House of Mouse (Part One)

Source

It's no surprise to hear when somebody says that they have been to the Happiest Place on Earth. (I am referring to Disneyland in case you didn't catch the reference) But it does surprise people to hear that I actually worked for the Disney family. No not them specifically, but I did work at the park. It was a wonderful experience, and I thought that I would share it with you.

My good friend Trevor had told me about this audition that he found out about an audition for the upcoming parade at the Disneyland Resort called "A Christmas Fantasy." Now if you didn't know, every year they use the same music and just re-choreograph the dancers and re-organize the floats for the Christmas season. I had never been to an audition before so I decided what the hell, lets go for it.

We arrived in Anaheim the next morning at 6 am ready to go, when I realized that they were only auditioning men and point dancers that day. I had only been on point for a year, but decided that I still needed to try because I came all the way down there. Of course, like I knew I would be I was cut first round, but since I carpooled with Trevor I had to wait for his audition to finish. Little did I know that I would be waiting around for a very long time. He finally came out around 5 PM and told me he got a part, Ball Dancer. I was so bummed that I didn't make it that I made the decision to come back the next day for the women audition. The next day I woke up bright and early for the next audition. Hundred's of women showed up to audition. I thought to myself I am way out of my league here, but since I was there I would at least have fun. Round one was the character audition. Easy peasy. I took to the choreography and when it was time to "perform" I lathered on the cheese and smiled, giggled, and flirted with the judge. Who the entire time had his eyes fixated on me! YES! I got someones attention! I finished my set, and went back in with the other dancers. Every so often the judges would come in and call certain numbers....I was called up for a face character (the people like Cinderella and Snow White) but after height and skin tone checks they didn't want me as that. The next time they came in was to call a series of numbers, me included! These were the people that they wanted to dance in the lyrical section. We learned the choreography and did our auditions. I was so focused on the choreography that I forgot my performance! OOPS! I thought that it was over with from there. I went back into the large room and waited. Finally after what seemed like forever they called us into the audition room for part assignments.

I sat through part after part that were given away and my heart was starting to sink. Suddenly I heard my number called. I stood up and went to stand in the line of girls. They stared at us and stared, called us into smaller groups to stand together, and then back in the long line. All of a sudden they announced...."We need to break for lunch, come back in an hour." UGH you have got to be kidding me! I have been here since 7AM, its now 5PM and I have to wait! Dammit! So I went back in my car to rest for a while and went back into the audition room at a quarter to 6. We all got back in our line. In hindsight I look back and realized that I was a good 2 inches taller than all the other girls in the row. Disney has a height restriction for most parts. Mickey and Minnie have a max height of 5'2", all princesses have a height restriction of 5'4", etc. I stand at 5'5". As we stand there, they called the girl immediately to my left and immediately to my right and dismiss them. Then they started handing out the part cards to everyone in the line, including me! I look down and see Gingerbread 5'2-5'4." Apparently they liked me so much that they put aside the height limitation and hired me anyways!

So Trevor and I both got parts in a Disneyland show! We were ecstatic, but nothing compared to the experience we were about to share. Check back later for the rest of the story!