On Sunday morning from 9:30 AM, the hopefuls began filtering into the dance studio. For some people, years of training had led to this day — the hip hop troupe auditions.

The existing ‘A’ troupe members (including me) had re-auditioned earlier in the morning and all had been invited back. Now we were here to help run the show.

About thirty students registered. Most were new auditionees who had spent the year watching the competition troupes train and compete. Something they saw made them want to put themselves through the tests this year. Other auditionees were current members of the ‘B’ troupe, who felt they were ready to move into ‘A’, and ‘Junior’ troupe members who wanted to move up to the adult troupes.

The morning started with lectures. What does it mean to be a troupe member? What level of commitment is required? What competitions, what opportunities, are open to competitive dancers? There is no point trying out for the team you aren’t willing to meet these expectations.

Diego, the Japanese South-American dancer who taught all the troupes, began the lesson. Everyone learned the same 4 counts of 8 in less than half an hour. The 32 beats weren’t difficult for the more advanced dancers. Some of the beginners and intermediate dancers were clearly struggling. And everyone was losing balance after the high jump over counts 3 and 4 in the third set of 8.

During the lesson, Suzy watched the individuals and made a list of two groups. During a break, she called out the names. Everyone was doing the same audition routine but half them would dance it to a much faster piece of music. I shook my head as I heard the piece. Wow. It was fast.

It was a 30°C day. People who asked for the air-conditioning to be turned on were told that it was already on. The room became stifling, yet the auditionees kept pushing themselves, and pushing and pushing.

“If only they worked this hard during class!” Suzy exclaimed.

When Diego was satisfied that people had learned the routine, he announced an extra test. Before the main part of the music track began, students would be required to freestyle dance — show us what you’ve got! The slow group had one count of eight, and the faster group had two counts of eight.

Finally, the learning was over and in pairs or groups of three, students were called into the audition room. The others waited nervously outside, every now and then, bursting into a flurry of practice.

After all the preparation, the actual auditions ran for only forty minutes. People came out grinning and relieved or mortified at their mistakes after having practiced it perfectly ten times before.

By 1 PM, everyone was turned out of the studio and the ‘A’ troupe and Diego remained to make the decisions.