Why being unemployed is worse for a dancer than it is for you (a normal person)

A few light bulbs went off in my head after reading this article.

http://www.tightsandtiaras.com/2011/05/unemployed/

'Being a dancer, there is another aspect unemployment you don’t see with office-workers. Dancing professionally is a hard physical activity. It requires you to be on your best shape, something we achieve by training hours every day. Once you don’t have a job, you don’t have a place to do that training, either. No ballet class. And for a professional dancer, no class equals disaster. Yes, you might train at home to a certain degree, and you might be able to find open classes in private studios if you live in the right area. But those classes are not meant for professionals (not to mention expensive), and just simply don’t provide you with the exercises you need to keep in shape. And if you’re not in shape, no one is going to hire you either. The excuse “I’m better than this, but I’ve been unemployed, and couldn’t find a normal place to take class” just doesn’t work in a dance audition. It’s a vicious circle'

I feel i can relate strongly to Henricks article and i believe most other professionals in this industry would feel the same. I'm not certain non performers would neccessarily agree with the phrase 'why being unemployed is worse for a dancer than it is for you (a normal person)' but you would have to admit that many challanging issues occur for us. Maybe if they put themselves in our shoes for a while and see how they managed?

The unemployed dancer...How do we cope being out of work? 

How do we sustain technical abilities we spent so long trying to perfect when we are not dancing? How do we afford to keep it up? class is expensive, gym is expensive, traveling to auditions is expensive (sometimes to another county!!)

Good nutrition....good food costs good money!

Profit share productions- wage dependent on profit made. How do people cope? Not a guaranteed good wage but priceless experience!

A comment i made to Mimi Whitney

Sorry and just one last point...some of your questions ask about performers wages and how they can differ... from march i am going to be part of profit share show ( wage depends on the amount of profit made) so until the very end i wont actually know how much i will be earning. It took me a while to decide if i could actually afford to do it or not! It will offer me a great experience as well as being able to perform alongside a prestigious cast for a month...not only that, it will will be a great credit to my cv and and something that could lead on to other things! So i decided to accept it....but even though i am doing what i want to do, i still am going to be juggling a normal job as well because i have bills to pay! It will be interesting to see how others in the cast are coping...we all love to perform but at the end of the day, we all have to live as well! I thought you might find this interesting!

What is your opinion on profit shares/low paid jobs? 
http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/newsblog/2011/07/low-pay-no-pay-david-grewcock/

SQUEEZING ALL THIS IN WHILST HAVING AN ACTUAL NORMAL JOB TO GET US BY!

Any thoughts?

Task 4a

A set of questions/ideas that relate to my every day professional practice

Keeping fit and healthy both physically and mentally in an industry that is very unstable

Injury prevention being a dancer

How to deal with rejection

Preparation to ensure you are audition ready

Juggling a normal (mortal) job being a dancer/ flexible enough for auditions

So many ideas are coming in to my head....already what i love about this module is that its giving you the freedom to choose a subject/question that you are interested in and that relates to your daily life. At first i sat thinking really hard about ideas that i should be using, but then i just sat back and realised that all i needed to do was think about my daily practice and the things that occur....because then thats my life and interests and so the information is there right in front of me and gives me the tools to explore further beyond myself and question other peoples attitudes. Whether they be in the same situation as myself or completely different....all opinions and circumstance will contribute to my inquiry and thats what will make it so interesting and exciting!

At the moment a question that i am swaying towards more:

In an industry that is very unstable, where work is sometimes sparse, how is it you keep yourself fit and healthy, both physically and mentally?

Themes:

In and out of work- Very few people are lucky enough to go from job to job....so how do we cope in between the dance work (if you are lucky enough to get work at all)? Because at the end of the day we have to work to be able to live...so how do we juggle everything to make sure we can still pay our rent as well as be fit physically and mentally...because only then do we have a chance of getting that dream job!

Keeping fit and audition ready- Going the gym/taking class

Healthy eating- Good nutrition to keep strong/ sensible eating so we look are best
Motivation- Both fitness and healthy eating can help boost motivation because you feel more confident in yourself

I will keep adding more ideas as they come! Feedback would be greatly appreciated! :)