Dancers' Career Transition

[dancemed]

Has anyone seen today's article in The Arts & Leisure section in The New York Times called "Tentative Steps Into a Life After Dance?" I know that retirement is challenging for dancers. However, the study by Dr. Linda Hamilton that showed 79% of dancers enrolled in college found it difficult to declare a major, even though they had top grades, really surprised me. I had thought dancers were more prepared emotionally to start over, with organizations like Career Transition for Dancers helping them out. I guess dancing is still their favorite form of self-expression. Too bad for the one's who're struggling to make a successful switch to something new.

[Helene]

The link to the article is here.

It's difficult enough to transition from one career to the next when what you've done with some degree of satisfaction is outsourced, or even when the next one is the fulfillment of a dream -- starting one's own business, etc. Imagine the stress when you're confronting the end of a career that you started seriously at age 10, and by age 30 you'd been training for and doing for two decades, and wouldn't leave unless you had to:

And here, in essence, was the pill that many retiring dancers find hardest to swallow, and that Career Transition is nearly alone in dispensing: the sober recognition that, at least momentarily, a dancer might need to stop expecting a new line of work to match the deep fulfillment of professional dance.

Everything about their professional training is focused towards one goal: a performing career. In terms of the inability to declare a major, I don't think that's much different than many college students face, especially students that have excelled in high school and do school well. Take pre-med because that's what one's parents want? Take government and history because there's pressure to go to law school? Choose something practical? Choose something related to ballet (become a physical therapist, etc.)? Go the liberal arts route? School as an experience or to get experience?

There's certainly a psychological transition to be made from being told for decades how and when and where to move to making choices about what one wants, knowing that one's choice is unlikely to be as fulfilling, at least in the immediate future, as life on stage and in a family-like, all-encompassing work atmosphere.

[dancemed]

I agree that it is probably difficult for many young college students to choose a major. The difference with dancers is that most are pursuing further schooling in their late 20's or older. This group (at least outside of dance) is known for its ability to identify an area of study sooner than a student fresh out of high school. The handicap for dancers is that they don't want to settle for a job without passion. It's like settling for a loveless marriage.

[Helene]

Adults who start college later are generally motivated by specific goals. It's a lot different than going to school as a back-up plan or when one's focus is still in one's current career.

The Fordham program is one where dancers can take classes while they are still dancing, mainly at the Lincoln Center campus. That means they have one or both feet in the dancing world while they are studying part-time. A committment to something outside dance might be psychologically difficult under the circumstances.

It would be interesting to compare the dancers who start college or do most of their college studies after they stop dancing to those who are studying and dancing at the same time. Perhaps the 1 in 5 that don't have difficulty choosing a major fall more frequently into the former category.

In 1986 or 7, I took a seminar for dance management at Jacob's Pillow. There was a special session with a woman who had started a dancer's transition program when the idea was still very new. Barbara Horgan, who was one of the three people giving the main part of the seminar, seemed dismissive of the effort, and said that with rare exceptions, every former dancer who wanted to work had found employment within two years after retiring from NYCB. The woman, whose name I can't remember, replied that of course every dancer had found a job eventually: people have to pay rent and feed themselves.

It's interesting to read Mr. Handelsman's coaching quotes. This was exactly what this woman was saying in the mid-80's! She emphasized that dancers, especially the women, are thought to be dumb and docile, but they were actually under-educated. She noted that for kids who don't live near big cities where a parent had to commute 2+ hours in either direction many times a week to get their kids to pre-professional training until that child transitioned to a residential program, the parent often would tell the kid, "If you don't get straight A's, you're not dancing any more." She said many of these kids were straight A students until they were early to mid-teens and focused on ballet entirely. They did know how to "do school." She had to tell them constantly what they brought to the table for an employer: discipline, hard-work, focus, attention to detail, and the ability to take direction and follow through.

[dancemed]

Frankly, I think the answer to a smoother transition from dance is to introduce the idea of multiple talents, etc. to dance students---given that few make it to the professional ranks---and then encourage those who become pros to use their breaks, injuries, & rehearsal periods to explore other interests. Yes, it is difficult to have one foot in dance & the other training for the second half of your life. However, I think it is even more difficult to have nothing after retirement & then try to find a new direction. The operative word is "transition." Dancers need time to find a new direction, and it is easier to do this when you're not in crisis. But that's just my personal opinion.

[Viviana]

There is a Dance Gala benefit at City Center in New York on October 29 for the Career Transition for Dancers organization so I am assuming that is why the article appeared in this week's NY Times.

It is not that easy to work full time as a dancer and to always have to remember that it is temporary. While dance may be a short lived career, it can also be an all encompassing one.

[bart]

This is an important topic, and I hope we'll hear from many others as well. I was struck be the following in the Times article:

“The transition you’re going through is hard,†Mr. Handelsman was saying. “You’ll need to explain in your cover letter what it was about dance that makes you an even better candidate than someone who was not in dance.â€

Blank stares.

It's sad -- but not unique to ballet -- that people actively engaged in a career do not often think about the skills and qualities which they have developed and which can be valuable in many other lines of work. Dancers focus so intensely on the physical side of what they do, they may need assistance in seeing all the positive qualities that might give them an advantage in other careers as well:

“Discipline, reliability, focus,†he went on, wagging an index finger. “Creativity, perseverance, resilience.†Two of his students nodded. Mr. Handelsman was still compiling the list —“perfectionism, presentation, willingness to take direction†— when he was cut short.

I would add "the ability to focus," which is something I notice in so many dancers, even younger students. And, remarkable maturity. And, patience. And -- something that comes from so much ensemble work, despite high levels of individual competition -- sensitivity to, and the abilitiy to work with, others. Not a bad list.

[4mrdncr]

When I was forced to stop dancing professionally, not being anywhere near NY or another cultural mecca for dance, I had only one other example of a "dance related" career in front of me (other than teaching children at a 'dolly dingle')...PBS' Dance in America or a miracle job at the BBC shooting the RB at Covent Garden. So this straight-A student went to the top film school in the US, and double majored so I'd be well-rounded PBS producer-director. I did the semester abroad at Cambridge and worked on a Granada program, but no in to anything dance related.

(Oh yeah, won the student EMMY sr.yr.--but not for a dance film.)

And when I graduated, the US was in a recession, Congress tried to gut all funding for PBS, there was a hiring freeze, and for almost 5++ years, Dance in America was never seen outside of NY or other LARGE cities' stations--forget the 200 or so smaller PBS stations. So I settled; working at those smaller stations, mostly doing docs or 'magazine-format' programs because that's cheapest for PBS stations to do. Drama takes big bucks, as do performance programs (see other post on BT re this.)That I managed to do 2 dance films in college and 3 performance films at the various stations I worked at was due to endless persuasive tactics, much negotiation with funders and production heads, and constant re-training of my usually entirely male crews.

It was not a "loveless marriage" because my heart will always belong to the ideals of PBS. But that inner fulfillment/passion/joy I felt when dancing? That has been few and far between.

I think for my mid-life crisis, I'm going to try and transition to something more dance related to fill that still very deep hole. Though BT has helped do that in the meantime.

[bart]

Thanks, 4mdncr. We tend to forget how difficult, expensive, and generally against the dominant culture dance programming can be even in public television. Next time I complain that we don't have Dance in America , plus ballet on Great Performances and Live from Lincoln Center, broadcast on every PBS station several times a season, I'll think of your post. Your career efforts, and your ability to get so much done despite the lack of money and management support, are admirable. Every performance or show we see -- even an interview segment on Charlie Rose -- is a major victory. Thank you.

[ViolinConcerto]

Thanks, 4mdncr. We tend to forget how difficult, expensive, and generally against the dominant culture dance programming can be even in public television. Next time I complain that we don't have Dance in America , plus ballet on Great Performances and Live from Lincoln Center, broadcast on every PBS station several times a season, I'll think of your post. Your career efforts, and your ability to get so much done despite the lack of money and management support, are admirable. Every performance or show we see -- even an interview segment on Charlie Rose -- is a major victory. Thank you.

I second bart's statement. I know from experience how hard it can be to get work in the arts at all, doesn't matter what area, what level, what your experience is, what your contacts are.... doesn't matter. There are just too few jobs in/around the arts that can put a roof over your head and a chair under your ......

:clapping:

[dancemed]

I think the only way to ensure a decent salary is to train for a job in areas like physical therapy, law, business, medicine, etc. and then specialize in dance. This approach also keeps you connected to the dance community, albeit in a different role.

[holonar]

A friend of mine dealt with transition by going into flying, a field related in its physicality, but divorced from the ballet world he'd lived for so many years. I dealt with transition by falling back on my secondary career and becoming a web and print designer as well as a board assistant. My transition has been a bit painful because I am still around the studio and have to keep fighting my desire to line up at the barre or stretch out for grand allegro. I know I can't do it physically, but the need is still there. Leaving with a career-ending injury is leaving without closure.

[dancemed]

A friend of mine dealt with transition by going into flying, a field related in its physicality, but divorced from the ballet world he'd lived for so many years. I dealt with transition by falling back on my secondary career and becoming a web and print designer as well as a board assistant. My transition has been a bit painful because I am still around the studio and have to keep fighting my desire to line up at the barre or stretch out for grand allegro. I know I can't do it physically, but the need is still there. Leaving with a career-ending injury is leaving without closure.

It is always particularly difficult to transition from dance when you are "pushed" out of the profession due to age or injuries. The best scenario is when dancers discover something they love, take the time to train for it, and choose when to shift careers. They are "pulled" toward something new. It's similar to leaving a love relationship of your own accord versus being dumped.