Comfortable balance: Dancers striving for success at auditions
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Authors
Boone, Reina Maria
Issue Date
2012
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The goal of this study was to produce an in-depth understanding of how dancers perform successfully at dance auditions and what skills they use to face challenges. A study by Hays and Brown, Jr. (2003) found that the lack of feedback from evaluators can cause additional stress on performers in an audition. The dancers (n=12) were all female, residing in California at the time of their participation in the study, and they came from various dance and ethnic backgrounds. Their ages ranged from 18 to 32. The variety of auditions types dancers were interviewed about included professional dance company, cheerleading, musical theatre, and ethnic dance showcase. Open-coding was used to develop categories and from these categories emerged five themes: learning environment, nervousness experience, coping, an 'Eyes Around the Room Paradigm', and inherent discomfort. Through cyclical comparative analysis of the data from the 12 interviews, the central phenomenon was developed: dancers constantly seek a state of feeling comfortable in order to meet objectives in the dynamic, often nerve-producing environment of auditions. A Grounded Theory (Glaser, 1998) approach was used in this study. This study aimed to expand upon the work of Jackson and Latane (1981), i.e. performing with a larger group and with peers is less embarrassing than performing in smaller groups with non-peers. The dancers interviewed in Jackson and Latane's (1981) study also reported feeling more comfortable when they knew the evaluators or peers and in the presence of a larger audience. Specific challenges of auditions and skills employed to face them were also highlighted in the current study. The practical implications include preparing by becoming more familiar with the building, dance genre, and evaluators, as well as having planned responses to anticipate unexpected occurrences with confidence.