Talent can truly take you across the seven seas! Have you ever considered working on a cruise line? We asked our JJ love Jordan Lazan, a dancer on Holland America Cruise Line, what it's like to perform for a living on a cruise ship! Check out our interview with Jordan below.
Q1: What cruise line do you work for?
Eurodam on Holland America Line.
Q2: What was the audition process like?
I first auditioned for RWS Entertainment Group, the company that casts for Holland America Line, in March 2017. There were about 500 girls at the audition, and it started with a very short ballet cut. We then did a modern/contemporary combo which was straight out of one of the shows they perform on the ships, and another cut was made. The final round was a fun jazz combo filled with different genres. The dancers who made it past that last cut were put on the “hire list”, which means that any time in the next year they could be hired for Holland America. The next day, I got an offer for HersheyPark, which RWS also casts. It wasn’t until halfway through my summer at Hershey that I got offered my Eurodam contract for Holland America. When I got the offer, I texted my friend group to say I was going on a ship, and my best friend and roommate said she had also gotten an offer and asked which ship. When I answered Eurodam, she called me immediately in tears to say we had received the same offer! Now instead of being roomies in NYC, we’re #bffsonaboat!
Q3: What does your day-to-day look like?
On a show day, I usually wake up around 10AM to have breakfast before our tech rehearsal, which we do before every show. It usually lasts from noon to 1:30PM, with time for notes from our dance captain from both the previous performance and the tech run itself. I then either get to teach a line dance class depending on the week, or I have off until showtime. Call time is 30 minutes before the first show, but my roommate and I start getting ready around 6:30PM for our 8:00PM show. We have almost an hour between our first and second shows, and after the 10:00PM show, we put our costumes away and we’re done for the day!
Q4: How often do you perform and what are the shows like?
We have four shows on the Eurodam. Every week we have a “welcome” show/bumper, called “Preview”, where we perform little snippets of the shows that we’ll be doing that week. Throughout the 7 day cruise, we do two of our three shows, one on each sea day. Our three main stage shows include: “One World”, an eclectic show with many different genres including aerial silks and Spanish web that follows the story of Mother Nature; “1000 Steps”, a ballroom show with gorgeous costumes and furious footwork (there are definitely over 1000 steps in it!); and “Billboard: Off the Charts”, a fun show that takes the audience through the decades of chart topping hits, from Elvis to the Beatles to Janet Jackson to Beyoncé.
Q5: What's the best part about dancing on a ship?
There are so many amazing parts of ship life! I get to perform for new people every week in fun and challenging shows, I travel to new places every week, I’ve met countless people from around the world, and I get to share the whole experience with a cast that has become my family!
Cruisin'. Dancin'. JJ lovin'. Nothing quite like the life of a dancer!