DD19 auditioned for season six in Phoenix, so we were excited to watch that particular audition show. She gave us a lot of 'behind the scenes' info on the filming which we found very interesting. And we saw her twice during the episode. Both times she was just standing in line, but it was still neat to see her on tv.
She arrived very early, along with some of her dance friends. She said the atmosphere was very upbeat and everyone was just having a good time. Cameras were constantly rolling throughout the day, inside and outside the venue. My daughter and her friends got to meet Cat Deeley. She was very friendly and she posed for pictures with them.
It was either a one or two day audition, depending on how far a dancer advanced through the process. All dancers had to be there on Friday, the first day. On Friday, you were either cut after the first audition, given a golden ticket to come back on Saturday or Sunday, or asked to stay for choreography at the end of the day. If you made it through choreography, you got a golden ticket to return on Saturday or Sunday.
DD19 made it through the first day of auditions and got a golden ticket to return on Sunday. At this point in the audition process, none of the dancers even see the judges. There are other SYTYCD personnel running the auditions. My daughter said everything is very controlled once you are inside the building. Auditioners have to sign a ton of paperwork (basically giving SYTYCD the right to use your audition tape in any way, shape or form) and there is a very strict no cellphone rule in effect when you are in the building. Anyone that makes it past the initial cut also signs confidential papers stating that they will not share any audition/filming info with anyone as long as they are still in any stage of the audition process.
It was on the second day of auditions that the dancers were taken into the audition room that you see on tv. My daughter said that there were about 200 dancers in her group on the second day. They were led into the auditioning room where they sat in seats behind the judges' table. They were instructed to stand up and cheer (make a lot of noise!) when the judges entered the room. Mary Murphy, Nigel Lythgoe and Mia Michaels were the judges for the Phoenix auditions. My daughter said the group didn't need a lot of prompting to cheer because they were all genuinely excited to see the judges!
The dancers lined up on stage, ten at a time, and each dancer got the chance to improv to music that was chosen ahead of time by SYTYCD. If the judges wanted to see more, you got another golden ticket that would send you on to the final round where you got to perform a solo in front of the judges. That's the part that is actually shown on tv. If you didn't receive a golden ticket, you were cut. My daughter was cut at this point. Several of her friends were cut the first day and a few also made it as far as my daughter. She was disappointed because she really wanted to perform her solo for the judges, but she was happy to have made it as far as she did! She said it was kind of hard to see dancers get a golden ticket that everyone, including the judges, knew were terrible dancers, or that were obviously there just to try to be on tv. When you see the judges' reactions on tv during the solos, it looks like they don't know which dancers are going to be good and which are bad. Well, they already have a pretty good idea!
DD19 thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend and said it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. She said it was nice to meet so many friendly, positive people, including auditioning dancers and SYTYCD personnel. She also got a kick out of meeting Mary, Mia and Nigel. She said they were very down-to-earth and made all the dancers feel very comfortable. My daughter said she was the first in her group of ten to improv and Nigel asked her, "Are you ready, Mallory? Okay hon, go for it!" She thought it was neat that he said her name! Ha! Ha!
It was interesting to have my daughter point out the editing that was involved when the show was aired. For instance, you can see her group of dancers standing up and cheering several times when a dancer is shown performing a solo in front of the judges. However, they weren't in the room at that time because only the auditioners that got through to the final round were allowed in at that stage of the process. The footage you see on tv is from when the group stood up and cheered when the judges were first introduced to them. If you look closely, you'll see the crowd of dancers cheering from the seats behind the judges, but at other times you'll notice that the seats behind the judges are almost empty.
DD19 also got a kick out of seeing so many people on the episode that she had met throughout the weekend. There was a very tall guy shown auditioning and my daughter has a picture that was taken of her standing next to him. She said someone on the SYTYCD staff took the picture. They thought it was funny because he was so tall and she is so short (barely 4' 11").
Anyway, my daughter and her friends enjoyed the experience and were glad that they auditioned. I just thought readers might find it interesting to read a bit about the audition process!
Someone tell me if I'm way off base here...
However, she realized that even dancers that have made it on the show have been seen doing weird things in front of that backdrop.
