A while back as a colleague and I were talking about a company we work for, the topic of conversation moved from our usual dance-related musings to our availability for some upcoming gigs. Our boss is a generous and understanding man who cut his teeth in the corporate world and then transitioned to the artistic one, but he doesn’t often understand the life of artists and people in non-corporate fields. A week or so before, I sent my schedule of availability to the corporate office which included all dates I could accept gigs as well as dates that I couldn’t. It just so happened that this year I was unavailable for a gig that I usually make myself available for and my boss was highly disappointed. He took it upon himself to go ask my colleague, “Why is Bryan not available for this event? He usually works it. He’s not doing anything new and he doesn’t have a real job, so I don’t understand why he’s not available!”
I’ll admit, when I heard this, I was low-key offended. “A real job?!”, I thought to myself – “what on Earth am I out here doing everyday and night?! Playing?!” After I settled my nerves about the shade of it all, it got me thinking, “Is a dance career a “REAL” career?” Why wouldn’t it be? For those of us in this career path, there’s no other answer but YES. We throw our bodies around rehearsing and performing, tax our minds planning and codifying lessons, shrink our wallets training and keeping up with what’s next…sounds like a career to me! Although that’s my reality, I wanted to get the consensus from the other side, from people who aren’t dancers or in the arts industry. Flip the page to see what I found…
fortir.miror.artis. 