2020. It’s been a difficult year for the dance industry, and especially for freelance artists, freelance dancers, and recent dance graduates. Thanks to the Covid pandemic and resultant lockdown, there has been very little in the way of dance opportunities both here in London and all over. Theatres have been closed, audiences prohibited, dance classes,…
Category: Tips and Advice
At-Home Audition Photoshoot
Being a dance graduate in the class of 2020 has had some unique challenges. Thanks to COVID-19 having had a huge impact on the dance industry, being a new graduate and trying to get hired as a professional dancer is more difficult than ever. Dance jobs- and ballet jobs in particular- have always been highly competitive. However the pandemic and lockdowns have brought entirely new challenges, such as online dance auditions (remember this time last year, when we’d never heard the phrase “audition via Zoom”?!). That’s why certain parts of our online application, such as the audition photographs, have now become even more important, because we often can’t be seen in-person.
Dancing During Quarantine: Why Doing Barre In Your Kitchen Isn’t Enough
Hi dancers! What a very strange time we’re experiencing right now. With many countries experiencing some form of lockdown, most of us are finding ourselves having to work from home. As dancers, working from home unfortunately isn’t as simple as logging in remotely from our laptops and sitting by the phone. Most people’s home environments…
Become a Better Dancer in 2020: The Habits that will Get You There
Happy New Year, dancers! 2019 was a strange one for me- mainly because I spent 9 months of the year out of dancing due to injury, eventually undergoing ankle surgery. My main goal for 2020 is to get back to full fitness and back to dancing fully again (at the moment I’m only managing a…
Guide to Bullet Journaling for Dancers
This is a long-promised post, so I really hope it helps out those of you who are already bujo fans, or if you’re interested in starting your first bullet journal. I’m going to tell you about bullet journaling, why bullet journaling is a useful practice for dancers, how I use my bullet journal, and give…
A Dancer’s Ultimate Back-To-School Shopping Guide
Just like that, the new academic year is almost upon us. Whether you spent your holidays sweating it out in the studio at summer intensives, or sweating it out in the sunshine, now it’s time to start thinking about the year ahead. You might be about to start an entirely new school, maybe in another…
How to Catch Up in Your Dance Training
As you may know, I started my dance training much later than most. I took my first ever ballet lesson just before I turned 15. I danced a few times a week at local schools, and I didn’t start serious ballet training until I was 21. If you’re not sure how huge a difference that…
Self- Care Tips for Dancers
Dance is incredibly demanding, especially at a serious level. As dancers, we not only give an incredible amount of mental and physical energy to what we do, but what we do also informs the rest of our lives. You can’t keep dance and life separate, because when you dance, it IS your life. When…
Dance and Nutrition Part Two: Things I Learned from Visiting a Dance Nutritionist
If you haven’t already, start off by reading Part One to this post, where I outline my story with dance nutrition, and how I came to visit dance nutritionist Zerlina Mastin. As promised, here are the things I learned! 1. CARBS ARE NOT THE ENEMY! Dancers, say it with me and rejoice! It’s OK to…
Dance and Nutrition Part One: My Story
Dance and Nutrition: what an important topic. Dance is incredibly demanding- dancers train (at least) as hard as athletes, however as artists are required to maintain a certain line. (‘Line’ is how we often describe the shape of the body in dance, both in general and when in specific poses). I recently went to see…