Who among us has not fallen into a reverie involving being part of the elite dance troupe that would accompany the world’s most famous woman across the globe, striking poses and getting into the groove in front of tens of thousands of fans every night?
Well, perhaps this is not the stuff of everyone’s dreams, but for hundreds of young women waiting in line for an open call for Madonna’s Music world tour in Manhattan, it most certainly is.
On Wednesday (March 13), aspiring dancers – some professional, some that merely dabbled – braved a gusty afternoon to audition for Madonna’s first tour since 1992’s Girlie Show. The line stretched up Lafayette Street to Astor Place, turned a corner and spanned the block of Astor Place from Lafayette to Broadway.
Josie Rose, 25, languished deep in the back of the line, until she ran into the choreographer of her dance company, who brought her farther up. She said she skipped work to audition for Madonna. “Love Madonna,” she effused. “I’ve been doing Madonna routines ever since I was young, wearing Madonna outfits. She would most like to dance to “Justify My Love,” “because it’s sexy and slow.”
“I’m hoping that [for the judges] it will be about a look, and that they’ll typecast and not waste anybody’s time,” Rose said. “That’s the worst thing, when they keep you here all day when they know what they’re looking for.”
Melinda Sharretts, 18, and Jessica Deal, 25, befriended one another in line. “We’ve been waiting for so long, you’ve got to make friends with your neighbors,” Sharretts said. Deal said she teaches dance but had never come to an open call before, and Sharretts said she is a dance student on her third open call.
“My mom likes this one too,” Sharretts said of Music. “[Madonna] really reached over the generations with this one.”
Though both said they would like dancing to the title cut and “Tell Me,” they saved their greatest praise for classic Maddy cuts. Sharretts singled out “Vogue,” while Deal said she would love dancing to a remix of “Justify My Love.”