycle mentally.
So that's the first one.
We need to mentally bringourselves into a preparation
that is, preparing us to take onboard not only the information
that we get into the auditionbut also mentally support us, no
matter the result that comesout of it.
(08:04):
The second thing that we can dois our physical preparation.
So, oh my gosh, the amount oftimes I've gone into an audition
and physically done oh yeah,there's a few little stretches
and then got in and it was afull on dance round and even
though I consider myself astrong dancer, like I could
barely get through because Ijust wasn't warm, I wasn't
(08:25):
bringing my body to a level thatwas at least halfway to what
will be in the room.
An example of this is crucialof any time that you've gone and
done a show right.
Or even in my own experience,when I'm doing eight shows a
week, I've always felt so muchbetter if, by the time that the
(08:46):
show has started, I've at leastmoved my body to about 70 to 80%
of the capacity of what theshow is going to do.
And I know that for a lot of us, you may be hearing this and
you're like, oh, come on, I'mnot going to be doing that every
single day.
But maybe it's not that, maybeit's 50%, maybe it's 40%,
definitely just something.
This can be a walk, this can bea little jog, a run, a yoga
(09:08):
class, a Pilates, like somethingthat's more low impact, and
what you will find this actuallydoes to your body.
I like to think of our bodies or, in our terms, of our
performance, on a scale from 1to 10.
We've got to get this body inthe mind from a 1 to a 10, to
perform either each night oreven into an audition.
So, coming back to thataudition, if you know that it's
(09:29):
going to be particularly astrong dance round, it's so much
better to get up in the morning.
Do something that at leastmoves your body, to bring
yourself, instead of going froma zero to then all of a sudden
doing a 10 plus in an auditionroom.
It's really hard to sustainthat.
So get your body movingbeforehand.
Get it to at least 50 or into aplace where you feel like, okay
(09:52):
, my body has moved, it's readyand it's not only going to help
you perform well, but yourbody's going to be able to
retain choreography a lot fasterbecause it's not focusing on oh
my gosh, I'm just trying towarm up as I'm learning the
choreography, yes, so let's takea little breath there, because
there was a lot of justinformation.
(10:12):
So just take a moment,breathing in, breathing out,
great, amazing.
So that's the first part.
First part mentally prepareourselves and physically prepare
ourselves.
One little note on that isauditions are tough.
They're tough A lot of the time.
You just can't get muchexperience unless you're just
there in the room, right?
(10:32):
So, doing all the things thatwe're speaking about today, or
at least starting to I'm alwaysa big believer in don't take my
word if it doesn't ring true toyou.
Just take what you need fromall the episodes and all the
content we share in the dive andtest it out.
Try it on for size, I like tosay so.
Part two is the performance.
(10:52):
So we're there, we havementally prepared ourselves and
we have physically preparedourselves, and now it's all
about actually performing.
So in part two, which is theperformance aspect, I break it
down into three sections.
So the first one is observation.
It's really, really crucial, asyou're learning to pick up
choreography faster, to reallyjust watch the choreographer
(11:15):
there are so many little thingsof the style, how their body
moves, and seeing how you cantranslate that, because that's
essentially what is mostimportant.
How can you move in a way thatis in alignment with what the
choreographer is looking for?
And this is beyond thetechnique.
If it is specific ballet dancetechnique, great, but a lot of
(11:39):
the time it's this style, it'sthe character behind what is
actually coming forward.
So by being really observant ofwhat they're saying and this
could be about the rhythm, itcould be about the timing really
just zoning in on them,blocking everyone or at least
moving everyone else out of yourperipherals, if that means
coming to the front.
And just, you know, I rememberone.
(12:00):
Even a class I did, I think itwas Sophie Holloway's, when she
was back here teaching inMelbourne.
I hadn't done a class inforever, and so when we got to
actually learning the routine, Iwas like I need to be at the
front, because if I'm at theback I'm just going to
completely lose the choreography.
I need to be like right there.
So maybe that's something thatyou can do.
So observe, which is the firstone really look at what they're
(12:24):
saying.
Not only what they're saying,but how they're moving and the
character that they're wantingyou to bring across.
The second thing of part two ispatterns and sections.
This is probably the number onetip I always give out, because
it's always been something thathas helped me and that can be
verbally, the lyrics, the rhythmand visual.
So what I mean by that is, whenyou're picking up choreography,
(12:47):
you need to start thinking ofit into sections, because it can
be so overwhelming if you'relooking at a count of eight as
eight different sections.
Instead, find ways and you cando this with, for example,
verbal.
If there's lyrics involved, youcan use that as a section.
It could be that verse one ofthat lyric is to that specific
(13:10):
section.
In your mind, it could be withthe rhythm.
You know is one little section.
So instead of thinking as, yeah, like seven or eight counts,
whatever that was is as allseparate sections in themselves,
by the time you do four countsof eight, your brain is just
going to already feel like it'sat that capacity again.
(13:31):
By blocking things out andfinding patterns in the
choreography itself, you'regoing to be able to minimize, or
it's almost like you're puttingeach section into separate
folders so that you can easilyunderstand each section.
How else can I help you withthis?
You can also do this visually.
(13:51):
I'm a highly visual person whenI'm learning, so this could be,
I mean, generally in a dancecall they're looking for
technique, style, and maybethat's all together in one, or
it could be in differentsections.
Like, okay, is this sectionasking for more style?
Is that section asking for moretechnique?
So you can block things off inthat way.
(14:13):
It's really going to be a tryyourself and please give it a go
and find if that is helpful foryou.
I find it so much helpfulbecause it really brings that
overwhelming feeling that you'reprobably feeling down a little
bit.
It brings that gigabytes fullof capacity down a little bit
because you're actuallysectioning things off and you're
(14:34):
basically deleting all thethings that probably don't
matter If your head was forwardor side, you know, really don't
focus too much on super detailedthings.
Just focus on the characteryou're bringing to it and really
trying to convey what they'representing and how that works in
(14:54):
your body.
One of the most big or onemistake that many performers
make and even when I was firststarting out is I was trying to
be a carbon copy of what they'relooking for, and then I didn't
add myself to it.
So I learned that very, verystraight away and so as soon as
that didn't work, I was like, oh, that automatically feels
(15:15):
inauthentic to you, right?
So what I mean by that is lookat what they're trying to give
you, take it on board and thenmake it your own.
We do this a lot when we teach,so a lot of teachers give this
out in class and this isn't toscare you.
This isn't to do anything otherthan really connect with you
and see like, okay, where is thepersonality, where is the human
(15:35):
behind all of these dance steps?
The third section of part two isawareness.
Have you ever felt a moment inyour audition, and specifically
dance audition, where you'vegone in and you've come out and
it's just been like how it allwent was just a blackout.
(15:58):
You don't remember a singlething, you don't know who was
there, which way you were facing, maybe even what you were
wearing, and then you're homeand you're like what just
happened.
Don't worry, sometimes I docontracts, like for a few years,
and I get home after and I'mlike what just happened.
So adding in awareness is justgoing to help you magically.
This section is reallyimportant, and it's important
(16:20):
because, by adding awareness,you're not only able to slow
down your body's ability toprocess the information coming
in, but you're going to be moreaware to your surroundings.
And this is really important,especially when you're going
down to groups, because you wantto stay in that formation and
yeah, just opening the awareness.
So how do we do this?
Number one is really focus onyour breath.
(16:42):
Is it short and sharp or is itlong and smooth?
Nine times out of 10, it's notgoing to be long and smooth,
because you're probably nervousas hell.
So how do we do this If you aredoing a dance school and you
don't need to sing a really high?
Key tip that I want you tostart to implement that is going
to change the game for you isbreathing through your nose, and
(17:05):
I know a lot of you.
Maybe I lost you already juston that, but I have started to
implement this in the past fewyears and it is a game changer.
Our nose is designed to breathe.
Our mouth isn't actuallydesigned to breathe.
Our mouth is designed foreating and our nose is actually
designed to breathe and humidifythe air that's coming in and
regulates how much air thatcomes in as well.
(17:26):
When we are just breathing inand out through the mouth.
It can't humidify, it can'tfilter anything that's coming in
and out.
And there was actually ascience test maybe I can add it
in the show notes below that Iwas actually I think it was in a
book that I read and basicallywhat they did they hooked up two
football teams to technologywhere they could monitor their
(17:48):
performance and they made onegroup basically perform and just
breathe through their mouth andthen the other was just to
breathe through their nose, andthe information and the results
that came back was the peoplethat actually breathe through
their nose massively were ableto endure like so a lot more or
a big amount of time than thepeople that were breathing
(18:10):
through their mouth.
When they looked at the resultsfrom the mouth breathers in
performance, they found thatthey actually didn't perform
nearly as well and they wereexhausted a lot, lot faster.
So there you go, a little bit ofscience to the dive.
There you go Again.
Try this on for you.
It can be a big adjust ifyou're not used to doing that
(18:30):
and maybe if you havecomplications with breathing in
and out your nose.
Just give it a try and see howyou go, try it in class and, of
course, if you feel like you'reout of breath and you need to
take a breath in your mouth, trythat too.
Be careful.
I'm not a doctor, but it'sdefinitely helped me and it's
also going to just having thatawareness of I'm breathing,
(18:51):
taking a few mindful breaths inand out my nose I did this
previously in an audition.
You're bringing awareness toyour body and by doing that
you're taking yourself out ofyour head and more into the
space and the surroundings thatyou have.
The final part of part three isabout reflection, and if a lot
of you are going to tune outstraight, as you hear that, I
(19:11):
want you to know you're missingout on the most important part
of the whole process Reflection.
I talk about this a lot in theprograms that I've been starting
to launch with the dive andsome of the coaching that we've
been doing, but reflection ishonestly your gift.
It's like something, your magicwand to not only progressing in
the industry but also justsustaining a long and healthy
(19:34):
career.
So when we are talking aboutreflection, I'm going to split
this up into two sections.
The first one is aboutreviewing yourself and
reflecting yourself.
This can just be taking amoment.
A previous audition I did.
I, instead of just getting intoan Uber or getting straight
onto a train, I actually walkedhome a little bit, not for long
because I was like tired, but Ijust took a walk I made, allowed
(19:56):
my body to just regulate downand let the audition go.
And as I was doing that, in thewalk I was listening to just
calm music and just reflecting.
You know what went well, whatcould I work on.
Next time, if you want to goone step further, you could then
sit down and actually write, oryou can talk to the camera or
do a little voice note of thewhole experience.
You will be shocked.
(20:17):
You will be shocked at whatcomes up when you do this.
And please let me know when youdo it, what comes up for you.
Because when I've started to dothis previously, in all the
auditions I've done, I'veactually been able to notice a
lot more of what's gone well andI've been able to work clearly
on what went wrong or how tonavigate it moving forward.
The biggest mistake you canpossibly do when you go into a
(20:40):
dance audition is leave it andnever think about it again.
You need to be reflecting onhow you went.
Ask for feedback so that youcan go ahead into your next
auditions with a bit moreclarity, knowing the steps that
you need to take to go forward.
The second part of the finalpart of three is feedback and
(21:00):
following up.
I just mentioned a little bit,then, but know that you can ask
your agent to ask for feedbackon how you went.
It shocks me that a lot ofpeople don't actually know that
you can do this, and it'sdefinitely something your agent
should be able to do for you.
The company may not get back toyou.
It may be a few weeks.
Know that they're casting amajor show or they've got things
to do, but please know thatthat's accessible and nine times
(21:23):
out of 10, in my experiencethey will give you the feedback
and utilize that feedback tothen progress.
Take action steps.
Don't hyper focus.
If you felt like you did notwell in your singing audition
and they said you were great,don't go ahead and do like 20
singing auditions.
If they said oh, we just wantedthe person to be more of
themselves in dancing, go bookmore dance classes.
(21:46):
Really listen to the peoplethat are essentially there to
cast you.
They have seen so many people.
They know what works, they knowwhat doesn't.
They're there for a reason, soutilize them in the best way
possible.
I hope this has been a wonderfulpodcast episode for you.
If you are someone that has hadexperience with that doubt and
(22:07):
just really not understandinghow to pick up choreography
faster, you can use thisthree-part system to really
check in on yourself and startto not only prepare we talked
about how to prepare mentallyand physically to make you
prepared for the actual work.
And then we went intoperformance making sure that we
are being a keen observer, thatwe're putting into sections of
(22:31):
patterns and sections andblocking things out to diminish
the overwhelm of what we'relearning.
Then we went into bringing abit more awareness so that you
can be a little bit more in yourbody and aware of the space
around you.
And then, to finish off, wewere talking about reflection,
taking a moment for yourself,maybe going for a walk, taking a
moment to journal, and thenalso ask for feedback.
(22:53):
Ask for feedback and then takeaction steps to move forward so
that when you go into the nextaudition you're not the same.
You've been working on steps tomove forward.
So, as always, if you've lovedthis episode, please comment in,
email us at info at thedivecomau, and I can't wait to
see you on future episodes.
I love connecting with you ascommunity, so always reach out,
(23:13):
comment on our posts on oursocials and, if you're not
already, we have a free Facebookgroup that you can be a part of
.
Look in the show notes below,as I run weekly questions on
there.
There's about a hundred or so,at the time of filming this
students on there, and it's areally cool community to be a
part of.
It's free and if you haven'tlooked at other episodes of the
(23:37):
podcast, you can go ahead rightnow and be sure to look at the
resources and the tools that wehave on our website at
thedivecomau.
Check out our website, as wehave a bunch of free resources
for you to check out, tools thatyou can download for free to
really help you take your notonly your auditions, but your
career to the next level.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
(23:57):
My name's Taylor and I'll seeyou on the next episode.
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