LIFE WITHOUT DANCE: MOVING ON AFTER THE CURTAIN CLOSES

We all know that exhilarating feeling of performance— the costumes, the lights, the energy of the audience. Unfortunately, every show must come to an end. After the company takes their bows, the stage lights dim, the curtain lowers, and the cast heads back to their dressing rooms. Especially at the end of a season, dancers exchange hugs as tears wipe away their makeup. After the crew clears the stage, the dancers clear out their dressing rooms and pack up to go home and rest before the next season of rehearsals begins. But what happens when there is no next season?

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At this moment, thousands of dancers across the country are discovering that their last season was their final bow. Many were students hoping to enter a company and couldn’t find a position. Others were members of smaller companies that were forced to close their doors due to low attendance. Complications the 2020 pandemic has raised across the entire entertainment industry also contributed to the demise of several companies. These individuals have reached the untimely end of a path they had worked towards their entire lives.

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I know all too well this feeling of loss and regret, as I was once there myself. For fifteen years, I dreamed of becoming a professional ballet dancer. My entire life was dedicated to the ballet studio, and like many other dancers, I never gave myself the opportunity to have any kind of a normal high school experience. As I was starting to consider what my life would look like post-graduation, the goal was to become a dance major in college or join a professional company. I was approaching my senior year of high school when I decided to leave the dance studio I had attended for the past ten years. The first semester of my senior year became riddled with complications in transferring studios and I was left without formal training right as I was supposed to be preparing for auditions. I was heartbroken and felt more lost than I could have ever imagined. Ballet had been my passion for as long as I could remember and I now was forced to go in a new direction— something I had never had to consider up until that point.

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I thought I was entering a long-term blackout, but one small spotlight began to shine brighter and brighter. I had started a blog just a few months earlier out of my newfound love of writing in school. I began to focus more and more energy on my blog and its expansions into social media and YouTube. Writing and media brought me so much joy at one of my lowest points and I soon discovered my true calling. I found myself majoring in Communications in college and I couldn’t have been happier. I even found my way back to the arts when I took a job as the Communications Assistant for the Fine and Performing Arts division of my school. My experience with dance greatly helped me with editing footage and content for promotions since I knew what to look for in the performers. My life in the dance world, however, gave me more tools than just understanding lines and technique. The media industry requires multitasking, strong time management skills, cooperation, and creative thinking, all of which were provided to me during my time as a dancer.

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Many would assume that after working in the performing arts, a former dancer would move on to become a stage manager, a costume designer, a choreographer, a teacher, or another position that is still within the performing arts. Many former dancers have gone on to become successful in nearly every career field. ABT ballerina Rosalie O’Connor is now a well-known and reputable photographer, NYCB dancer Linda Hamilton is now a psychologist, and Rahm Emmanuel, who was extremely talented but unfortunately never made it as a professional dancer, went on to become President Obama’s Chief of Staff. These individuals are just a few of the many dancers who, after their dance career ended, were able to make a smooth transition out of the performing arts realm. It is clear to see that the influence of the performing arts rest far outside what most would imagine.

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We all know that dance is an art of incredible discipline. Nearly every dance student has become an expert at time management, often finding themselves cracking open textbooks in the middle of rehearsals, stretching while studying, and using every last moment of free time to ensure academic success and a full studio experience. In rehearsals, dancers are forced to work with others that they may not know or like to complete a masterpiece. Oftentimes, this cooperation requires a lot of communication, sometimes with individuals who do not even speak the same language. Dancers also understand the idea of working towards a greater picture, knowing that they will likely not be the star in every piece. No matter what role they are cast in and how happy they are with it, performers have to work their hardest and put in their best for the show to reach its full potential. In any situation, dancers are expected to be dedicated to their craft.

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This may just sound like part of the job description for a potential dancer, but these are all “soft skills,” or assets that hiring managers look for in a candidate of any field. So-called “hard skills” are often taught on the job, or can be learned in a reasonable amount of time with online certificates if you do not have a relevant, or any, college degree. Many dancers who have already transitioned into new fields have already recognized and reaped the benefits of their dance education. Jessica K. studied with a Pennsylvania ballet school for over a decade before having to stop dancing as a result of an injury. She is now in her first year of college and studying to become an Occupational Therapist. Jessica looks back and shares that dance “has given me the ability to be in front of a crowd. If it weren’t for all those years of performances, I would have no public speaking skills. In the future, when I’m presenting at a conference or communicating with clients and their families or caretakers, I can stand up in front of them and present myself in a professional way.” Jessica, like so many other dancers, has been able to apply the lessons of the dance world to her new success.

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Many dancers chose to transform their love of the art into a new career path. If you’d like to pursue a career in the arts of some form, you’ve already got a head start. Just by training as a performer and having either student or professional experience, you’ve been immersed in the environment you’d like to work in with a first-hand perspective. If you’d like to go into dance education or studio management, you’ll already have a starting idea of what goes into those roles and maybe an idea of what you would change if you were put into that position. If you’d prefer to take up a career on the backstage end of performing, perhaps as a stage manager, stage hand, or creative designer, you’ve already been able to observe the experts in their respective roles. While you might not know all the specific details of how the job works, you’ll understand the ecosystem of the theater and how each individual works in the greater scope of a team. If you’re interested in branching out a little further and going into a field like photography, you’ll likely already have taken the first steps to developing an artistic eye that will contribute to your ability to create aesthetically pleasing content.

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The arts and performing arts industry is not the only option for former dancers, however. The world is at your fingertips, and the possibilities are endless. Many dancers have chosen to enter the sciences, and have gone on to become quite successful with it. Ella M., for example, is currently a biology student at the University of Chicago and was a Regeneron Science Talent Search finalist for her work on CRISPR. She had taken ballet classes for much of her life, in addition to being a part of her school’s award-winning science research program. Reflecting on her time in the dance world, Ella now shares this:

I know how to handle myself in professional situations and deal with authority figures. I also learned how to discipline myself to just get something done when I need to by focusing and putting my mind to it. Along those lines, I developed great time management skills because I was determined to keep up to par in both school and dance. I had certain expectations in both areas of my life and I used my time, sometimes squeezed in the middle of dance practice, to ensure both sets of expectations were met. Further, the expectation of remembering combinations has been enormously helpful in developing my ability to memorize, which is pretty critical for success in college.

Dance and science may have little to do with each other, with the exception of anatomy and some physics, but the soft skills that dance teaches are essential to any career field. Outside of the dance world, many current doctors were not even pre-med majors in college, but rather, changed their course to pursue a different path after their undergrad. Transitioning from dance into science, or really any other field, is no different. However, what sets dancers apart are skills that cannot be taught in a classroom and are learned through years of rigorous commitment and hard work.

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Even if you choose to make a total career shift after your time with dance has come to an end, you never have to totally exclude dance from your life. Many former dancers have chosen adult classes and volunteering as a way to continue their passion as a hobby. Jessica K. no longer takes classes but after she was finished dancing, she became the assistant teacher for a local ballet studio that teaches classical ballet to children with various disabilities and/or special needs. “I have watched these children both grow as people and dancers. We have been able to provide an outlet typically not afforded to them and help them engage in an activity that brings them joy. It helped me realize that I desire to work with these populations in my career as an OT, and help people live the most fulfilled lives that they can.” Ella M. is continuing dance as a hobby in college by joining the ballroom dance club and even making her way to the executive board. She says that her previous experience “also set me up really well for ballroom because I have an awareness of where my body is and how it moves that the typical person lacks. Although funny enough there have been some times where an instructor has told me off because I’m doing something the ballet way.” At my own college, I became the coordinator of a community service program that taught various dance styles to children between the ages of six and twelve from a local transitional shelter. I had also taken adult classes up until the coronavirus pandemic, but stopped out of a distaste for virtual dance classes. Many of the adult classes I had taken were filled with former dancers who had moved on to a variety of careers, ranging from owning a yoga studio to becoming a corporate marketing professional to even practicing law. They all loved ballet and taking the open classes every week was an essential part of their weekly routine. These former dancers may have moved on from their first passion, but they never totally left it behind. Rather, they spinned it into a new, but still equally important, part of their life.

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At the end of the season, the curtain always comes to a close, the stage lights always go dark, and the costumes and sets always go into storage. Despite all this, the theatre never disappears and the memory of the season continues to live on. The same goes for dancers who are looking to take their first steps outside of the performance world. We will all come to the point where our pointe shoes have to be hung up, but that doesn’t mean the show is over forever. The countless hours spent inside the studio have taught dancers lessons they will never be able to forget and the required dedication and commitment will transfer over into any career field or industry. It is always a difficult transition, but dance itself is an art that has already taught its followers how to cope with and push through the hardest of times. The possibilities that lie beyond the stage are limitless. By applying the lessons of a lifetime from the studio to any industry, you are guaranteed to have the full choreography for success.