A lot has happened in just a few short months!
When I wrote here last, I spoke about some of the struggles I faced post-grad. While there haven’t really been any dramatic changes since then, everything has pretty much changed.
I’m still living in my childhood home, with my parents. I still have days where I question what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it this way. I would still love to move out and be much more financially independent, but that is just not in the cards for me right now.
What is in the cards though, are opportunities I never could have expected. As of these last few months and weeks, I have become a professional dancer and writer.
Yes, two of my childhood dreams are coming true – maybe not exactly the way I thought they would – but they are realities.
I am so excited to say that I am a company member of an Atlanta dance company called Kit Modus, under the direction of Jillian Mitchell.
I had originally found the company in a google search for professional Atlanta dance companies (yay job search in the 21st century!), and then again on a peer’s list of Atlanta companies to research, and then AGAIN when I took part in the Staibdance summer workshop at Emory.
After reaching out to one of their former company members who I knew, and seeing that Kit was hosting auditions, I decided to give it a go. I sent my information in to the director and asked if I could come take class. Not only was I able to take class, but I was also invited to work through process with their current guest choreographer. It seemed too good to be true.
Despite a scheduling conflict with rehearsals early on, a beautiful turn of fate shifted dates and time requirements around, and I was able to be a part of the work.
While going to daily rehearsals, I had picked up remote work writing and editing for another company. It was nothing I’d necessarily done before, this writing was for the marketing realm. I was editing fact sheets and case studies, and eventually writing a white paper about technology, research, and organizations I was simultaneously being introduced to.
So in the mornings I would go to class, the afternoons I would spend in rehearsal, and the evenings I would pick up the writing assignments. It was a busy time, and a little bit stressful.
But I had a “new normal”. It was a schedule I had created for myself, and it gave me something to do every weekday. I enjoyed the hustle and bustle, even when I felt a little bogged down in work.
When rehearsals ended I went back to the University of South Carolina where I spent 4 weeks total working as an RA/counselor. I did continue the writing gig while working full-time with my residents. That was definitely even more challenging, but was helping me manage time and prioritize in similar ways I’d done in school.
When I came back from South Carolina I had the opportunity to participate in a callback/workshop weekend with Staibdance, an Atlanta company I admire very, very much. It was an amazing weekend, to say the least.
Unfortunately, I did not get the job. But all was not lost, in the least. Through the company director, and the other Atlanta dance leaders who helped run the workshop, I was offered a position in the artist program with ImmerseATL. ImmerseATL turned out to be the stepping stone I felt I had been missing. It has the potential to bridge the gap between years of training as a student, and becoming a more formed artist that I felt I was stuck in.
Obviously, I look back fondly at my time at USC. I know how many amazing opportunities I had there to perform, learn with equally passionate individuals, and study under incredible faculty and guests. But I personally felt there were things missing, things hindering my path to becoming a professional dancer, that I didn’t even know about. And as an artist with Immerse, I could see the potential to find what I was missing, unlock what is inside me that I currently am struggling to find.
So now I’m busy with ImmerseATL, Kit Modus, and my writing/editing job. But being me, having down-time during the day was still making me feel unproductive. Lazy, if you will.
So, when I got a message that a position had opened up at my friend’s company, I went for it. I sent in my resume, I went in for an interview, and I then had a lot more to think about in terms of what I wanted my days, and potentially the impending future, to look like.
The interview went well, especially being that I’ve done so few prior. Although the position offered an amazing opportunity to build a career, I realized I wasn’t ready for the kind of commitment required. I needed to leave all my doors and windows open to be able to continue pursuing a career as a dancer, and a job with traditional hours felt like an abandonment of a lifelong dream.
So I respectfully declined, and was surprised when I got a message from my friend saying that there was another opportunity available, unique for me, that was being considered. I could come on as a writer, and help their company and brand improve on their website. It wasn’t something I’d necessarily done before, but I was qualified and recommended, I was bored at home and felt like I needed to be doing more, and a little extra money certainly wouldn’t hurt anything.
So I took the job!
And now, about four months after graduating without a job or really any plan what-so-ever, I have three jobs, and am part of an amazing pre-professional program. I’ve turned 23, and I’ve performed as a professional dancer for the first time, with fellow dancers who I admire and adore. I see the love and support that is around me, as I continue to pursue my dreams. And I am so excited to continue to explore and discover what the future holds.
