WAAPA graduate Gretel is currently playing Sandy in ‘Grease'.
It’s extremely ironic, but my first professional audition was for Grease: the Arena Spectacular. I find it very interesting to reflect on what it felt like to be the youngest and most inexperienced in the room. It was one of the most intimidating and scariest experiences of my life.
I was a part of an open dance call and even though I was confident as a dancer, this audition completely altered my perspective.
I was terrible, it was terrible, there was a lot of people who ‘knew’ people and they were showing off and trying out the intimidation factor, and it was completely working on me.
But it taught me a lot, and one thing was that I was never going to be ‘that’ girl in an audition. If a young girl is struggling to pick up choreography, I will now be the one to help her out. A cast is about team work, and that’s what a creative team want – a team player.
Funnily enough, when it came to my Grease audition last year, I wasn’t auditioning for Sandy. I put myself up for a pink lady. So I had to dance my butt off with the rest of the girls.
There were so many young girls there whose first audition it was. I stood back and let the younger ones get to the front. They were nervous and some struggling and when they were unsure, I did my best to help.
It doesn’t matter who you know in an audition, you are the same as everybody else. I learnt a lot from that first Grease audition, and I believe the karma of kindness goes a long way.
This article was first published in the June-July 2014 issue of Dance Australia.