Irish Dance Camp

Chapter 2

The audition process had been nerve-wracking. Thousands upon thousands of people applied, but only two hundred were selected for the camp. Carly and I had decided to make one audition video for the two of us, so to bring each other up. We had both auditioned separately the previous year, but neither of us was accepted. This time, we were both contacted via email saying that we were invited to attend the next round of live auditions, which were held a few hours from my house. We auditioned separately for these. A few weeks later we were sent letters with our official invitations to camp.
Carly and I had just come home from worlds when we found out that we had been accepted. I could tell Carly thought that she wouldn't get in, as she was still feeling bad about her placement. She apparently came somewhere in the 70's , even after dancing her best.
When I walked into the cafeteria, I already felt intimidated.
Everywhere there were familiar faces of dancers I had seen win their oireachtas, Nationals, and worlds. The best I had done at a major was 5th, and it was the previous year's Oireachtas. I knew that was very good, but I felt that I wasn't on the same level as many of them. I started to feel the same sort of discomfort that Marie had.
Carly, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice a thing.
"Mrs. Sullivan, we saw Julie O'Conner outside!" She said.
"Wow! Did she seem nice?"
"Yep, and really humble, too. Right Ciara?"
"Yeah....." I was still in awe at the famous dancers around me.
"Ok, it looks like that's your table." My mom pointed across the cafeteria at a table with a sign that read "Group 6". Julie O'Conner was sitting there with Marie. I was actually quite excited to meet her, she seemed nice.
My mom gave me a hug and said "Have a great time girls! I'll see you at the end of camp performance!" I waved as she walked away.
Carly took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's go do this." We walked over to the table.
Many of the girls were already talking to each other. I counted on Carly to start the talking, she always does.
"Hi guys!" She said. Good old Carly. "I'm Carly and this is Ciara," I waved to the girls. "We're from the Macmillan School in Connecticut!" Carly said.
I soon learned that there were 11 girls in our group, and we were all u14s. It became easy to chat with them, and soon we were talking about feises and schools and dress designers and our favorite brand of hard shoe, and asking Julie what it was like to win worlds ("Incredible, it was like a dream..."). And then the topic shifted to worlds itself.
I wished we didn't have to talk about with Carly around. She became rather uncomfortable and quiet. I learned that 9 of the 11 girls had recalled at worlds, and the one other girl besides Carly that hadn't recalled, Claire, came 51st, which is just one place away from recalling. The other places from the girls were 1st, 8th, 15th, 20th, 29th, 33rd, 38th, 45th, and 50th. I talked with them for awhile and felt really relaxed, which is strange because I'm usually very shy around people I don't know.
Eventually, the women who I assumed to be the camp owner stood atop a chair and called for attention. The room went silent.
"Hello all, and welcome to Campa Damhsa na hÉireann! I hope you are all ready for an intense two weeks!" There was a collection of cheers. "Before we send you to your rooms, a volunteer will hand you your schedule. You are to follow this schedule at all times, so in other words, stay with your group! At the end of the two weeks, we are doing a special performance for your friends and family members. 'Rehearsal' time on your schedule is where you will practice this. Don't get this confused with 'Practice' time, that's when you have free time to practice your steps! Please take note of all of our rules, including NO cell phones or other electronics, no staying out of bed past 10 o'clock, and absolutely no dancing without dance shoes or sneakers. Also, listen to the volunteers! You are free to head to your rooms in group order starting with Group 1. Be back in time for dinner please!"
As our group began to walk out, someone tapped my shoulder.
"Hi Ciara!" Julie said.
"Oh, hi!" I beamed.
"What room number are you in?"
"427. What about you?"
"Marie and I are in 428! We can hang out!" Julie said.
Julie O'Conner wants to be friends with me? She had always seemed so nice, but I didn't know if world champions only wanted hang with, you know, world champions.
"Absolutely!" I said.
"You and Carly seem so nice! I'm glad that we are in the same group."
And after that, we began talking about the upcoming nationals, and did so the whole way up to our rooms.