Welcome to AMDA. Week 1: Orientation.
Wednesday:
We arrived at the Stratford Arms at nine o'clock in the morning after a full day of recovery from the trying twenty-two hour journey from Nebraska to New York City. We then promptly unloaded a giant pile of boxes onto the sidewalk and my parents drove away less than ten minutes later to allow the next kid to repeat the process.A team of current AMDA students helped pile my stuff into what was basically a giant rolling bucket. We dragged this up the elevator to floor seven twice to accommodate all of my things in my room. After the boxes took over my bed, desk, and most of the floor, I left it to be tackled later and took the walk to 61st street for the beginning of orientation.
First, I stood in a long line for two hours for someone at the end to tell me my paperwork was done and check a little box on my paper. I did get a free AMDA tote bag and water bottle out of it, however. Hooray.
Then, we were directed to a room to buys the remainder of my textbooks and, of course, to be bombarded by discounted AMDA merchandise. I tried to remain strong, but in the end, I did need black tights, and the jacket I bought has proven to be very useful.
Finally, I had a break for a few hours to settle in and tackle the monster of unpacking, a process that took several days and truthfully is still not totally finished. It's difficult maneuvering my entire life into a room the size of a closet.
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| The "Before" Picture |
"Placement Prep" began at 5:30, and from what I had heard, I had thought there would be a nice session with an accompanies in a little room for ten minutes to go over my placement song.
Wrong. Instead, it ended up that it was yet another paperwork session including, but not limited to: a dorm room survey, a music theory test, contracts, allowed visitors, and other paperwork. As this was happening, we were called up one by one to perform our placement songs in the same room with forty kids with an accompanist so he knew what to play. It was sheer chaos.
The moment we were set free, I went home and fell asleep.
The End.
Thursday:
Upon waking up to the morning light of New York City , I ate oatmeal out of my one
bowl and proceeded to get ready for placements for the next three hours. This was difficult, because my mirror is plastered
to the wall at a height that was obviously meant for someone who is much taller
than little ol’ me. My solution: a
command hook stuck to the actual mirror that I strung my own hand mirror from.
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| The Cierra Solution to The Mirror That is Too High to See In |
Placements were a very laid back version of the AMDA auditions. We had to prepare a 1 minute monologue and
sixteen-bar cut of a song. They told us
over and over, “No pressure. We already
have your tuition money, we can’t kick you out.”
It stopped being funny the sixteenth time they said it.
Anyway, we had a good long warm-up that prepared us nicely
to perform for a panel of 3 judges. It
was very relaxed, and I had a lot of fun in the process. And it was a time for me to bond with my
group, which was important for poor, socially awkward little me.
And … the end. I was
free after that, and I went out with my family for their last day in New York .
Friday:
We sat in hot rooms without air conditioning for hours while they drilled us on
Nutrition, General Safety, Dorm Regulations, Library Rules, etc. And none of the lunch we were supposed to be
provided. Why? Because they finished with us by
dinnertime. We had been there for six
hours, but we were out by dinnertime, so we obviously didn’t need food. Never mind that none of us had eaten since
breakfast.
I think AMDA was just making excuses for having run out of
food …
The End.
Saturday:
Dance Placements.
This is the most trying part of orientation, because it is a
nine hour process that will have you ready to pull all of your hair out, lay on
the floor, and die. We began with tap …
Dance tryouts work like this: they herd seventy students
(less than a third of the entire class) around like cattle into a small room to
stretch before handing out numbers. Then, they take the herd to a new room to
learn a simple combination in jazz, tap, and ballet to be correctly placed in
one of five levels of dance. This takes
nine hours. AMDA provides unsatisfying
granola bars.
Let me just say that the last tap experience I had was when
I was six. I quit ballet after six
years, when I was eleven, and jazz was off and on for a few years somewhere in
between.
That being said, I made Level 3 Jazz, Level 3 Tap, and Level
4 Ballet. I don’t know how I pulled that
off, but needless to say I was very happy with my placements. Guess those early years of dance lessons
really paid off in the end. And the
thirteen years of figure skating didn’t hurt either …
After the longest nine hours of my entire life, the day
still hadn’t ended, because one hour later, just enough time to stuff dinner
down my throat and get back to campus, there was another seminar thing where some successful AMDA alumni came in to
tell us their life stories and answer questions. And I’ll admit, it was actually very
inspiring, so I won't complain.
And ... famous people.
Then they passed out cheap lukewarm pizza and sodas and set
us free to attend the social. Which I
attended, because I’m that dorky kid
who likes school functions. And I met
other dorky kids who also like school functions while I was there, and made a
few friends, which was kind of a big deal for me.
Can I just say that watching theatre kids participate in karaoke is the most amazing experience anyone could ever have ... ever.
So it was a good night.
And there was free ice cream.
The End.
Sunday:
At 9:45 a.m. we had the very last part of orientation. It was a long and inspiring speech given by
this really awesome staff member about remembering why you are here and working
hard to achieve your goals.
We are starting our professional careers now.
Our behavior at AMDA reflects us in the future, and our teachers could
one day be our employers. Yes, enjoy New York City while
you’re here. But never lose your
focus.
That was the basic outline of the two hour speech.
And thus, orientation had come to a close.
And … then it was time for school to begin.
No rest for the Wicked … (that was intended as a pun.)
The End (of the end,)
Little Me
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