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Auditions for Oscar show dancers draws fleet-footed crowd
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Jamie Goodwin kicks high as Robert Roldan and Adrian Lee wait in line to audition to dance on the Academy Awards show.
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The producers of the 82nd Academy Awards show hosted an open audition for dancers Friday. The cold rain didn't deter a few hundred professional dancers from lining up for their chance.
20-year-old Adrian Lee moved to Los Angeles about a week ago from Chicago to launch his dance career. He waited eagerly under an umbrella.
“Pumped to audition for the Oscars," he trumpeted, standing in line with his room-mate, 19-year-old Robert Roldan. He also recently moved to Los Angeles — from Maryland. Roldan's been dancing since age 11.
"It’s one of my first auditions, and I would be so excited if I got this, because the Oscars are awesome," said Roldan.
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"I mean, Anne Hathaway is gonna be there, all these different people are gonna be there and you want to be the one dancing behind them."
Lee and Roldan got a little encouragement from Jamie Goodwin. She’d already left her audition with a call-back and showed Lee some of the steps she'd had to learn on the fly.
"You know that everyone watches the Oscars," said Goodwin. "So for a dancer, when you’re looking for a performing job, which is what we’re all doing because we love performing, it’s a cool thing."
Goodwin has already done other cool things. She was a principal dancer in “High School Musical 3,” and appeared in season three of TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” She knows that a former judge on that show, Adam Shankman, is producing this year’s Oscars broadcast. She believes that will make the dance numbers well-rounded.
"Americans now know more about dancing and they’re more open to different styles , so whereas before Oscars was a lot of hip hop and back-up dancing and stuff, I feel like he’s gonna highlight the dancers."
The Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, March 7th. The Oscar nominations are revealed February 2.
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