A Chapel Hill tap ensemble will make a special trip to Charlotte this weekend to audition for NBC's "America's Got Talent" show.
Ten performers of North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble have been invited by producers of the show to audition by appointment. Gene Medler, the company's founder and artist director, says they received the invitation after producers said they saw a video of them on YouTube and were "impressed."
“Last week, I got a phone call from a producer named Dorian. I was told that NCYTE was on the AGT target list of acts to go after in this area. He said that is why they are giving us an appointment so that we don’t have to stand in line with the 1,000 people they expect to show up on Friday and the 5,000 people who will stand in line on Saturday to audition,” said Medler.
NCYTE is a 41-member group of dancers ranging from eight to 18. The ten dancers who will audition on Saturday range in age from 13 to 18 and are from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Wake Forest, and Charlotte.
The audition will be held on Feb. 4 in Charlotte. The kids only will have 90 seconds to show off their stuff to the judges.
"This is a really positive and exciting moment in our career. Even if we don't make it past this point, it's an honor to be asked," said Medler.
Medler says the entire team is on cloud nine.
"I'm just as excited for the tap world as I am for us. I think it's going to be such an amazing opportunity to show America how amazing and wonderful tap really is," said Caroline Vance, a senior at Jordan High School and one of the dancers auditioning.
“I’m definitely nervous,” admits dancer Sarah Linden. “It’s different performing in a situation like this close to judges as opposed to being on a stage separated from our audience.”
Although the audition may be scary, the moves are not.
“We’re doing a dance called ‘Doom’ said Amanda Hickey. “It’s pretty fast but I think we can pull it off.”
As they worked on their syncopation, their artistic director pushed for perfection.
“I want the best for them. I want them to succeed. I want the ensemble to do well,” explained Medler.
The kids are sure they’re ‘The Talent’ America has been looking for these days.
“I’ve mentioned it to a couple of my friends and everyone is really excited,” said dancer Laura Matrazzo. “They think it’s awesome that we even got asked to come to the audition.”
The dance company will find out in mid February if they passed the audition in Charlotte; if they do, it’s not the end of the process.
They’ll have to learn another new dance and go to another round of auditions to be held regionally.
Below is the list of performers that will audition in Charlotte:
- Adriana Ogle
- Amanda Hickey
- Luke Hickey
- Caroline Vance
- Breanna Polascik
- Sam Hickey
- Laura Matrazzo
- Sarah Linden
- Taylor Hartzog
- Isabelle Carson DeWitt
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