Surviving Dance Auditions in Germany
A Dancers passport to the world of auditioning in a foreign tongue - Common Dance Class Vocabulary in a foreign language
To celebrate and help all those wonderful dancers travelling to another world, another country, another culture, another language looking for that all elusive dance contract and together with my travelling former students we have compiled your foreign language Audition companion - specifically German! (You can of course take the English list and replace the translation with whatever country you intend to take class or audition!)
We are lucky as dancers that our basic ballet instruction is in the universal language of French no matter where we are in the world. All you need to then do is attune yourself to the Accent and you will hear it clearly, then add a few key words from that language and you can take a class or audition anywhere in the world!
All you need to know...
Count to 8 in the country of choice: German=
- eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht
alles zusammen - all together
stange - barre
mitte - centre
ecke - corner
hoch - high
runter - Low
hinter - behind
nach vorne - come forward
erste seite - first side
andere seite - other side
nochmal - once more/repeat/do it again
noch ein mal - one more time
rechts - right
links - left
langsahm - slow
schnell - quick
mehr - more
genaue - exactly,
sheisse - swear word s***, crap
schade - what a shame/blast/damn
was hast du gemacht - what have you done?
ich habe eine Frage - I have a question,
ich verstehe/nicht verstehe - I understand/don't understand
ah so - (said with wonder) - ahhhh ok I understand now!
stimmt - that's right/of course
Kantine - canteen
schnaps... hmmm probably needs no explanation
Schön - beautiful/gorgeous
toll - Awesome/wonderful/fantastic
sehr gut - Very good/great
...for the last three the meaning changes and gets better according to and depending on voice expression, intonation and inflection and body language!
and then look to the other dancers, they'll give you the universal sign language help. Learn to read voice intonation and inflection with body language. COPY COPY COPY! That's all the ballettmeister is interested in... Can you emulate what he/she wants! TOI TOI TOI (means good luck usually done with a spit three times over your shoulder) ENJOY!!