Dance Is My Career

Say this title out loud to yourself. If you had the same reaction I did, don't worry the initial impact will wear off eventually. One of my mentors said this and it gave me a much needed wake up call. Being a dance major, we are going to college to dance. Eventually we will leave this bubble of "Academia" and will be off in the real world with the hopes that what we learned here will help us prosper and truly become the influential artists we all hope to be. So what are we doing in our technique and other classes that are helping us get there? Like Jessica said in class the other week and what many teachers have told us before, its not what we're doing while our teachers are watching but what we are doing when they aren't. Do you relax your turnout and lower your leg or still give everything you have and continue pushing yourself like you were the only one doing to combination and everyone else was watching? My midterm assessment helped me realize what i'm not working hard enough at. Since I got this information I have really thought about my work ethic and realized I could always be doing more. If I leave barre and am not sweating bullets then I clearly didn't work hard enough. To truly perfect my art I always need to constantly have my "Party of Past Ballet teachers" yelling in my ear all the corrections of my technique and really pushing myself to apply them. Much easier said than done, but still something that all dancers should really strive for if they want to be successful later on in life. It also comes down to consistency. Sure you can try really hard at combinations and parts of class that you enjoy but when you get to that one step that you really struggle with or just plain don't like you have two options, 1. just get by and do the combination but not invest that much effort or 2. try harder than the combinations you do enjoy in order to improve your technique. If you chose the first option, finding a professional career in dance is probably going to be a struggle, but if you chose the second option your technique will put you farther ahead than those that chose option 1. Its a constant internal struggle, but with enough self discipline, determination, and passion for what we do, anything is possible. Eventually when we are in our first professional audition for a company or show will you think back and wish you had chosen option 2 or know that because you pushed yourself to improve and succeed that you can lay everything you have on the floor and not have any regrets?