So You Think You Can Be Crazier Right Now?

By Sarah Dahnke in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 10, 2007 3:47PM

Ring the alarm! Beyonce's on the lookout for a whopping 40 back-up dancers, and she's coming to Chicago on her search. She searched in Atlanta and Los Angeles before stopping in her hometown of Houston, TX, on Saturday for another round. New York and Chicago are her final two stops. Thirty dancers will be chosen from each city and flown to L.A. or New York, where the final 40 will emerge.

The open call for Chicago will be held at Lou Conte Studio on Feb. 10. Women will dance at 4 p.m., and men will dance at 7 p.m. The audition posting asks women to be prepared to dance in a high-heeled shoe (which is standard protocol for pop stars these days) and for men to "bring a Fedora hat — not mandatory" (which is standard protocol for 1930s gangsters and Indiana Jones).

With 40 slots to fill and more self-proclaimed "good dancers" out there than girls Jay-Z's banged on the down-low, we expect this event to be full-on American Idol preliminaries-style hilarity. Sure, Chicago is home to an extremely strong dance scene, but the trained dancers — and those who can actually balance while pirouetting in heels — are in the minority. The Chicago audition will undoubtedly attract people from all over the Midwest who feel they have a snowball's chance. Hell, we'll probably even attend. We just wish we could watch the outtakes when the audition tour is over.