Auditions are crazy things. It’s like a job interview with more moving parts.

I was asked to come audition for a position subbing Zumba® Fitness classes at a local community center. Slam dunk, right? I teach with other instructors, do numbers at benefits, help other folks with their choreography. I got this.

I printed out my resumé, attached a couple of my Zumba® cards and even tossed in a “before” picture for the entire experience. All of this went into a folder I handed my person when I showed up.

Oh, and I was 10 minutes early. That’s how I roll.

We chatted for a bit in a conference room about where I’d taught, how long I’ve been taking classes, and when I got licensed to teach. I don’t think I even mentioned that I had my Zumba® Gold license either now that I think about it.

Up next was the practical bit. We headed into a group exercise room and threw on my iPod. Here’s the where things went pear-shaped.

My warm-up doesn’t have a lot of mileage on it. The routine is super-simple, but the cuing is a little rough. I don’t typically have to do a warm-up with classes where I’m co-teaching or doing a few songs for a benefit. Whoever’s teaching the class handles that. So my class of two folks weren’t quite getting the changes until I was two or three counts into the next set.

So now my brain is all hopped on how-can-I-fix-this-for-next-time cycles I’ve totally forgotten where I was. I was not only doing the wrong choreo for the song part, but if was broken up into 16 beat counts, I was exactly offset by 8 counts. On top of that, I was on the wrong foot and I’m pretty sure my left shoe was untied making it slightly heavier than the right which made me turn in circles like a not-quite-broken top.

As you can imagine the next song was just as broken. Again, mind elsewhere.

All that being said, I know what I did wrong and I’m certain if given another opportunity I’d destroy it. I was nervous and I let my mind run away when I needed it most. Had I just put my back to them and knocked out a couple numbers I would have been golden. So, lesson learned.