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The Challenge! Balancing rehearsals, performances, training, getting to meetings while preparing grant applications and performance proposals, phoning, photocopying, as well as community or committee obligations. Not to mention the money job at the restaurant, or part-time administration, or for some, another parallel career altogether. Plus seeing performances, spending time with friends and family, eating, sleeping, and, of course, laundry...
Call it hyper-multi-tasking. It's not glamorous.
The Dilemma! The difficulties lie partly in being very busy and having to be somewhere different every two to three hours, usually at opposite ends of the city. The reality is that all aspects of a dance artist's life add up to a full-time occupation but usually do not pay a full-time wage. Keeping the rent paid and the cupboards full usually requires another twenty to forty hours a week at "the money job."
Strategies!
- Working at night to be able to train in the morning and rehearse in the afternoon.
- Making lists and staying organized.
- Evaluating priorities regularly.
- Building down-time into the daily schedule.
- Seeking people and resources that offer assistance.
- Learning to ask for help.
- And sometimes, simply saying "No!"
Why we do it? The art! The creative and inspiring colleagues! The love of dance!
Article originally contributed by Megan Andrews
LINKS:
Dancer Transition Resource Centre
www.dtrc.ca
RESOURCES:
Ontario Arts Council. Ontario Arts Occupation Series - Occupation Artist: A Profile of the Demographic, Economic and Employment Characteristics of Artists in Ontario. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data.
Available at DUO Library
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