02/26/2021
This is perfectly said! Dance is life!🥰 Let's keep dancing!
Photo credit: The Brainy Ballerina
When I was in college, people asked me ALL THE TIME what I was going to do with my dance degree. Sometimes they were truly curious and supportive of my major choice, but more often than not their question came off as patronizing. Well, the short answer to that question was work as a professional dancer (which I did!). But the long answer is that even if my career as a ballerina hadn’t panned out, dance training gave me SO MANY transferable skills that serve me in virtually any career path I choose.
Many of the skills dancers possess are classified as “soft skills”, or “a personal attribute that supports situational awareness and enhances an individual’s ability to get a job done”. These days, employers are increasingly look for job applicants with these strong interpersonal skills. It’s much easier to train a new employee on a hard skill (such as typing or video editing) than it is to train an employee in a soft skill (such as work ethic or communication).
The takeaway? The time you are spending in the studio is setting you up for success no matter which career path you choose. Dance teaches us to be disciplined, creative, adaptable, smart with our time, team players, critical thinkers, and so much more. These attributes are invaluable as you make your way through life, on the stage or off.
Can you name a time that the skills you learned in dance helped you succeed in another setting?
