Career paths
Dancing Smart Newsletter
December 16, 2005
Announcements
Let's start with a question that came in from last week's newsletter on bad floors from Sylvia.
I was hoping you would go on in your answer to suggest a floor that is best suited for over a concrete subfloor. I unfortunately do not have high ceilings and struggle with how to leave enough room on each end to be safe and useful to movement. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Sylvia
GreeneSSMJ@aol.com
I unfortunately was not able to help out with more detailed information on floors but if you are a studio owner that has dealt with the problem of concrete floors please consider emailing Sylvia with information. (email address is GreeneSSMJ@aol.com) Thanks!
Next…
Just read your latest newsletter. In my long career, I had to deal with some of the worst conditions as far as flooring. In my late 40's, I began experiencing some real issues as I was teaching 10 or more classes a week on cement covered with tile. I purchased a pair of sorbothane inner soles. Very thin, no problem to cut them to fit, and easy to use in ballet slippers...WOW, what a difference! Also advised my students to use them and they felt the same relief.
I don't know if they still make them. I was able to find them in the bigger athletic stores. Haven't used them in a few years, as I have been fortunate to have good floors, but now that I think about it, I believe I will dig around in my dance bag and start using them again. May help with my hip pain.
Look forward to your newsletter every week and so appreciate hearing all your wonderful advice. It's helped more than you will ever know!
Thanks for sharing, and have a wonderful holiday!
Sincerely,
Colette
Excellent suggestion, Colette! Anyone who is interested in knowing more about sorbothane can go to http://www.rxsorbo.com/insoles/. This will give you more information about what sorbothane is. I've used sorbothane heel lifts for many years when needing to put a small lift under a short leg. The material lasts much longer than the green Spenco or Dr. Scholls heel cushions in my opinion. You can find them, as Colette suggests, in sporting good stores, some larger drug stores or running shoe stores.
Question of the Week
I am twenty five years and still wanting to pursue my career as a dancer, I have been dancing since I was about nine years old I started with Flamenco and Folklorico first then on to jazz, hip-hop, clogging and when I was about 17 I began classical ballet which came pretty natural to me. Since than I attended college where I continued my education in dance. My dance classes, rehearsals and performance schedules became more intense up to 12hr days of dancing. However I just recently moved to Dallas and needed to make some money so I have had to put dance classes and the dance career on the waiting list. I teach which is helping me mentally but I can only take class when I have a chance 2-4 times a week. However I notice that I am always very sore and every muscle feels so tight and weak. I stretch very often and yet I am still tight or hurting what could this mean? I am pretty worried that I will never be as strong as I once was in dance and that I will never make it in the dance world, especially considering the fact that I started a lot later in my teen years as oppose to those who started at the age of 3/4yrs. Do you have any words of advice or similar situations that you have been asked about that might put my worrying at ease? Thanks for your time.
Erica
Deb's Answer
Erica, your question brought back a rush of memories for me. After moving to NYC to begin, hopefully, my future dance career, I didn't take but a handful of classes for 8 months! It seemed like it was forever! I was so envious of the dancers who had figured out how to pay for the food, rent and dance classes. I despaired that I would never be able to 'make it' as a dancer! It was a huge break to get a teaching gig, because at least I was around dancers, even though I couldn't make enough money from just teaching at that time to support myself. (I bet a lot of readers can relate to this scenario, yes?)
One difference in going through a time period like that in NY versus Dallas is in New York is I walked everywhere I could in order to save on subway fare. Dallas is not as pedestrian-friendly from what I know of it. So I was getting regular cardiovascular workouts and stretching on my own.
Our muscles need both pumping up as well as stretching out. I'm not sure how you are supporting yourself outside of teaching but I imagine it could involve either a lot of sitting or standing, instead of big movement. See if there is a way to bring more cardiovascular activities into your life without having to make big adjustments. That might decrease some of your muscle soreness. Our body was designed for movement – not desk or computer work. Think of this time period as a time for cross training and make a practice of some cardiovascular activity followed by stretching and see if your muscle soreness eases up.
I will also tell you that looking back on my dancing over the past 30 years my best dancing came after 2 periods of relative quiet periods of not much dance. One was when I was teaching and working for a physician so I was taking 2 classes a week and rehearsing 2 times a week. I wasn't in class everyday, but when I was, I was so present and so appreciative and loving every moment, that my dancing matured greatly.
The second period came after having children and taking almost 3 years away from dance and then coming back into performing. Perhaps my extensions weren't quite as high as they were when I was 24, but my presence and my connection to dance – why I was performing again deepened the dancing experience and I received more positive feedback in my late 30's and early 40's than I had in my 20's.
I am not telling you about my experiences to be a template that all dancers should follow – but just as an example of one path that was taken on this journey of being a dancer. I am sure that there would be many other lovely stories from other teachers and dancers about their own personal journeys.
The point is we do ourselves a disservice by deciding that one must take ____ classes a day, 6 days a week if you are serious about being a dancer. Yes, it is true that the more time we can spend in our chosen passion, the more we can hone our skills. AND – I believe that the way we bring ourselves to every class, or every rehearsal, has more importance than the amount of time we spend in the studio.
Sometimes we can't spend as much time in dance class as we would like. This is realistic. When we are at a point in life where this is true, make sure that you are not sabotaging yourself by repeating limiting thoughts such as, "I'm not really a dancer because I'm not making my money by dancing professionally". Or, "I can't improve as a dancer unless I am in class ______ amount of hours a day" We'll all have our own personal variations on negative self-talk and self-doubt.
The challenge is to flow through the times in our lives when the setup doesn't seem optimal and yet we can still accept it as being a perfect place to move forward from. This way we don't make our life 'good' or 'bad' but just where we are. It is much easier to make changes from a place of being nonjudgmental.
Today, I watched the final projects of my Modern I dance class. These are 18-22 year olds that are taking their first dance class. Watching them move with intensity, enthusiasm and concentration, in movement that they created was a moving experience. They danced, with all their hearts and souls. In that moment they were dancers and they were beautiful, touching my heart as much as watching professional dancers perform on stage.
Today I send a challenge to you to become the most amazing dancers and teachers because of your unique experiences and paths, not in spite of them.
Warmest regards,
Deborah