Home Is Where the Mouse Is!

 It's been over 8 years since I last blogged during a contract...so I think that means it's time to start it up again!

I'm on tour! This time it's a real Rockstar Tour Bus tour. After years of multiple roommates and tiny cruise ship cabins, I never thought I'd subject myself to such close quartered communal living again, but here we are! 

I first auditioned for this tour in 2018. At the time, it was called Disney Junior Dance Party, and I made it to final callbacks for a dancer track. Although it was a Disney show, the creative team consisted of notable names in the commercial dance world, the rate was high, and it was clear it would be way more than "just a kid's show." Obviously I didn't book it, but in the back of my mind, I hoped that someday I would have the opportunity. The tour was in circulation for a few years, but of course Covid threw a wrench in any 2020 plans. Fast forward to Spring 2022 when I received an email from my agent inquiring if I wanted to be submitted for a a new version of the Disney Junior Tour. I almost said no, because it was for an acrobat role with a max height of 5'2," plus I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to doing a Disney show again. I submitted anyway and surprisingly received a self-tape callback, followed by an in-person callback.

They held in-person callbacks in LA and Las Vegas. There were about 12 of us called back in LA. No clue how many were called back in Vegas. For reference, there are only 9 performers total in the cast. 1 performer returned from the original tour, 2 were directly booked from knowing the choreographers, 3 from the LA callback, and 3 from Vegas. I would love to know how exactly many performers were originally submitted through Actor's Access, because castings are receiving THOUSANDS of submissions for projects these days. 

The callback was a wild experience...First, they had us perform any acrobatic skills we had one at a time for the aerial choreographer who had called in via zoom from Vegas. I showed an aerial cartwheel and a kip-up into a "spiderman" stance, and stated my experience with other aerial arts and trampoline. He told me to send in trampoline footage (My friend Lexi and I went to the gym the next day and filmed whatever we could still do - see below).

Next, we learned a short hip hop combination to perform in small groups for the panel. We learned a short 4 counts of 8, then had to improv after the combo. Of course, I threw in some bachacadas, an afterthought of a battement, and some awkward floorwork. The panel also asked who could act and sing. I confidently said yes to both.

After dancing, they brought us in one at a time to read some sides that had been sent ahead of time. They had me read for Alice (a 7-year old version), and Amy the director seemed really pleased with what I did. Then she said "you're going to sing for us too, right?" The callback info had asked us to prepare an acapella pop song if we were comfortable singing, so on the car ride to the audition decided on "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston. Hilarious choice, I know. I had to restart because I hit a bad note in the beginning, but I actually felt okay about the rest of my performance (although I don't ever need to know how many times they watched that tape in the casting process). 

I thanked the panel and headed out, laughing all the way to my car thinking to myself, "there's no way I'm booking that job!" Cut to me receiving a email several weeks later from my agent stating that I was still in strong consideration, then an email the following week saying I would be getting an offer. It just goes to show that sometimes the auditions we think are our worst or weirdest, end up booking us the job!

I was hesitant to tell too many people too soon for with fear of the tour being cancelled or postponed. Jobs fall through all the time, but especially in this post-covid world, live entertainment jobs never feel totally set in stone until they've actually started.  I also had some other opportunities I was waiting to hear back from at the time, and I was afraid to commit to one thing, afraid of feeling like I was backsliding by going back to a kid's show, and afraid of leaving town for too long and losing contact with the network I had been steadily building for the past year. But if there is one thing I have learned over the last decade, it's that things ALWAYS work out the way they are meant to, and just a few days after accepting the offer, it all made sense and fell into place perfectly.

Working for Disney again feels like coming home. I worked for various facets of the Disney company for the first 6 years of my career and for years I wanted to move onto more "mature, higher level, or challenging" projects that would expand my network and challenge my artistry in a new way. But this show has been the furthest thing from backsliding, and is exactly where I'm supposed to be in this season of life!