Video file name: Avril - Dance.prproj
Music by: Mardi Lumsden- “Someday”
Avril Huddy:I think the first thing that students underestimate is the amount of time that you will spend in the dance studio at QUT. It’s not a problem, it’s not a big deal as such, but that’s one of the main differences between doing a Bachelor of Fine Arts Dance Performance or Dance versus any of the other degrees that QUT may offer. And sure, that comes with challenges, and the idea of being in a university as opposed to another training organisation is that you are here to challenge yourself, and your thinking, and your experiences, and we encourage that to happen with rigour.
Audition day is a long day, so my advice to candidates is to check out the QUT website before you come so you have all the information you need, both the paper work and the practical stuff that you need – your dancewear, the different types of shoes you may or may not need, any music you’re bringing -- giving yourself time to mentally and physically prepare is really important. You will need to do some admin when you get there – sign in, get a number – everybody wears numbers, and that’s just so that we can quickly and easily identify you throughout the day. You will be given a space, usually another dance studio, in which you can warm up in, you can return to on breaks, where your things will be locked up when you’re in the audition so that when everything’s safe. The whole dance team are in the room with you during the audition – they’re the panel. Everybody on the panel -- the teaching staff -- we’ve all had a lot of experience auditioning ourselves, so the auditionees on the day are in good company, I suppose. The aim of the day is to see what auditionees can do, not what they can’t do. So it’s quite an open and as relaxed environment as we can possibly make it.
Well obviously, being a degree-level dance course, there is a basic level of dance skill that we’re looking for. However, probably more importantly, are things like health and well-being – whether you’re fit for purpose. So, it’s not about whether you’ve got a high level of skill, but that you have good basic training that we know we can then build on and develop.
We’re interested in who you are as a person, so we’re very observant about how you are within the class, how you interact, how you take feedback, how you ask questions, if you ask questions -- all those sorts of things inform us a little more about who you are as a learner and as a person. And that’s really important because this is tertiary-level training.
QUT doesn’t teach a particular dance syllabus, so you don’t need to be anxious or concerned that what you know or how you’ve been taught will in some way be a handicap to what we do here. We’re not interested in what syllabus you’ve done, the grades you’ve done, the marks you’ve received, the competitions -- all of those things don’t matter on the day for the audition. During the audition, we’re predominantly looking at what you are, who you are, and the potential you have.
My advice again to everyone is: give it all a go – don’t worry about whether you’ve done it before, whether you have any experience whatsoever, just give it a go.
Video file name: Avril - Dance.prproj
Music by: Mardi Lumsden- “Someday”