Dear Dancer and Artist,

It's kind of a "catch-22”. You need experience to be a professional, but how do you get experience? 

You may not be a professional dancer (yet) but you can still start to embody a professional mindset! In fact, the time you spend training in your craft is the BEST time to develop these crucial skills.

What’s the first thing you need to realize? You are the key component of your dance career.

Read that again. How you show up today determines what will happen next. It's pretty intense, but if you are not afraid of your vision, of hard work, of going just a little extra, then it should be very exciting!

Why? Because it really is all in your hands!

Dance training is an exchange. Your instructor works hard to prepare a class. He or she wants the best for you, knows your strengths and what to work on.  They think about you outside of class, and how to help you grow.

Are you matching that commitment by coming to class ready? Do you recall last week's corrections? Do you know specifically what you want to work on this week? Do you keep practicing not only the steps you do well but the ones that challenge you as well?

In that paragraph alone, what are some things you could change?

Here are some tangible ways in which you can start working like a professional:

1. Bring a notebook to every class

   Write down your corrections. Reflect on class and rehearsal immediately afterward - it only takes 1-2 minutes. Refer to those notes before the next class with that instructor or the next rehearsal for that piece.

2. Apply your corrections

   Chances are your instructor has given the same correction many times, if not on you, then on someone else. It’s not enough to just write your corrections down. You need to spend time applying them as well.

   Let your fellow dancer who is excelling at that move help you. You can say "I noticed you really understand en dehors pirouettes, and I'm struggling with something. Would you have time to help me?"  

   It is flattering and respectful of their time. It will also create a sense of teamwork and bring you closer. 

   Of course, you can ask your instructor, but AFTER you've put some work into it. After class, ask if they have time to help you with one specific thing.  Apply their corrections. Thank them graciously.

   Now here's the secret: Keep working on the thing they helped you with. It may take days or weeks. But you must keep working. Why? Respect.

This brings me to the deeper message of how to be a professional: Respect.

This is huge. I can't say it enough.

Respect is the number #1 element that separates a professional from an amateur. 

It is how I choose my dancers for productions and concert work. It is how I choose artists whom I've watched over time. I see how they handle adversity, long rehearsals, long tech days in the theater, and how they treat their fellow cast. It shows in how they communicate and reciprocate in emails, how they handle being injured, ill, or having a scheduling conflict.  

I ask myself, "Is my production better having this person in it, or do they make me worry (or worse)?"    

When you have respect, you are thinking of the entire process, what I call The Big Picture. In The Big Picture, you are opening your awareness of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE it takes for you to be right where you are. You have your eyes open, watching the process, listening to the words, and following the action of what is happening. This is in everything: classes, rehearsal, tech rehearsal, performances, corrections, and directions.  

When you have respect, you are thinking as a team AND as an individual. Can you see it?

Here is an exercise for you:

Can you identify a time when you were really focusing on your class? How did that feel? What did you learn?

Now,  identify a time when you were being distracted, talking to friends, or on your phone instead of watching the process. What was that like? Do you think that will help you become a professional?

I hope this gives you a little insight and some things to not only think about but to implement today. 

Good for you to be curious enough to read this article and consider that being a Professional truly starts with YOU.

I will leave you with this...

A Professional is the dancer who gets the note once. 

A Professional is the dancer who practices, reviews, and comes back better the next week. 

A Professional listens to their music, reviews their choreography, and imagines themselves performing it flawlessly. 

A Professional arrives early and leaves late.

A Professional is thankful for the guidance of their mentors.

A Professional is truly thankful for every opportunity.

Happy first day of your professional career! 

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