Me holding our ABDC Crew Audition Number!
My blog has been VERY silent recently! No, your RSS reader is not broken. The past two and a half weeks I spent in intensive, grueling, closed door dance practices every night for 2+ hours in preparation for Bollywood Funk NYC Dance Company's performances at MTV's Americas Best Dance Crew Season 5 Auditions!!! The auditions were held last Saturday and Sunday 12/12 and 12/13. So everyone understands just how grueling this process is, our entire weekend from sun-up Saturday to sun-down Sunday was spent on these auditions, which included 3 separate auditions, 4 song performances total!
We did our first audition on Saturday at around 4PM for the show's talent agents. We had gotten there at 8AM per instructions, and basically, spent most of the day waiting and waiting and practicing our piece as much as we could, in front of tons of other crews, all sharing a common holding area. We showed our audition piece at around 4PM and were told on the spot that they wanted us to come back the next day for the "Challenge" call-backs. What "challenge?" say you? Basically, they handed us a CD with mystery music, and told us to choreograph our own piece to it, and to incorporate a prop (any prop). We basically had to create a dance from scratch for 6 people overnight, ready for 8AM the next morning! We all got together, and practiced at Maitri's until about 2:30 in the morning (we all slept on the floor underneath massive blankets and comforters). We then got up around 7:00, got ready, and went back to the auditions for Day 2.
Us, waiting outside in the cold!
Day 2 consisted of showing our Challenge piece AND our original audition piece for the show's executive producers in the morning, AND performing for ABDC's actual judges Shane Sparks, Lil Mama and Kevin from Season 1 Champs Jabawockeez in the afternoon!!! Yes, BFunk was seen by ABDC's actual TV judges, WOW!!! I dont think I ever danced so hard in my life as I did on Sunday. Ayesha our Artistic Director was by our side most of the time, to help feed us and keep us sane :P . MTV also spent a good amount of time interviewing and filming us after our first audition Saturday, which was a BLAST. I also have to mention the UNBELIEVABLE talent of all the crews there. EVERY crew was so strong in what they did, it was amazing. AND, EVERYONE was so nice and respectful; every crew took turns practicing on the main practice stage one at a time without issue or anything. Everyone really appreciated everyone else's uniqueness and all, it was a great vibe and energy all around.
Competition was FIERCE and In the end we didn't make it to the next round, but having made it that far was more than enough to celebrate!!!! We were one of very few Bollywood crews in the whole country to audition, and we were INVITED by MTV to audition in fact! I am SOOOOOO proud of my fellow dancers Jess, Aki, Tiffany, Maitri and Ryan, and our fearless leader Ayesha for their incredible dedication and belief in Bollywood Funk NYC Dance Company and what we do.
I won't tell you just yet what we performed for our audition piece, but will instead tell you that it melded multiple Indian and contemporary dance styles and an olympic sport together and was absolutely MIND-BLOWING...watch us at our next public show, to see it!!! :) Join us at Facebook or Twitter to stay up to date with us.
Cheers,
Vicki
bollywoodfunknyc.com.
