Life After College: Working full-time and being a Dancer.

Graduating college is an automatic acceptance into adulthood and now you can officially say you have "grown up". This newly acquired title and place in life is the ultimate dream; getting that first full-time job, being able to pay all your bills yourself, happy hours after work, and experiencing complete independence. Until, one day you realize you were having a lot more fun in college and your life evolved around yourself.

Central Park, November 2015

During college your only job is to be yourself! Those years are for you to experiment, create, work, and generally be completely selfish with anything you do, so it later on benefits you. College is where you begin to create yourself as an adult and where you decide what interests you, what you hate, what your strengths and weaknesses are. As a dancer who received her BFA in Dance, my four college years were very much structured selfishly as to build myself as an artist. My job was to see a variety of dance concerts, experience multiple dance techniques, utilize the free studio space to create whatever my hearts content, and be completely enveloped within the dance community. The culmination of these events was to grow myself as a dancer and begin to pave the way for what I was going to pursue during "life after college"; and it truly did! I have discovered my love for historical modern dance and the desire to con-temporize out-dated works and techniques. I can even give you my long-term goals, which includes what I want my thesis to be in grad school (re-create a version of Loie Fuller's La Mer) and my dream job of being a college dance professor. Unfortunately, things are not as simple as they were in college.

Nowadays, I work 9am-6pm at a private investment firm being an administrative assistant/personal assistant/office manager, I am taking a dance education course, and continuing to pursue the Duncan technique under two master teachers, but the biggest difference is now I am no longer dancing all day every day. It truly is heartbreaking because sometimes I get scared that maybe I am letting my dance career slip away, but then I remember that I now have to pay rent, amongst various other bills, and to pay those things I must work. I can no longer take dance classes for free or see dance concerts at a discounted price, all these things take extra money that I must dedicate more of my time to earning. The harsh reality of the dance world is that you cannot make money from dancing as an independent artist, you have to pay to perform. On top of performance application fees, you also need to pay for rehearsal space, not to mention production fees when you do get accepted into a festival. All of the things that you received for free in college you now have to pay for, and though we all consider ourselves artists first and foremost, we still have the responsibility to take care of ourselves.

Shannon McMullan at Gray's Papaya, November 2015

On the positive side, I am not throwing away my dance career; I am currently dancing with a Duncan company that I moved to New York to work with, a long with studying the technique under the previously mentioned teachers. I have performed three times since moving to New York and begun working on my own projects. I try to write and blog as much as I can, though it does get put on the back burner more frequently. I have a small list of festivals I want to apply to and I plan on beginning my yoga teacher certification in March. The reality of "life after college" is that you are no longer in college and are no longer a college student, which means your situation and environment changes. I am beyond grateful to be experience New York City and being able to gain this experience of living here, even though the sacrifices being made are not ideal.

The way you picture your life once you graduate is that you'll dance all the time and create so many new works without the constraints of school and the list goes on of what you imagine things to be. Life is none of those things. Yes, you now get to create without the rules your teachers give you, but you may have to go a month without rehearsing because you had to buy clothes for your new job instead. Dancing all the time is a luxury now, there will be weeks you are too exhausted and opt to go to yoga instead. You aren't going to get accepted to every festival either, or you have to bypass applying because you have to buy Christmas presents now. What I'm learning is that you just have to accept things and have to be o.k. with certain sacrifices, because everyone is on the same boat. You just have to keep reminding yourself what you're here for and to keep pushing yourself to accomplish your goals, and that is all you can do.