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From ballet barres to dramatic monologues to percussion, auditions for college performing arts programs can take many forms. However, they are all a crucial part of determining whether or not serious artists will receive their desired training in college.

Seniors Marcus Dembinski, Aubrey Johnson and Jordan Underwood are auditioning for college programs in sound recording, dance and musical theater, respectively, and said they hope to pursue their passions as careers. Rather than worrying extensively over their auditions, however, they approach them in a relaxed and positive manner.

Known for their intensive training, college performing art programs mostly consist of serious artists with professional aspirations. Although specific audition and application requirements differ from discipline to discipline and school to school, Dembinski, Johnson and Underwood all said that their auditions brought some kind of stress.

“People [who are auditioning] can be really mean, because everyone knows how competitive it is,” Underwood, who has participated in one audition, said. “It’s really competitive, and I’m someone who tries to be really nice in the process. But when you’re there with 200 other kids and you know that that day probably only one or two of you will get in, it’s really difficult to stay positive and to not let what people are saying or doing affect you.”

Johnson, who has not yet auditioned anywhere but plans to, said she has heard that the auditions can be stressful.

“I’ve definitely heard that it’s a really stressful audition,” Johnson said. “But I think it’s probably around the same stress as any audition of something that you really want to get into. There’s always a stress of whether or not you’re going to get in, how you’re going to do, whether or not you’re going to fall.”

Underwood said going into the auditions without the fear of rejection is also difficult.

“They can tell when you’re not there for the right reasons,” she said. “There’s a difference between going in there and owning what you do, and going in there and saying, ‘I know I suck.’ Being able to recognize that difference and do something about it is very important, and it’s very difficult.”

Despite the stresses, both Johnson and Underwood said they try to take a relaxed approach to these auditions.

“Honestly, because I’ve had so much feedback on what I’ve done, and I’ve worked really hard over the past three or four years to get to this point,” Underwood said, “at this point I’ve sort of just decided that I don’t want to go to a school that doesn’t want me, and so I just want to share my talent, and I’m not looking for anything except that. If I get in, then that’s great. And if I don’t, I have other options.”

To keep herself from stressing out about the auditions, Johnson said she tries to remind herself to enjoy it, because even if she is not accepted, she has a chance to learn from the professional dancers who lead the auditions.

“There’ll often be one teacher who’s teaching the warm-up and the choreography and everything,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot like a workshop.”

Dembinski also has not been to a physical audition yet, although he has sent recordings of himself on percussion. Many colleges he is interested in wanted him to audition on an instrument as well as send in a portfolio of his recording work, he said. Still, he is also looking to go into the auditions in person with a relaxed approach.

“I don’t know firsthand, but I think it will be stressful for me, because I want to get into the school and there’s all that stress hanging on one 10-minute conversation and playing music,” Dembinski said. “But if I go into it more relaxed, I think it would be better because they’ll get more of a sense of what I’m like normally.”

Although they may present challenges and be a source of stress for seniors, Dembinski said that college auditions can be beneficial as a way of working toward an artist’s career goal.

“For me, the thing I want to do for the rest of my life is make music and record music,” Dembinski said. “Applying to these schools and doing these programs seem like the best option in terms of figuring out how to do it later in life.”

Ashley Lee can be contacted at [email protected]