Dance

[3ajesse]

thedancebible.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/how-hard-is-the-life-of-a-professional-dancer/

These are just a few things that a few of us have decided to go through. Many see the beauty that gets performed for many but so many don't see past the pretty "outfits" and the "tricks" that are done on stage. So many of us have gone through heartbreak from rejection and just never quite getting to where we need to be and yet we're what? 16? 17? 
I have roughly 22 classes a week. Each and hour and half. 33 hours a week I am in the studio dancing and that's not even comparable to what home schooled dancers go through or actual professional dancers. There are too many people who ask if I just run, bounce, skip around the dance studio. It's incredibly frustrating when parents ask me what I want to be when a grow up and when I say dancer and they give me this look of, 'this poor girl has no clue that dance isn't a profession.' Yes of course there are problems with dance as a profession just like an other profession but that's no reason to not go for it. The people who want to become dancers understand that problems and embrace them. The point of this is to express how much dancers work. It gets tiresome being treated like we just flail around. Many of us have devoted our lives to dance and put in our blood, sweat and tears and it shouldn't be treated lightly. Of course there are some of us at LaG who don't want to be dancers but those aren't the people who should define us.
It just felt like this needed to be noted so people can stop asking if dance is really a career choice. Any career in the arts is difficult and there are always the people who don't try but there are also always the people who do just like being a lawyer. It just shouldn't be that being a lawyer is more of a profession than dance because we work just as hard. 
Sorry that this was more of a rant than a real post about much bigger event in the world it just felt like this needed to be said. 

[3rcabuya]

I agree whole-heartedly that choosing to pursue a career in the dance field is not as glorified as pursuing a profession, per say, in the medical field or any other liberal art. I too have experienced lack of support in choosing this career, and from this personal experience I can say that it definitely influences the mentality of choosing to pursue dance. Support from family, relatives, and or guardians is an important factor that can encourage or prevent one from attempting to become a professional dancer. It is another form of rejection; however, the context of this form of rejection becomes more personal if it is coming from our own loved ones. I, like many other dancers, have worked tirelessly to build up the strength, technique, and artistry that dance acquires; however, there is a cause of identity struggle when being judged by our families and a society that does not see dance as a suitable career. Even though there will be plenty of people who try to discourage us from dancing professionally, as dancers we are taught to persist aiming to complete our ambition. We take this rejection and turn it into the motivation to show those who put us down that dance is our profession.