I am forever grateful for my time in
the dance department at Appalachian State University. I grew tremendously over
my four years in the program. My passion for dance intensified and my creative vision
matured. I made friends that will be my connections in the dance community for
a lifetime and formed relationships with professors and mentors that I hope to
continue to grow throughout my career.
What I failed to fully realize during
my college experience, however, was that I was living in a tiny dance utopia.
It was a world filled with like-minded friends who wanted to sit for hours and
discuss our latest choreographic fantasies, with constant opportunities to take
FREE master classes and workshops, and a space to perform and present work in
the most open and accepting community. A perfect world! I didn’t realize just
how spoiled I was.
My last two summers in Boone, I had an
eye-opening and inspiring experience participating in a program called Now and
Next Dance Mentoring Project, created by Ashley Thorndike-Youssef. The program
is a tiered mentoring program including professional dance artists, college
dancers, and middle school aged girls. Through refreshingly candid discussions
with the professional dance artists, I gained a clearer understanding of how
to make a life as a dancer. We discussed topics like how to pay the bills as a
dancer and the variety of jobs that these successful dance artists had held
throughout their careers. We talked about the importance of keeping connections
and engaging in your community, as well as practical matters like health
insurance for dancers, writing grants, and filing a dance company as a
not-for-profit. This was all extremely valuable knowledge that I wouldn’t have gotten
in my normal dance courses and am grateful to have had passed along from the
seasoned pros.
After almost three years in “the real
world”, I have learned a lot about piecing together a life as a dancer. It’s
not quite as peachy as it was in college, with everything laid out for me, but
it’s an adventure. I value the time I had in college because it allowed me to
grow into a mature artist in a safe and nurturing environment, but even more, I
value the time I have right now to challenge myself, push myself out of my
comfort zone, and find my individual voice as an artist and dancer.
Submitted by TDC apprentice Molly Kirkpatrick on Monday, February 24, 2014.
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