Soloist, Leipzig Ballet, Germany
I am from Newcastle and have been have been working with the Leipzig Ballet for four seasons.
I did the open audition when I was still part of Ballet Dortmund (also in Germany) in December, 2010, which is at the very beginning of the audition season.
I did the audition because I knew there was going to be a change of director and therefore a lot of jobs, and it also has a good reputation in Germany.
To get to Leipzig in time for the audition was the hard part: I had a performance in Dortmund on the Saturday night and the audition for Leipzig was on Sunday morning.
The only way to get there was to take three trains throughout the night. I managed to arrive in time (I was number 94, so one of the last) but without any sleep. The audition went for eight hours and without any breaks. The only way I got through it was adrenaline.
He was obviously interested in endurance so I pushed myself to my limit. After the audition I got back on another night train so I would arrive in time for class at 10am.
A week later a message was left on my voice mail saying that they gave me the contract!
This article was first published in the June-July 2014 issue of Dance Australia magazine.