Chapter Three: Dance Audition - Uraraka Ochako
My Muse Academia Soundtrack Now Playing:
Blood, Sweat and Tears -BTS
[Videos for reference:
(Original Choreography Example)
Kyufleck - BTS (방탄소년단) Blood Sweat & Tears (피 땀 눈물) - dance cover
(Ochako Hip Hop Style Examples)
Bsok Fandom - Bassa Sababa - Netta / Bailey Sok Bsok Fandom - Juice - Chris Brown / Bailey Sok 1 MILLION Dance Studio - breathin - Ariana Grande / May J Lee Choreography
(Acrobatic Style Example)
NBC World l Dance - Briar Nolet Performs Powerful "Come Fly with Me" Routine - 2019 (Full performance)
Bsok Fandom - You Deserve Better has - James Arthur / Bailey Sok]
Stretching like a cat as one of her personal assistants refreshed here beverage, Nemuri Kayama mentally prepared herself for the next audition. A dancer's body wasn't meant to be still for so long, and hers had been protesting as she'd spent the morning sitting silently through the Musical Performance auditions.
Now it was her time to shine, and she had been restless after seeing all the delicious prospects that had been auditioning for other majors. Kayama knew she was notorious for converting freshman to double major in or even transfer into the Dance department, but was it really her fault if the skills she taught were so invaluable?
Any kind of performer worth their salt, in her opinion, needed to move with grace and intent. One didn't learn that skill reciting lines at a table or hiding behind a musical instrument.
One learned that through physical movement, repetitive practice and through the crack of a whip in one of her dance studios.
As the self-proclaimed "Madame Midnight", head director of U.A.'s elite dance programs, many knew and feared her legacy when they stepped on her stage. And unlike Hizashi's crestfallen mood throughout the day, all the talent at her solo auditions had exceeded expectations so far.
Mirio, her lovely student intern, had done such a marvelous job of running the open call group auditions and only sending her the cream of the crop for today.
Of course, not all of the final freshman candidates would make it into the school, and even more would be weeded out within the first few weeks. Her meticulously high standards had not waned during her entire career, but any dancer that stood on that stage today could at least be proud.
She didn't have the time or the attention span to waste on average talent.
"Madame Midnight, we're set to record the next round of auditions," another assistant called to her after her brief break had come to a close.
She was eternally grateful to the youthful arsenal of dancers she employed as assistants for her many studios and seminars, some of them graduates of U.A. Each department director, according to Principal Nezu, could run their solo auditions with as much support as they wished. Once a year, she called a handful not already working at the academy to help proctor her solo auditions and lend a helping hand.
Aizawa could glower about the frivolousness of her set up all he liked, especially as the judges were being served a light tea service by said assistants, but Kayama preferred to be comfortable during this crucial decision-making period.
She thanked the beautiful young man with the clipboard and shooed off the rest of her helpers as the judge's table traded fresh beverages and snacks for paperwork and notepads once more.
"Send in the next applicant!" Kayama ordered, taking her judges' seat again as a queen would descend on her throne.
A girl with bob-length chestnut-colored hair jogged swiftly into the marker space on the empty audition stage.
"Start music!" Kayama demanded to the assistant in the audio booth, not bothering to ask the girl for any information prior, even her name.
A familiar Korean pop song blared through the studio speakers, and the girl sprang to life as the bass line dropped.
It was a hip-hop routine, and Kayama scrutinized the brunette's every move as she performed the most fluid elements of that genre.
The girl moved to the music with perfect control, as if she were plunged into a zero-gravity environment.
There was popping, locking, breaking, floating and gliding moves. House dance moves. Some new jack swing steps sprinkled in Kayama happened to recognize. Not a bad start.
Limbs and core flowed like water as the girl broke into various positions. Her pale pink sneakers, a pair of lace-up high tops that had seen better days, barely kissed the floor as she floated through the choreography with quick-footed precision.
The Korean lyrics switched briefly to a few lines in English.
"Peaches and cream
Sweeter than sweet
Chocolate cheeks
And chocolate wings"
These lyrics seemed to be some kind of signal as the girl's own chocolate brown eyes flashed enthusiastically and her routine switched from floating to flying.
"That was three backflips," Kayama couldn't stop herself thinking in awe as the girl sprang from one end of the stage to the other with gymnastic prowess. "She's definitely capable of power moves, a bit like…mm, never mind. Better not go comparing the two just yet."
The two aspects, the floating movements and the stunt capabilities started melting together in the girl's routine. She'd perform a breaking move and then flow into a round-off. She'd cartwheel and effortlessly land into a position to add an additional jump, kick or settle down into more foot and floor work.
"She keeps eye contact with every step she's able," Kayama thought smirking, watching the girl throw energy from each subtle hand gesture and facial expression. "Hm, she moves like she's had some contemporary training, maybe ballet...very, very, very under-developed but..."
"Stop the music!" Kayama called abruptly, and silence followed her command.
This didn't phase the girl on the stage for a second. She stopped perfectly in position as the music did, held her stance, then lifted her head and smiled, waiting for instruction. Pink spots began to brighten on the round face of the young dancer.
Kayama beckoned the assistant behind her to present the girl's application to her. She never bothered looking at any of the contestant's resumes until she was sure their performance would be worth her time to read it. She looked at the headshot and the name, an intrigued smirk on her lips.
"Uraraka Ochako," she called out, testing the girl's name out on her tongue. "You're obviously quite skilled at hip hop, your resume provides at least a decade worth of history. But you seem to be limited in Contemporary or Classical training. Elaborate."
Uraraka Ochako nodded, a brightness to her face at being addressed by the dance madame.
"I started hip hop when I was 6, so it was easier to practice on my own, Ma'am," Uraraka said with the utmost respect. "I wasn't able to start any Contemporary training until I was in middle school. I started a dance club, so I just learned basic techniques from some of the other girls that met after classes. I'm self-taught, but I've been practicing what I picked up from them for about three years!"
Kayama only nodded, reading more of the girl's resume.
"When the music begins again, you will perform in only Contemporary or Ballet," Kayama ordered. "No hip hop. No breakdancing. And minimal acrobatics."
"Yes, Ma'am!" Uraraka enthused with an energetic nod, not even flinching at Kayama's no-nonsense tone.
The same song played exactly where it had been ordered to stop, and the brunette flowed into her performance immediately with a lyrical spin.
Delivering exactly what had been requested, the girl moved around the stage in a mash-up of contemporary and ballet techniques that produced a modern-styled hodgepodge of a routine.
She attempted spins and expressive kicks, not as smoothly as her previous hip hop routine, but somehow making an entirely new performance blend into the exact same song. It almost gave it a different and more desperate meaning than her fiery previous performance.
What she couldn't express in acrobatics turned into theatrics as the girl now told a story with her body. Stomping dramatically on certain beats, clawing hand motions and desperate facial expressions illustrated the theme of the song's title as she offered her blood, sweat and tears to some unseen force that existed past the borders of the audience judging her.
In the hip hop routine, she had dominated the music as a force brimming with confidence and power. In the contemporary routine, instead of dominating this music, she was its desperate slave. A slave to her dance, to this stage, to her craft...submissive and ready to bend and break at its will.
As "Madame Midnight", Kayama had built a very particular philosophy about submission and dancing, and the irony of this delicious comparison couldn't help but cross her mind.
"Just as I thought," Kayama mused in her mind, eyeing the girl as she bit her lip. "She's picked up some bad habits from being self-taught. Her technique is lacking. She's not the best dancer I've seen today by a long shot, but…"
Kayama took a moment to bite her lip harder and grin in anticipation.
"She got this way all on her own. Imagine what she'll be like when I mold her."
No, it was quite clear the hip hop enthusiast, b-girl on her stage needed refining. But she was incredibly athletic. She was flexible. She didn't hesitate. And she was adaptable, proving this the very minute she didn't flinch at Kayama's request of an impromptu routine that could be out of her comfort zone.
Kayama decided to let the pink-cheeked girl finish dancing to the rest of the song as she scribbled in the needed commentary on her judge's form.
As the music slowed, Ochako ended her routine with a series of jazz spins that sent her artfully careening to the floor and freezing the very minute the music stopped. In the silence, she held her position as if politely holding for applause, and then lifted her head to spring back up and wait.
Her short brown hair clung to her face as beads of sweat rained over pink tinted cheeks, but she didn't look tired. She looked more invigorated by the difficult performance than ever before.
"Yes, that's the look," Kayama whispered to herself, earning an eye roll from her fellow judges that weren't typically as expressive during the auditions for their own departments.
She paid them no mind, however. Uraraka Ochako had earned her unwavering attention.
Pulling her dance madame visage back together, she shuffled the papers officially before asking one final question.
"Uraraka Ochako, why do you dance hip hop?"
This was the question that would seal the girl's fate. In her experience, dancers always showed the most conviction when talking about their preferred genre. Kayama was also genuinely curious. She would need the answer to figure the best way to whip this little cherub into a force of nature in three years time.
"I need to be successful, Ma'am," Ochako said, her hands flying over her heart as she gushed with determination. "There are people who are counting on me, and I need to show that no matter what you have or where you come from, you can reach as high as you want and no one can stop you. I'm going to master as many styles of dance as I can, but that's how hip hop has made me feel from the beginning. I wouldn't be here without it, so if I keep those roots, I don't think I'll ever forget about my goals or stop until I'm there!"
"Noted," Kayama said as she checked "yes" on the application status, "Uraraka Ochako, please exit stage left. My assistant will be waiting again to inform you of what you need to know and answer any questions."
"Thank you so much!" Ochako chirped with a quick bow, a wave to the judges and then turned gracefully on her pink, worn sneakers and headed off the stage.
"Tell them to prep the next audition to come in," Kayama ordered the assistant with the clipboard next to her. "In exactly three minutes."
The young man at her shoulder nodded and scurried off as she could feel Hizashi's eyes on her.
"You're not even going to let us comment," Hizashi said, glaring at her smug grin. "Are you?"
"No," she said simply. "It won't be necessary."
"Can I request that you bring her into a few of my art classes for the inspiration workshops?" asked Ishimiya Ken, the director over the school's visual arts programs. "She's very dynamic and expressive. The figure drawing and sculpting classes could use her as a great reference. The young lady with the pink hair and a few others I noticed today as well. I'll get you a list."
Ishimiya sat at the end of the table, and the man's stone-faced yet pleasant demeanor had a hint of excitement she was happy to see. He was usually one of the more easy-going staff that didn't clash with her eccentricity or teaching methods, so she usually enjoyed bringing their departments together for collaborations throughout the year.
Dancing was also a very visual form of art, after all.
"I'll see what I can do, Ishimiya-san," Kayama said, a smirk widening in thought of all the youthful potential she had to play with this year.
"Just try not to burn out this one like you do to all of your freshman," Hizashi quipped, conceding defeat that his opinion meant little to her decisions in the long run. "You need people to actually graduate from your program if you want to still have a job."
"I like to think the mantra of my program is quality versus quantity," Kayama said, a well-manicured nail caressing her lip. "If she manages to keep up, she'll have nothing to worry about. I don't outright expel them for no reason. You'll have to talk to Aizawa if you want to lecture someone about that."
Hizashi rolled his eyes and the entire table turned a knowing gaze to Aizawa.
The man, who expelled an entire freshman classroom of Acting students during the first week of school last year, sipped a cup of black coffee nonchalantly and didn't bother to meet their gaze.
"That's what I thought," Kayama said, taking control of the room again as her attendant signaled the next dancer was about to come in.
The staff shifted into silence as a rigid young man with glasses and perfectly combed dark hair took his place on the marker with militant precision.
Kayama let all previous thoughts of Uraraka Ochako leave her as she focused her attention on this new, youthful talent taking her stage. This was the nature of her auditions, of this industry, but she had an inkling the floating girl with the bright smile would reclaim her attention again.
If the girl was as determined as she sounded.
"Start music!" Kayama commanded to her assistant in the booth, letting the whole glorious cycle begin again.
WELCOME TO, THE AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey everyone! Thanks again for tuning into THE AUTHOR'S NOTE! I'm your host, DJ T-Time, and if the long list of reference videos wasn't enough to clue you in, it's time to get down about the star we've introduced at U.A.
But before anything, let's do our usual check-in and can I just say, WOW! This story shot up to 19 Favorites and 25 Follows when it's been a minute since I've posted. Thank you so much! Hopefully, this new chapter keeps up that track record.
Moving on, this has to be one of my favorite chapters so far. I knew Ochako was going to be a dancer before I decided on anything for anyone else, and WRITING DANCING WHEN YOU'RE NOT A DANCER IS HARD. Any of my reader peeps out there that have fancy footwork, please review or message me if you'd like to correct or future beta how I write Ochako's dance chapters in the future.
I have a few muses for Ochako's dance style that you'll find in the videos, particularly young Korean-American dancer Bailey Sok that I found on Youtube who is absolutely PHENOMENAL. She even has hair like Ochako a bit, and when I came across her I started fangirling hardcore. Ochako also has a "counterpart" in the famous line up of 1 Million Dance Company choreographers. May J Lee is Ochako's style evolved to a higher level, but there's something charming and bubbly about her that I just feel is very Uraraka-esc.
Some existing fan works that also helped fuel my Ochako dance AU dumpster fire thoughts are: Point of Balance by Megaira on FFNET (an amazing Kacchako fic with one club scene in the beginning that started it all), the MHA Break Dance AU comic by Kinnme (an adorable and emotional story if KatsuDeku is your cup of tea) and a Kacchako story on AO3 I just binged called Dance with Me (It Won't Kill Ya) by EmeraldWaves that basically is everything I ever needed in life. Props to these original authors and creators, and thanks for being a muse!
Moving on! Hit me up if you want to hear more about Ochako's dance inspirations or you want more video recommendations to visualize an example, otherwise, I'm going to wax poetic in this section all day long!
COMING UP NEXT! It's time to call all the drama queens, because the Acting Auditions are up next. Our upcoming auditioner is no stranger to the spotlight and its brutal demand, but can this disgraced child prodigy start anew at U.A. with their chilling performance?
STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT!
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Till next time,
DJ T-Time is signing off!