The skills it takes to thrive in the dance world have to come from within. Technique can be taught, but the drive, tenacity, and persistent self-promotion required to grow and maintain a dance company, or one's spot in that company, must be felt.
It is sensible, necessary even, for colleges to teach grant writing and fund raising skills to their dance students. In all likelihood, beyond the walls of academia, these students will be dancing for nonprofits. Their dance companies become their companies and they have to work for the greater good of it if they want it to survive. They must work even harder if they want it to thrive.
I have witnessed my daughter throwing herself, her heart, her time and energy and the skills that she learned in college, into her dance career. At once an independent artist and the member of a company, to invest in one is to invest in the other. Though she may be equipped with knowledge and technique, it is her passion and sheer determination to fulfill her artistic yearnings that keep her invested.
A dance company that is keeping this art form alive with its innovation, and commitment to a culture that breathes spirit into our modern lives, requires that its members are committed. It also requires that its dancers reach out to their community, to other artists, and to potential audiences. Their passion and commitment to their art must originate from within themselves, and extend authentically to the world around them.
Fusionworks, the dance company that my daughter dances for, is at the brink of change and growth as it prepares to host the first annual Northeast Choreographers Festival in 2016. Choreographers from all over the Northeastern part of the United States are invited to apply for a chance to showcase their finest work.
Dancers reaching out to choreographers, artists collaborating with other artists. Depth, integrity, excellence and talent; they need all of these in order to satisfy the audience. Hard work, sheer will and unwavering confidence that it is worth the effort, is what it takes to satisfy themselves.
More information on Fusionwork's project can be found here:
http://www.fusionworksdance.org/ne-choreographers-festival.html