The Art Of Mastering Movement

This is an excerpt from what I had written for Dance Magazine.  At the time, I had just received my final graduate degree from California Institute of the Arts.  I was not sure       at the time that I had made the right choice in movement as a career.  I didn’t want to be completely broke all my life.  What I realize now is that if you do what you like you       will be successful and you will be able to make a living(i.e pay your own bills, own a home, retire someday).  Hence, the surf picture above.  Really, who doesn’t like surfing.  I guess some might not like it but as in life or movement, in surfing, you need to learn how to ride the flow and not fight against the momentum of the water.  I do better in my career everyday when I relax and go with the flow.  Sounds silly, but it is true.  Try it!  Here is the article for some inspiration.

I have spent the last ten years of my life trying to convince myself, and those around me, that dance education is a viable career choice.  Dance education is based of the comparison of how your body moves and feels in space and how others move and feel in space.  Through dance education you can broaden your sense of self and awareness of others.  It is the science of nonverbal communication: a language that is often overlooked or remains subconscious in our society.  This language is a powerful tool in relating to yourself and the world around you.  So, why did it take me so many years to convince myself that I could have a viable career teaching dance? 

I started as a pre-medical student as an undergraduate because it seemed like an esteemed career choice.  It did not occur to me that I could make a living with dance.  I was told to make it my avocation, not my vocation.  I remember going to a guidance counselor that first week of college and looking through all the majors offered.  There was a dance major, but I felt that my career options in dance were lass stable than pre-med.

Two years later, I really wasn’t happy with my choice to follow pre-med.  From dawn to dusk, I was stuck inside a concrete lab staring into a microscope, studying things that didn’t have much meaning to me.  I wanted to learn about the people around me, not things I could barely see.  I felt empty.  Luckily, in order to fulfill my pre-med requirements, I took a literature class, and to my surprise, I loved it!  I was reading about exciting characters in various places and learning about how people think and live.  At the end of term, the professor had a party for us all and asked each of us our major.  When I told her I was pre-med, she laughed.  She actually thought I was joking.  She said that I didn’t strike her as the pre-med type and that I should come see her when I decided to switch majors.

Soon after, I made another visit to a guidance counselor and he gave me some great advice.  He said that I needed to decide on my career by choosing something I like to do as much as eating ice cream.  I wondered if I could choose my favorite subject and still make a living, as I was stuck on the idea that college was about choosing a major that would lead to a definite job.  He was trying to tell me that your passion could be your work.  And a passionate and fulfilling life is definitely better than eating ice cream.

Eventually, I realized that no one was going to recommend dance as a career for me; if I wanted to dance, I was going to have to make it happen myself.  I went to see my professors in the dance department and told them I wanted to go to graduate school in dance.  I wanted to apply to the most incredible dance programs in the world.  I purposely picked high-ranking graduate schools in order to test my abilities.  If I got into one of these schools it would confirm my gut feeling that I was talented enough to make it in the dance world.  If I didn’t get into any of those schools, then I would choose another path.

Believe it or not, I was accepted to all the schools.  I was shocked.  My parents were even more shocked.  I choose to go to the Laban Centre in London, where I was simultaneously enrolled in a professional dance diploma and master’s program.  While enjoying m studies in London, I was advised that an MFA, Master’s of Fine Arts, degree from the United States has the greatest weight when applying for a full-time teaching position at a college or university.  So, I came back to the U.S. and finished my MFA at the California Institute of the Arts.

With my terminal degree in hand, I was still scared to declare dance as my livelihood.  I sent out my resume to every community college in California, and worried that that there might not be a job out there for me. I called  up fellow alumni, who told me not to give up.  I went to bookstores to research other career choices.  Maybe I would make a good physical therapist? (Yes, this is me fighting the ocean current) yet, by mid-summer, I had job offers from two different colleges and was working with the California Arts Project.

Finally, one day while teaching movement to a group of non-dancers at a California Arts Project workshop, I finally embraced the reality that dance is a viable and necessary career.  One of the students told me that he really appreciated my class because the idea of movement opened up a new way of seeing and appreciating himself and others around him.  His words felt so good to me.  I felt validated that I persevered through my doubts to find a career that expanded someone’s view of the world.  I had made the right career choice.

After all my years of worrying,I have never had trouble finding a job in the dance/movement world.  It has always been interesting and rewarding.  I really love what I do, more than eating ice cream.  Dance education is important because is teaches you about yourself, how you relate to others and how others relate to you.  These are priceless skills in any career an in life.