Having the time of my life...

I went to the Dirty Dancing auditions today! it's been a crazy day, and I had moments of doubt, but I did it and I'm so proud! (of course I didn't get through to the next round, I'm not that good of a dancer!) Anyhoo, here is my wee diary of thoughts throughout the day...

6.08am: ooh my god, what am I doing? I'm so excited! woke up at 3.45 couldn't sleep, kept wondering why I'm doing this and if it makes me a loser, after all when I told one of my friends he said he thought that turning 30 was making me go a little bit crazy, and it's an early start and a train journey and seems like a lot of effort and morning off work for something that's just for fun. Then I thought no, it will be something I'll be pleased to have done, just once, and I worked the weekend to justify it, and it's a fun thing to do - it just happens that for a day of holiday some people like things like theme parks, my idea of fun is to go to an audition for the national tour of Dirty Dancing! And now I'm excited, I'm on the train, full hair and makeup, having scoffed my breakfast as was running late, got things to read (just Vogue - nothing too intellectual at this time of day!), and chose my green shoes to wear for the audition, and I feel alive so this is what it's about - seizing the day. That's why I changed my mind this morning, or at least what convinced me to come - I don't want to feel I'm missing out on life by being too lazy to get out of bed and do something. Plus, surely the early start will have kicked my body clock into touch after all the bank holidays we've just had.

7am: strangely crapping myself! I think I'm nervous not because I want it but because of the thought of walking into a room of casting people who may laugh in my face, and other dancers who will be ace and me trying to keep up and feeling like an idiot, but I think I need to challenge myself and go out of my comfort zone, it will be scary but exhilarating.

My one wee souvenir of the day: my number :)

10.45: So, it's over, and it was so hard but so fun! I haven't done a pirouette in a seriously long time, and totally couldn't manage a double pirouette, but I learnt the routine and kept up and I definitely wasn't the worst dancer there! And I ache already haha and I have ballet tonight for the first time in 10 years...ouch. Ah my face is glowing with the fun of it! We danced on 'Stay' from the film soundtrack, a lovely wee chacha, and we learnt the routine in bits, all 40 of us on stage in the Patrick Centre at the Hippodrome, then split into two groups to practise again, then back together for a bit more style on top of the steps, then into 4 groups, then the actual audition in front of the associate choreographer. Groups of 8, two rows, dance it twice rotating rows between goes, so no hiding at the back and copying anyone!! It was a crazy experience though, I was outside at 7.20 this morning queuing, they finally let us in at 8.30 because they decided to do the process of taking CVs and giving us numbers outside (madness!) then we were just sat waiting and kept being told 'soon' or '15 minutes' so we didn't really know when to warm up, and then eventually went in around 9.30 and spent about an hour with learning the routine and auditioning. There were some really sweet girls there, and some were really good, and it was weird being back sat with a group of dancers all warming up etc. I can't believe I just did that actually!