INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH my students asked me the other day...."but what happens if we can not make it into a dance company?". So we started to compile a list of relative/alternative careers. Please see below the list so far. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD ON:

Notators
Choreographers
Dance Teachers
Dance Historians
Dance Therapists
Physiotherapists
Dance Medicine
Dance Scientist
Dance Educator/Tutor
Dance Writer/Journalist
Marketing/Promotion
Photography

Would love to hear of any other dance related careers

Spangles, you mention - Marketing and Promotion - which is one aspect of the general field of Dance Administration, which I would break down as:

Marketing
Press
Company management
Finance
Development and fund raising
Administration for funding organisations
Grant writing

Plus there is the Design/stage management area, which I would break down as:

Lighting design
Set design
Costume design
Sound design
Stage management
Associated technical roles for the above

<small>[ 23 March 2005, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Thank you very much for your input Stuart. I will most certainly ad to my list. Just quickly, is Dance Journalism a seperatre form of journalism to say entertainment or part of? just curious.

I think that you should point out two additional things to your students:

1. There are plenty of other good fields the students might pursue. Just like most college philosophy majors don't become philosophy professors, so will most dance students not become dancers. But the pursuit of dance is good for the whole person and the things learned in it can be brought into many other fields.

I say this because limiting career options to those in the dance world is somewhat narrow and depressing. Many of them are not good careers or not appropriate for many dancers. Why should we expect that someone who has spent the last decade in the studio and onstage will be good at arts management, for example? Those are completely different skillsets! But dance might be a decent preparation to be a high school teacher, it teaches you how to present to an audience. For this reason, many if not most dancers who are done dancing --- whether that happens at the age of 18, 28 or 38 --- enter fields not related to dance.

2. There is more to dancing than dancing for a professional ballet company.

<small>[ 24 March 2005, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: citibob ]</small>

"Why should we expect that someone who has spent the last decade in the studio and onstage will be good at arts management, for example? Those are completely different skillsets!"

So true.

I once ignored my gut instinct and accepted a job in a dance support organization as an office manager. My friends told me I should do it because I'd be staying connected to the dance world. Well, I was terrible at it, and I didn't feel even slightly connected to the dance world.

There's nothing wrong with a dancer getting into that sort of work if he is interested and is willing to learn the skills . But I wouldn't think of it as a substitute for dancing.

for me personally there is no substitute for dancing however I have found that teaching is just as satisfying if not more so (my personal opinion only and I accept that opinions are different for each and every one of us and that what is right for one is not necessarily right for another). The exercise that we were actually discussing in class was basically how to still have the connection to dance if not making it into a major dance company. granted that its true that each category mentioned may be a new set of skills that one would need to be learnt however the key word is CONNECTION. Thank you all ever so much for wonderful responses and input. You guys are so valuable to the forum as YOUR IDEA's are perhaps ones that I didn't think of. Thank you so much.

You can also stay connected by attending the ballet, and/or continuing to study ballet, even on a recreational basis. Some recreational students are quite advanced and derive enormous satisfaction from taking classes. It doesn't have to have anything to do at all with your job.

Dancers want to dance, you know? I'll always relate to ballet as a dancer, so long as my knees, hips, and back agree with me

<small>[ 29 March 2005, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: lampwick ]</small>

I agree with Lampwick. The best way to stay connected is to keep dancing. There is really no substitute for that.

As for teaching, I hesitate to recommend that someone who has never danced professionally, and never will, should become a ballet teacher. Other things being equal, such teachers will always be at a disadvantage to those who DID dance professionally, even if only for a couple of years.

Thanks for your reply also citibob (always welcome

Just a quick question though, there is a saying that the Best Dancers do not always make the Best Teachers and vice a versa. I am just curious as to why you would hesitate to encourage a non professional dancer from teaching?
:p (I may have opened a can of worms here but oh well LOL)

Behind the Scenes - the Education Manager
From The Stage

Emma Scott
Name: Emma Scott

Place of work: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk

What is your position? Education Manager, Aldeburgh Productions

How did you get started? I studied and obtained a music therapy degree from Derby University. I wanted to combine music with arts. The arts can impact so much on people’s lives and a lot of young people haven’t had the opportunities to do something within that field.

click for more

I agree with citibob.

If you have never danced with a company professionally, than you have no real credibility. I had a teacher once who said I had the potential to go professional, but I never believed her because I was always saying to myself, "How would she know, she was never in one."

Since I am now training with a women who actually made it into a company, I feel that my career is safer, one because she knows what she's doing/ her teaching is sound, two because she can compare me to the standards of the company she was in a make a practical judgement call, and three because you have to study with professional/ prominent teachers to succeed in the ballet world.

I think that is what citibob means.

While an aspiring dancer should eventually study with former professional dancers, that doesn't mean that every teacher you study with has to have been a professional dancer. Teachers who didn't dance in a company should expect that eventually their students will move on to schools with more prestige, but that happens even to former professional dancers who don't teach in prestigious schools.

thank you all so much for your wonderful replies. appreciated as always.
I myself personally have been blessed to have been able to study with ex-professional and professional dancers for over 30 years. (my passion as previously mentioned was with the teaching side of things) Funnily enough, in a recent exam, my examiner who did dance professionally in a dance company for many many years actually thanked me for teaching her some things that she was going to take away to some of her classes. (note: I only ever danced semi-professionally). Sometimes life experience to can shed a different light onto the way we teach. I guess all in all, no matter if one if professional or not, the learning never ever ceases. I think it may be all about the passion for the dance. I do take on board everything that has been mentioned above and once again thank you.

Spangles, I think outside of America you may have opened a can of worms.

I have seen ex professionals who can not relate to the student say under 10, however, relate very wel to the 15 year old who has had a small town teacher, not an ex professional, who has taught very sound basics from an early age and given a very good grounding.

The variable here is a we dealing with a student who has no talent but works extremely hard all year to improve her/ his technique and in an exam situation come out with a very good mark, or on the other hand, are we dealing with someone who has a natural ability in dance - the child who does no limited amount of pratice and passes an exam with a very high mark.

In my humb;e opinion many ex professionals do not have the patience to deal with the slow, steady paced learner who gets there in the end.

I know of a person who was not a fantastic dancer but she has studied the methodology of teaching, teaches to all learning styles and has the ability to teach and explain what she wants rather than demonstrate with her leg around her ear. "The proof is in the pudding" and the number of good puddings she has 'cooked' would blow your mind away!!!!

Just my 2 cents worth!

Good morning Tip_toes! I totally agree with your mail. I too have seen the proof in the pudding many times over. I loved your comment also about learning styles. I think this is very very important to every dance teacher. It is very interesting to note that when we first start teaching, we tend to teach in the way in which we ourselves learn (in my case I am a visual learner and began my teaching career teaching visually - I was quick to learn about other learning styles )