PenniesAndPaintbrushes: Auditioning to be a Disney Princess

When is the last time you tried something for the first time? For me the answer to that question was a looonnnggg time ago. Every once in awhile we come across experiences in our life that challenge us, and give us hope that we can do a bit better and try a little harder. This is the story of one of those experiences for me.

I had the opportunity to audition to be a Disney Princess this past week, and it was quite an adventure! I've had some people ask what it was like and what sort of things I learned going forward, so I thought I would share my experience here. I can't go into a ton of detail of specific things such as specific dance moves, animation exercises, or specific people, but I can give a general overview of what we did and what Disney is generally looking for. This is my experience, every audition is slightly different based off of what the casting directors are looking for.

Once Upon a Time...

.....In a land very close to here.....

One of my best friends mentioned that during spring break she was going to audition for a Disney Princess role for fun and invited me to come along. We got talking about it and decided it would be a fun experience. I was on the fence about auditioning because I had never auditioned for anything in my life, but I figured that I had nothing to lose. So being the Disnerds that we are we spent the weekend googling tips and looking up videos of girls who had auditioned in the past. It seemed like every account I researched was different: don't wear makeup, do wear makeup, try to look like the princess you want, don't try to stereotype yourself into one thing, be very animated, don't overdo it.... everything was all over the board. I was scared out of my mind! I tried to play it off cool... I wasn't going to make it that far anyways, right? It would be a fun experience and maybe I would learn a thing or two about auditioning, but I wouldn't be there for more than an hour or two at most? I was sure of it.

The morning of the auditions my friend and I drove to the ballet studio an hour early. Check in was from 10:00-10:30, but we arrived around 9:15. When we got there we found that the studio was already starting to fill with girls! We checked in and got our number (I was number 35 of about 180ish girls) and then selected our information. For the check in process you can either select the Disney College Program (which is like an internship program working for Disney for a semester at their lowest totem pole jobs) if you were previously accepted or a full time general recruit. We also entered in our emails and our gender. After check in we were split into two ballet studios. We sat and waited for the check in process to be over and had the opportunity to meet some amazing new girls! Every single girl I talked to was so friendly and fun to be around - i'm convinced that Disney draws the best crowds because everywhere I looked there was a smiling friendly face!:) TIP: Use this time to meet new people and have fun! What made the audition so amazing was meeting the wonderful people there. Plus the casting director walks in and out of the room often, so if you are socializing and meeting new people instead of sitting in the corner staring at the wall you can get some brownie points before the audition even begins! Be yourself and have fun, everyone is just as nervous as you:)

After the check in process was finished a Disney Parade Dance Choreographer came in the studio. He taught us a simple traveling parade routine complete with jazz hands and all. Now a small flash back (drumroll please......) I danced until I was about 7 years old... and I remember being painfully awful at it. I doubt my parents objected much when I wanted to quit. I've taken a few social dance classes and Zumba classes, but definitely not anything that would pass me off as an actual dancer. So when I read online that the majority of the audition was based off of dancing I panicked inside. Now flash forward: luckily the parade dance was very simple and a ton of fun! TIP: Be prepared to feel like an idiot though, just smile through the entire thing no matter what. They really don't care if you mess up, they care if you can perform. If you smile and jazz square your way to victory as everyone else is pivoting and spinning right on beat they couldn't care less. They want to see if you have a good stage presence and can make things look comfortable in an uncomfortable situation. Your cheesy smile is your best friend, never wipe it off your face:)

After the choreographer was done teaching us the steps we lined up in rows of five girls. The music started and each row would dance their way to the front of the room where the casting director stood. As we danced the casting director would tap on her iPad the numbers of the girls that she wanted to keep. It seemed like she barely glanced at each girl, maybe five seconds at most. Five seconds and she could make her decision if each individual girl would be able to fill the role she was looking for or not. Sound intimidating? It was. I leaned over to my friend after our row finished dancing and whispered something like "I don't even think she looked it me!" It was a fast process.

Now for the first cuts. Here is the thing about Disney auditions: they know exactly what they are looking for. Each audition is tailored to a particular role. They could visit your city looking for only parade dancers, or only princesses, or even only looking for a specific princess such as Jasmine or Cinderella. They have roles that they need to fill, and they tailor the audition based on what they need. The hard part is that you don't have a clue as to what they are looking for! This particular audition was for parade dancers, face characters (which include both the princesses and the villains), and "fuzzies" (like Minnie Mouse and Pluto). Looking back on the end experience they kept strictly princess candidates and parade dancer candidates. Anyways it's hard to know why a person gets cut. Some girls danced the parade dance more beautifully and energetically than I could ever hope to and still got cut. Others smiled their way through an off beat grape vine and made the cut. Just because someone doesn't make it on their first try doesn't mean that they weren't great - it just means that the casting directors were looking for something different on that particular audition.

Back to the story: the casting director started the first cuts immediately after the parade dance music ended. She called out numbers in order and I held my breath as 35 came closer. When I heard "35" get called I had to turn around and ask the girl next to me if I heard right. I was sure that there was no way my stumbling feet would have made it past the cut. The casting director cut about 2/3 of the girls based strictly off of a 25 second dance routine, about 5 seconds of which was devoted to watching each girl. We went from 180ish girls to under 60 with first cuts. The girls that made the cut were told to stay in the ballet studio room and fill out an application with our contact information. After the paperwork was filled out the casting director walked back in and lined us up to take our measurements. Here is the make it or break it part - Disney is VERY strict on heights. ZERO leeway. Zip. Nada. To portray a particular character you MUST fall in the height limits for that character, no exceptions. If you're curious, here is a brief list of the height regulations put out by Disney on their website:

Female Height Requirements

To make it clear this is directly off Disney’s audition website and is not specific to a certain park, just a general guideline.

Female Face Characters

Disney Princesses

5’4 - 5’7: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Elsa and Rapunzel

5'4 - 5'6 Merida and Anna

5’2 - 5’6: Mulan

5’5 - 5’8: Tiana and Pocahontas

Disney Fairies

4’11 -5’2: Tinkerbell and Periwinkle

5’2 - 5’5: Fawn, Rosetta, Silvermist and Iridessa

5’4 - 5’6: Vidia, Fauna, Flora, Merryweather and Fairy Godmother

Disney Heroines

5’2 - 5’4: Alice and Wendy

5’4 - 5’6: Jane

5’5 - 5’8: Mary Poppins

5’6 - 5’8: Megara

5’7 - 5’10: Esmeralda

Disney Villains

5’6 - 5’10: The Wicked Queen, Lady Tremaine, Drizella and Anastasia, Maleficent

There is also a measurement cut as well. The Disney princess dresses come in a size 2-10, however Disney doesn't often bring out the dresses above a size 6. There is more leeway with sizes than height, but it's still a small window.

The dancers and parade performers have more leeway of course, as far as I know there is no height restriction or size restriction on the parade dancers. All of the girls that made the cut for parade dancers came in every beautiful shape and size and height.

Anyways, the casting director brought in her official "Disney Scale" and one by one took our heights and measurements down. The girls that were too tall or too short for the most part were cut. There is a little bit of flexibility in this, but they have specific dresses for the princesses that fit particular heights. They also took a photo of us as well. We sat and talked with each other for awhile while the director evaluated our heights and pictures and then we were sent into a second ballet studio.

Here we were taught another dance routine. This is the part of the audition where things got tricky. The first dance was fun and simple. This second dance was a stationary routine that progressively got harder as the counts of eight continued. Most of it was ballet oriented and involved doing a bunch of dance moves pronounced in french that probably translate to "try to balance on your big toe while spinning in the air and making it look flawless"..... yeah. Or not. Remember how I said I don't have much of a dance background? Well after running through the routine once I turned to the girl behind me and said something along the lines of "whelp it was nice to meet you, i'm pretty sure i'm going home in about ten minutes."

The choreographer went over the routine with us five more times, and with each time it got easier. My feet definitely weren't always in the right place, but I thought that maybe if I made my hands look good and my arms dainty that maybe they wouldn't notice the rest of my body falling all over itself. I remember looking around at the dancers in leotards and dance shoes with their legs stretched to their heads and thinking "what on earth am I doing here". But I kept practicing and in all honestly I wasn't as bad as I thought. I mean I wasn't Ginger Rogers, but I didn't look like a dancing Pinocchio either.

The dance choreographer let us practice for a minute, then announced that the dance would be broken up with two thirty second bits of animation routines. Basically he gave us a scenario to act out without speaking and when the music stopped during our dance audition we had to act out our scenario. He would then give us one count of eight to reset and start the music and dance up from where we left off. This would ensure that we could 1. Multitask the dancing with the acting, and 2. Improv quickly and still stay with the program. Immediately the dancers were separated from the characters. It became obvious which girls were being considered for the parade dancer roles and which ones were being considered for face characters. TIP: try to get out of your comfort zone with this. Slow down your animations and make them big and exaggerated. You don't want to flail all over the stage, but you do want to catch the attention of the directors. This was the hardest part of the audition for me. I took theatre in eighth grade as an elective, but I haven't done anything since. I had to get out of my own head and be more outgoing, even just for thirty seconds. Smile through the entire thing and have fun with it!:)

We were called in to perform our dance and animation and all I could think was "smile, ballet hands, smile, make your arms look good, smile" and then it was over. We (the six girls I auditioned with) were asked to stand in a line and just smile at the casting director while she made her decision. She then called out one or two numbers from each group of six to stay past the cut. I couldn't believe my ears when she called my number! I am now a firm believer in ballet hands.

Of the 60 girls that made it to the second dance, 30 girls were cut. The remaining 30 girls chatted for awhile when the casting director walked back in and said she would call out some numbers. Those girls whose numbers were called were to head to the second ballet studio room. She called about 22 of the 30 numbers, leaving about 8 of us sitting in the first ballet room. She didn't tell us what we were doing, only to sit and stay there. The 22 other girls were taken into the first ballet studio and told that they were being considered for parade dance performers, and that they were going to perform the dance again while being filmed. The casting director would then take the film back to Orlando where the entire casting board would review the footage and select the final dancers.

When the dancers were done performing the casting director came back to us 8 girls waiting in the first studio. She announced that she wanted to cast us as Disney Princesses, but that she needed to take our pictures. We lined up as she took a head shot and a profile shot of each girl. She explained that she would take the pictures back to Orlando where they would be broadcasted in front of the casting board. They would then photoshop the princess wigs and makeup onto our photos to go through a face evaluation. If a position opened up in Walt Disney World within six months of our audition for the princess(es) we were being considered for, we would be hired for the job. If a position did not open up within six months we had to audition again. We weren't allowed to know what princess(es) we were considered being cast as. After taking our pictures she packed up her stuff and the auditions were over! The girls that were left were in shock. We all exchanged contact information and stories. It was hard to tell what princess each girl was being cast as because there was such a wide variety of girls. For the most part we were taller, although there was one shorter girl that looked exactly like Snow White. One of the girls looked exactly like Jasmine, one like Merida, and one like Aurora, and another like Belle. The other three of us looked more generic and could be considered for Cinderella, Aurora, Elsa, or Rapunzel. We sat and talked about the auditions for awhile and then said our goodbyes and made our way home.

I couldn't believe it. I felt so out of my element during the entire process (which took 6.5 hours) that I was sure I wouldn't make it far. I had no acting background, and not much of a dancing one either. But that audition was an experience in my life that i'll never forget. It gave me the courage I needed to know that I can try new things, and maybe even do better than I thought I would. It gave me the confidence to know that even if I never hear from Disney again, that maybe I have what it takes to be a Disney princess. It meant so much to me to know that I gave it my all and that I tried something new, something I wasn't used to doing. For once I was able to get out of my own head and just perform. I was so glad that I had the opportunity to audition, and it's an experience I will never ever forget!

Ok now for some quick tips for anyone thinking of auditioning:

1. Above all, be yourself! I know that sounds so extremely tacky, but you have no idea what Disney is looking for. You don't want to pretend to be something you're not and have them cast you only to find that you were putting up a front during your audition. Who you truly are might just be exactly what they are looking for. There is a difference between channeling the bravest most outgoing part of yourself and being fake. You are wonderfully you no matter what, so give them all you've got!

2. If you don't make it the first time, try again! Like I said, the casting directors are looking for something difference with each audition. You can only audition once every six months, but give it another go!

3. What to wear. This was the thing that stressed me out the most. I don't own any dance shoes or leotards, but I knew jeans weren't the best option. I wore black leggings, a lose white tank top, and a pink ballerina style cardigan that I borrowed from a friend. A lot of girls went barefoot and a lot of girls wore jazz shoes or ballet shoes. I went barefoot. Street shoes aren't allowed in the studio. Don't wear a dress, and don't wear jeans. Wear something flattering but that you can move in!:) You will be fine in whatever you choose to wear, there were outfits all across the board at the auditions. You will be noticed for how you act and portray yourself, not for what you wear. Also don't dress like the princess you want to be, you don't have a say in what princess they cast you as and often the princesses at Disney portray more than one character.

4. I would recommend wearing your normal amount of makeup. You want to look like you and get slightly dolled up, but don't do show makeup or go overboard. And don't do your makeup like the princess you want to be, because if you make it to final cuts they will be photoshopping that makeup on you.

5. I read somewhere to bring a resume and a headshot photo, so I did. It sat in my cubby the entire time and I ended up just throwing it away at the end. This could be different for a different audition however. If you are going to bring something though bring a snack and a water bottle!:) There is a lot of waiting while other girls are in auditioning.

6. Meet new people and have fun with it!:) As far as i'm concerned you're already a princess, you don't need an audition to tell you otherwise!:)

GOOD LUCK

and

THE END:)