Five years forward or Five years back?

 

Photo by Eric Olson

Where will I be in five years? It seems a popular question to ask.  But for me, the opposite question gives me more opportunity to assess my current state.  Five years ago, where did I think I would be today?

Allow me to start at the beginning. After graduating with a BFA in Dance, Performance & Choreography, I moved to Chicago to pursue dancing with The Dance COLEctive.  Four years later, I am now the Manager of a small children's dance studio here in Chicago, the owner of which lives out of state. Like most people, whatever I thought I would be doing five years ago is not what has happened or even will eventually happen. I had never dreamed of owning a dance studio, and I certainly never thought I would find myself running one for someone else. So here I am, making a career out of my passion (and the degree that I will be working to pay off for the next 15 years) and taking every opportunity I can to squeeze the juice out of this life in order to make a living. 

Ups and downs come with any job and just because I am working in a career field that also happens to be my passion does not eliminate those struggles. It DOES force me  to evaluate my life and my "passion" on a daily basis. I often ask myself " Do I really know what I am doing?" or " Is this going to work?" When it comes to studio business decisions, I go with my gut; to be honest, most of what I have done is completely trial and error. Luckily, it has worked out so far and I have helped to grow the business through what I would call 'Personal Force'. Being the only Manager, teaching most of the classes, and being responsible for all the administration and housekeeping, I am literally doing it  ALL. However, at the same time I am responsible for it ALL. Do we want to increase enrollment numbers by adding classes in the morning? Sure! Olivia will teach those. Do we want to encourage community togetherness with Friday night dance parties? Yes! Olivia will teach those. More dancers equals more phone calls, of which Olivia will answer. Should we make a shift to being paperless in our communication? Of course! That means more emails for Olivia to answer. I have found that with growth comes more "opportunity", but when you are the all-in-one manager/teacher/maid/administrator that means more work for YOU. 

Quite literally, I have opened the door for this growth and then accepted the consequences by taking on more responsibilities. Of course it is rewarding to see that what I am doing is working, but I often wonder if this work I am doing (for someone else's business) is the best path for me.  Should I reevaluate what part of the dance world my passion lies?  Where do I think I will be in 5 years? I really don't know, so be sure to check back in with me in 2019, and I will let you know how these next five years pan out.

Submitted by TDC dancer Olivia May, on Tuesday, March 13, 2014. 

Performing to Perform

Since declaring that I would be studying dance in college when I was just barely into my Senior year of high school, I have met the question " So what will you do with a degree in dance?" more times than I care to count. I understand where the question comes from, sort of. Everyone's first thought goes toward teaching," So will you be a teacher…?" or to owning a dance studio, then they think of performing. However, I have ALWAYS wanted to be a performer, and frankly I try to find ways I can perform everyday of my life. I was born a Ham (aka a limelight lover) and will probably be living the old adage " the world is your stage" until the day that I die. I live for a good crowd, mostly a good laugh from a willing audience and don't usually find myself in social situations where I don't make my presence known. So for me, there was never a second thought as to what I would do with a BFA in Dance.

I was going to perform. I was set on it.

All the doors and windows of opportunity were open to me, and I was going to walk across that stage at graduation, promptly get my diploma, and walk my happy behind right onto the stage of dance and perform. I didn't have a timetable for how long I would be a performer but sure as the day was long, I was NOT going back to school anytime soon, and I was not waiting around saving my money while working a non-dance job until I found the performance job I wanted.

After graduation, I was on a  sort of dance tour of my own, taking my blind optimism and endless energy for rejection up and down the east coast and some of the midwest trying to find a place to perform. I soon realized that while I REALLY wanted to perform, there were a lot of dance companies that REALLY didn't want to hurt my feelings but at the same time REALLY didn't want me to perform with them. By an act of fate, I landed in Chicago before my optimism and energy for rejection ran out with two suitcases and a smile, and set up shop with The Dance COLEctive. What I then realized was that I had only just begun my quest to perform on stage.

I was in a new city with zero friends, no place to live and no job. Suddenly the idea of performing took a back seat to my survival and the goal of living somewhere other than a street corner in a cardboard box. My personal worst fear in life is to be homeless.

What I came to understand is the doors and windows of opportunity are only open as long as you force your body weight through them, stick fingers and toes into the cracks and wedge the space apart to make room for yourself and thus make opportunities for yourself. I looked into every job I thought I might be able to do:  coach swimming, teach English,  serve food, paint fences. If it was a job and I could imagine myself doing it then I applied, I called, I stopped by the office to drop off my resume. If I was hired, I took it. It didn't matter how far away it was or how few hours a week it offered, I was going to do it. Then, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, I was going to go to rehearsal with TDC and work on my performance opportunity.

Well, as it turns out, wanting to perform became more of a need to perform, because with a BFA in Dance, I have finally found my way through enough jobs to land my ideal job: teaching dance. In a small dance studio with a captive audience of seven year olds, I use my flare for performance to make them laugh and teach them to pivot and kick-ball-change and to love dance and performing just as much as I do. I think I may have tricked myself into teaching because the front of a classroom (no matter what type of class) is a sort of stage. So naturally, I feel at home. But I need to be good at my job so I can afford to keep myself afloat, and thus be able to perform with The Dance COLEctive. So here I am, 5 years out of college with my old rosy view of being a Dance Performer, and I. am. performing. on stage with the Dance COLEctive in as many chances as I can force myself into…. But I also get to perform everyday in my job as Miss Olivia, the quirky dance teacher who loves any stage and a willing audience.

Submitted by TDC Dancer Olivia May on Tuesday, November 13, 2012.