Sweaty Saturday

So I know you all are dying in anticipation with how it went on Saturday!

Well, the audition was set for 5 p.m. Unfortunately for me, that meant I had the entire day to kill and be nervous!

I ended up working with the dance staff at the Y's open house event, so that was nice to distract me in the morning. I ran a few errands after, cut up a Zumba top - a very typical Saturday.

Laid out my outfit, burned an extra CD (just in case the iPhone didn't work)... And I'm ready to go!

Zumba top? Check. Pink skirt? Check. Flip belt? Check. Batman socks? Check. Nike shoes? Check. Spare CD? Check. Okay, I'm ready!

I get there, and there's like 25 of us auditioning for Zumba and we all go in the Group X room... Then they inform us that it would take too long for them to change music for each person, so they are just gonna cue up ZIN 47 and randomly call us up to dance for a couple minutes... No one got to do the song they were prepared to do.

My immediate reaction is to just turn around and run for the door...

Then I realize that I should at least go for it, and hope I don't get the freakin' reggaeton or quebradita. So the first song comes on, and I know it, and I'm thinking, "PLEASE let me be called for this song!" Nope. Not so much. Then a salsa comes on, and I'm thinking I could handle that too cuz I know bits and pieces to that song. Do I get called? Negative.

Then the awful raggaeton comes on and I'm begging and pleading not to be called. The odds were ever in my favor... I didn't get called. Next up, the quebradita... Do I get called?

YUP.

Thankfully, there was only like 10 seconds left in the song, so I start doing a toe/heel thing... Then the horns/drums speed up and I do a little shimmy with my shoulders. The song ends... I'm freaking out cuz I have NO clue what song is next - and no time to mentally try and choreo something while someone else is up front. I do a little curtsy and a bow to try and ease my nerves...

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Time slows down... I think back to my very first Zumba class I ever subbed at the YMCA. I was hired to sub one class, and one class only: Zumba KIDS. The instructor who teaches on Saturday got stuck in Vegas due to some crazy fog and NO ONE else was free to teach - except for me! 

I never wanted to teach adults... I cried at the end of my 8 hour Zumba training because I was so incredibly overwhelmed (Zumba makes you take the adult license before you can take the Zumba Kids specialty). 

Here I am, auditioning for the SECOND time at 24 Hour... And I think back to this moment in the Mega Studio. All eyes on me from both directions, just waiting for my first song to start: "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti. 

It does and I'm trying SO hard to keep it together. I'm a nervous wreck, a deer in the headlights. Then I hear singing from the front row, "I love you, I love you, I love you..."

Dear sweet Eve! The nicest, most inspiring and amazing person ever is singing along! And that was all and everything I needed at that moment. Eve (and her equally amazing and adorable husband, Alan) both exude so much love and joy, and their energy is contagious. I cannot help but smile every time I see them!

I will never, ever forget that day and I cherish that memory.

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Present day, the music starts...

First reaction - CRAP! It's a belly dance!

Then I realize... It's a cumbia! And not only is it my FAVORITE style... I KNOW (AND LOVE) THE SONG!!!!!! 

I've used it in my class AND Jeanne made me do it with her up front for her class on Thursday! I smile the BIGGEST smile and proceed to rock it out pretending Alan, Eve, and Jeanne are all up there boogie-ing with me 

Hopefully I nailed it, because they obviously knew I knew the song.... I think I was the only person who got a song they recognized/had a routine for and they were clearly trying to throw us a curve ball!

We'll find out more in a couple weeks... But meantime, I think I should go buy a lottery ticket because I'm seriously the luckiest person ever!

Stay sparkly,

Kristyn