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Last weekend I was asked to lead the ‘Creating Connections – Networking & Mentorship’ session at the On the Move Conference for emerging dance artists in Toronto. In preparation for the event I asked six different mid-career and established Canadian dance artists what networking meant to them and what sort of connections have been pivotal to them in forwarding their careers. I got an incredible array of responses, which were thoroughly inspiring and all centered around common themes to take time for self reflection, to get involved, don’t be shy, volunteer, go to shows, collaborate, experiment and attend as many classes and workshops as you can.  One well known dancer, who prefers to remain anonymous wrote me back such an inspiring email that I HAVE to share it with you. What you will read below is pulled straight from an email and written with complete openness and sincerity and I thank my dear friend for allowing me to post this to our blog. Ella
 
CREATING CONNECTIONS IN DANCE AND BEYOND_________________________

Whether or not one is in a company, it is relationships with other artists outside of employment that facilitate growth as an artist.  When you’re working you don’t have time to grow, unless the project involves a year of touring, free class with new teachers, and everyone in the group comes from a different background.  No one gets those jobs.  When you’re working you only have the chance to do what you can already do, and that’s not enough to get better, and often not enough to get the next job.  One shtick gets old fast, for you, and for any potential employer.

Having the opportunity to speak with older, more experienced artists has proved crucial in my career.  Whether they were co-workers or people giving workshops, or people I was been able to snag a coffee with, their experience and insight has shaved years off of my struggling to accumulate things on my own.  The history of dance (like all others) is one of accumulation.  Trying to re-invent the wheel delays the art form, leaves too many young artists doing remedial work beneath their potential and often gets them passed over for other, older artists.

And that’s different from being one’s self, or of the time, or original.

Read.  Converse.  Watch.  And, when possible, steal.

A single conversation with Peggy Baker is worth three years in the studio.

Find ways of doing experimental work with people, even if they’re not people that you would do professional work with.  Play around in studios on Sundays if at all possible. The experiment will always teach you things, and prepare you for another, future, possibly more interesting projects.

Being polite and interested has got me so far that I can’t emphasize the extent to which it has provided opportunities.  For personal improvement and for jobs.  Asking questions honestly is terribly valuable.  The dance community is more generous than the general population, and is interested in sharing what they’ve learned, especially with someone who actually cares.  And we all talk about each other behind our backs, so behave yourself from the get go.

Don’t worship.  Do inquire.  Do volunteer.

Do work hard. Know that your next job will probably be as much a result of a reference as anything you pull off in an audition.

I’ve never gotten a job through an audition alone.  And I have a Y chromosome.  Working relationships and reputation provide the opportunities to find work.  Letters of recommendation go a long way for grants.

Any career (or life) is made better by a diverse collection of friends.

Plus friends move to cities you want to work in.  And this is immensely helpful.

I should state that my career has been one in companies.  It’s a hard career to come by. That sort of career is dying and dying fast.

Most jobs (worth having) are for one short-term contract only. 

In future it will be more and more important to have connections that will provide a foot in the door during an audition, or a group of people to create a project with, or to get crucial information about this or that aspect of producing a show, or setting up touring, or how the hell to deal with a performance or employer problem. Especially how to help you grow and diversify enough to be able to do as much as possible with as little in-studio-in-front-of-your-boss-study-time as possible.  People no longer have the cash to pay you to learn.  And companies are no longer places that can necessarily foster growth.

Dance is the most communal of art forms.  We do everything in groups.  It is important to recognize that and build a career that takes advantage of that fact.

On another, totally different note.  Day jobs are important.  Not because they provide cash to do the work you might want to do more but because they provide the security that dance never can.  If you find your dance job isn’t fulfilling (and most won’t be exactly what you wish they were) you need to know that there are other things you can do if you really need to get out of a bad dance position. 

Having the chance (and cash, know how, and network) to build your own dream job (even if it’s for a week) is beyond valuable.

I learned that way, way too late.

——-a couple days later he added————————

Just one more thing.  It’s good to be reminded that Martha Graham (and everyone from her era) felt strongly that it takes ten years to make a dancer.  (The average dance program is between 3 and 4…)  According to today’s scientists it takes more like 10,000 hours of dedicated study, but who wants to wait to reach excellence?  And if you’re anything like the greats that came before you, your career is likely to be shorter than you want it to be.  So get a freakin’ move on, get out there, live it, and get whatever help possible to reduce the errors that get in the way and might delay you from having the kind of career you want.

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