Coming into college, I knew I wanted to continue my dance education. However, I ended up taking a break going into college in the fall semester of my freshman year because dance during my senior year of high school was taking a toll on my body and my mental health and wellness. However, after taking a break, I knew I wanted to get back into dance.Ā
So, after looking into other dance companies on campus, I knew where I was meant to be. The only dance company that offers auditions every semester: IC Unbound.
History of Unbound
IC Unbound is the largest and longest-running dance company on Ithaca Collegeās campus. The company has a rich history of performing a plethora of genres: Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Tap, Hip-Hop, and Modern/Fusion Contemporary. Even during COVID, ICUnbound was still active and put together a safe program- talk about dedication!Ā
Start of Audition process
Unbound holds their auditions in the IC Fitness Center Gym downstairs. The audition process starts off with checking in, getting a number, and taking a āheadshotā of you wearing your number. The number you get is based on how early you are in line, so the earlier you come, the lower the number is. Vice versa, the further you are in line, the higher your number is. Then, you take a seat on the floor along the walls.Ā
After waiting, the choreographers sit along the mirrors and, one by one, introduce themselves and showcase an 8-16 count of their piece. Once you see all the choreographers’ pieces, you can select which ones you want to put down on your sheet. Looking at the preference sheet more in-depth, each dance has an associated genre. The range of dances you can be a part of is from 1-6, and each dance requires one hour of rehearsal per week. So, if you are in two dances, that means you are required to attend both dances every week or two hours of dance per week.Ā
However, when looking at the preference sheet, you have twenty slots. So, you can put down as many dances as you would like to be a part of in hope that out of the twenty slots that you selected, you can be a part of however many you selected when circling how many dances you would like to be in.Ā After you put down your order of preferences for dances, you have to dance to each category that your dances are located in. Each choreographer group gets together to teach you the general genre of choreography. For example, the tap choreographers get together and teach you a 16-32 count of a tap dance. Something that is interesting that I learned is that the general genre choreography has parts of the individual choreographer’s pieces.Ā
Why audition
Unbound is one of the biggest dance groups on campus. With around 70+ members, you are going to find new friends and make lovely connections that may last you a lifetime.
Sometimes students within Ithaca College tend to be friends with others in their major and school, but Unbound has so many dancers within different schools and years. Unbound is the only company that offers auditions every semester, so looking at that gives dancers more of an opportunity to audition for the company. With the aspect of audition results, you are not biting your nails awaiting an answer. Workshops are so important for dancers and Unbound offers them the week before auditions. That helps dancers get back into the flow of dancing!Ā
Looking at the choreography dancers within Unbound put together, there are so many styles. That within itself makes Unbound unique. No dancer doesnāt have the opportunity to try out something new. So, if you havenāt considered dancing before, come audition for IC Unbound and try something new!