A favourite daughter of Dubbo is one of only 100 dancers to make it through preliminary auditions for the Australian version of So You Think You Can Dance.
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Jamie Astley and 99 others went into “lockdown” at a Sydney hotel at the weekend in the hope of making the final cut for the show that will be screened on Channel Ten in 2008.
Only 20 dancers will make it through the week-long workshop and cement their place in the television program.
But the elite 100 performers including 22-year-old Jamie, have already taken their careers to the next level by surviving auditions attended by thousands across five states.
The Daily Liberal caught up with Jamie last week as she travelled to a Sydney dance studio to practice the 10 routines she must take to the workshop.
“I’m nervous and excited, really excited,” she said after confirming initial audition success that required some of her trademark determination.
At the Sydney leg of the preliminary auditions she waited from 8am to 5pm for a chance to impress, only to be called back at 7pm and told she wouldn’t be going through.
“But as I was leaving one of the producers came up to me and said I should come back and try again the next day,” Jamie recalled.
“So I went back the next day, did it all again, and got through.”
Three days later the former Dubbo Ballet Studio star got the thumbs up from So You Think You Can Dance judges Jason Coleman, Matt Lee and Bonnie Lythgoe after she performed a contemporary piece.
“They said the nicest things,” Jamie said.
“Jason said my dance really grabbed him, Matt said it took him on a journey and Bonnie said I’ve got something special.
“I went outside and cried.”
So did her mum when Jamie called with the good news.
Dubbo’s Graeme and Sharon Astley will be part of the local throng cheering for Jamie from afar this week.
Jamie’s success is all the more sweet because of her fight back from injury after a move to Sydney as a teenager to study at the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and Brent Street Performing Arts Studios where she currently teaches.
“My ultimate goal is to make a living from dance,” she said.
“I love it. It’s who I am. It’s me.”