Is your dream tobe a professional dancer? If you are serious about working in New York, LosAngeles, Chicago, and Las Vegas you can begin to prepare at home.
Research theoptions close to you.
Read dance, theater, film, TV andtrade publications. Search the Ascending Star Dance web site Directory for local dance schools and studios. Checkout the Calendar to find workshops and conventions. You cantake classes with professional dance instructors form LA and New York atconventions and workshops that travel to all over the US. Also, many studiosbring in accomplished guest teachers to host workshops.
Consider volunteering with a local theater ordance company. Here you can meet peoplein the industry and see what it is like to work in the performance field. Whatbetter way to gain valuable knowledge of how companies work than from theinside? Volunteering with a theater or dance company is also great to build yourgrowing resume.
Build a support system
Share your dream with others. Talk to yourparents’ friends and your teachers. Bring up your interests in college danceprograms, scholarships, classes, and your other concerns. Your local dance instructors may bemore help than you think. Many have danced professionally in the past, or haveconnections to professionals. When things are hard and you are over drawn lookto your support system to take some time off and regenerate.
Never stoplearning
Dance is a fieldthat is always changing. You need to study and take classes through your wholecareer. A dance career is one that will continually demand effort- mastery issomething that cannot be reached, but instead worked towards daily. The moreyou learn, the better. If you don’t want to work hard, being a dancer isprobably a poor career choice.
Set Goals
Where do you wantto be in five years? How can you get there? Some goals are constant life goals. However, others are thesmaller goals that get you close to achieving your larger aims. Recording your personal goals andchecking them on a regular basis to see where you are is a way to stay incheck. If you are not accomplishing your goals, take another look and try toevaluate yourself. Do you try to do too much? Maybe you need to approach thegoal from another angle. What could you do differently to keep improving?
Take care of yourself
Eat right, getexercise, and get rest. You need to think about your body as a fine instrument.Your body is the tool you use to express your art.
Study!
As a professionaldancer you will most likely be self-employed. You need to learn about what theimplications of this status. There are many web sites that have plenty ofinformation, such as the website for the Internal Revenue Service (www.irs.gov), which has lots of information tohelp guide you, the self-employed person. Research on the web and get tradejournals- plan financially. Being self-employed means you may not have a steadypaycheck, so you need to plan and budget for that. Most dancers work part timeor work flexible jobs to supplement their dancing career. Knowledge is power;give yourself the power to succeed.
You can make it!
Recognize that you have the strength and talent you just needthe training andpersistence. You need to take careof yourself, work hard at your craft and have confidence in yourself! You needto work on confidence. Find a book that encourages and inspires you. Reread it often to keep you in check. In the performance world everyone gets rejected fromtime to time. Some people go to many auditions before getting a job. Stay strong, and focused on your goals. You can make it!