Thai jazz hands- Chicago dance contest

About a month or so ago I was reading the Bangkok Post, which is an English language daily, when I saw a big color ad for a dance contest to be held in conjunction with the run of the musical Chicago in Bangkok. The winner would get tickets to see the show, the chance to do dance workshops, and also 10,000 baht. I immediately thought of Courtney because we have talked a lot about our joint love of musicals (including Chicago) and she has done all kinds of dance since she was a little kid. I ripped out the ad and saved it until the next time I saw her. I wasn't sure if she would really be interested or not, but when I gave it to her, she seemed excited about it right away.

The audtions happened on Friday afternoon, which normally would have made it impossible to attend, but it happened to be a Friday that we had off school. The planets were aligning. I felt good about Courtney's chances. For some reason I thought that there would be a lot of other foreigners auditioning. I guess I thought that because I had read about it in English in the Post.

Due to a series of circumstances (long time spent at the U.S. Consulate in the morning to get pages added to our passports, trip to find black fishnet stockings, lengthy transit times, extremely delayed lunch) we were worried that Courtney would completely miss her chance to audition. We arrived in time, but it was a daunting scene that we came into. The girls (and guys) were completely decked out for the performance- bobbed wigs, fake eyelashes, stage makeup, and some really intricate latex corset costumes. Not a single other foreigner in sight! I was completely floored when I saw the competition. Suddenly it all seemed more serious than I had originally imagined. I felt nervous for Courtney and I know that she felt nervous, too, but she was very courageous.

Some of the contestants danced individually, but more often they danced in groups of three to "All That Jazz." Everyone else could watch through the windows for at least a side view of the dancers. There were some who were quite good and pretty serious and others who were pretty mediocre. While it got to be semi-maddening to hear the song over and over again, it was really fun to watch all the dancers perform.

When Courtney went on I was trying to videotape her through the scratched-up glass, while simultaneously judging the reaction of the audience. She ended her routine with a series of quick turns that elicited oohs and ahhs from the crowd. They were truly impressed by her good showing! Though I had really been excited about the prospect of a win for Courtney, I quickly realized that it would be really unfair to pick the one 'farang' to win the contest. The winner also would do a press conference and some other events. It seemed like a much bigger deal than I had imagined. I still harbored a glimmer of hope that maybe they would decide to pick 2 winners- a farang and a Thai person- a sort of bridging-cultures- through-the-arts type thing.

After everyone had danced for the judges, all of the contestants came out together and posed for pictures as well as 'wai-ing' to the judges one-by-one. They announced the 6 finalists and, alas, Courtney was not one of them. She did, however, get a handshake and a "Thanks for your interest" from one of the coordinators. We decided not to stay to see the dance-off because we didn't know how long it would be, and instead went for celebratory drinks at a pub in the business section of Bangkok. Later we polished off some sundaes at Swenson's for Courtney's birthday and the successful negotiation of the Chicago dance contest.

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