A lot has happened in just a few short months!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Yes, two of my childhood dreams are coming true – maybe not exactly the way I thought they would – but they are realities.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So I took the job!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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