Career Development Plan - The Steps to A Professional Dancer

by Kacy Coyle
(Washington)

Career Development Plan - The Steps to A Professional Dancer

Dear Odette,
I am so thankful to have you as a resource to answer all my questions! By the way, I am 14 years old. Anyway, I recently attended a leadership seminar for school and we mapped out where we want to be in 10 years, my answer was dancing at a professional ballet company. We then mapped out logical steps with our table group to reach that goal, but sadly I was the only dancer and no one was of much help, i managed the following on my own though:
1.) Tell my dance teacher that aspire to be a professional ballet dancer and ask for her opinion, advice, etc.
2.) Audition for summer intensives, and make it (I did audition for one this past year, PNB, but sadly did not make it)!
3.) Increase amount of classes to maximum. Right now I take 4.5hrs. of ballet technique, 1hr. of pointe, and 1hr. of jazz.
4.) If this becomes not enough transfer to a ballet school that offers more.
Are these good steps? Also, how do I tell my teacher that I would like to pursue a professional career? And should I lighten my load at school, being on the cross country team, class secretary, community service club president, while maintaining a 4.0 GPA, though I don't have much of a social life, ha ha ha. This will be a lot of help, thank you for your time!

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Reply by Odette
To:- Career Development Plan - The Steps to A Professional Dancer

Hello Kacy,
Thank YOU for contacting me, it is great to help you and I am always here to give you any guidance you need.

It sounds a great idea what you were doing at your school and mapping out a plan for the future, because especially if you want to become a professional ballet dancer you really do need to know what it takes. It is a very tough process full of hard work and commitment, yet it can really all be worth it if this is what you really want to do.

You can already have an advantage now by getting an insight into a ballet dancer's life throughout my whole website. I am always happy to help!

Your steps are excellent and all definitely along the right lines. You can look at my personal development plan for more detailed steps, but I would say a ballet dancer's training is one of the most important parts of the profession. Especially if you have the potential to become a dancer, you need a good teacher to sculpt you into the dancer you are capable to become.

You should definitely have a chat with your teacher and don't feel too nervous about this, because she is there to help and guide you too. You can just be honest with her and say you are thinking about the possibility of becoming a professional dancer and need her opinion. You can tell her you would like to take ballet more seriously in order to reach a professional level and ask her what would be best to do regarding your training. She is the person who knows you best as a dancer right now and has an understanding to your circumstances, so really listen to what she has to say.

I wouldn't eliminate all your other hobbies at school, because it is good to have other interests and definitely keep on top of all your school work. However, if you do want to take ballet more seriously you will have to commit to more classes which could mean stopping some of your other activities. Keep up any other fitness hobbies you do though, because this will be good for your stamina in ballet class.

I hope I have given you another insight to your career development plan and helped you become one step clearer in your goals!

The first step you need to do is discuss with your teacher and family to get an idea to whether they are willing to support you.

Keep in touch and let me know how you progress.

Best wishes,
Odette

ps. To become the best dancer you can be, learn the Seven Secrets ..... go to my 'Seven Secrets of Ballet' page