Is the reccession really over?!*

*And 5 other questions DDD would love to hear your thoughts on
By Meghan Bowden

So according to the National Bureau of Economic Research* the recent recession that changed so many of our lives in the artistic world and beyond officially ended in June, 2009.
Huh? Really?
What struck me about this little-known economic fact is that no matter how well the economy is doing, whether you’re an artist or a biologist, finding a healthy balance between one’s life work and driving passions is always a precarious endeavor. Last week we heard from David Dorfman Dance’s Renuka Hines about how teaching infuses her dancing with humility and inspiration.
This week we’ll hear from Raja Feather Kelly, dancing fiend, about his balancing act as a performing artist with multiple dance companies. But first, what do you have to say on the subject?

1. How do you pay the bills, AND allow passion to thrive in your life?
2. What was your first job?
3. What’s a lesson you’ve learned from the job you have now or one from the past?
4. When was the last time you got funky?
5. Any work/passion advice to share?

Leave a comment here or on the wall. Answer as many questions as you like. We want to know what everybody else out there is up to. When you’re done, read below to see what Raja has to say about bills, jobs, work and more.

Raja, what’s your job title outside of DDD?
Company Manager for zoe | juniper
Dancer for Race Dance, Kyle Abraham/Abraham.in.Motion, zoe | juniper, Christopher Williams Dance  

What was the first job you had after college?
Company Member with Lisa Race (2 hrs after Graduation)
Performing Apprentice with David Dorfman Dance (4 days after Graduation)
Company Member Colleen Thomas Dance (2 Months After )
Company Member Isadora Dance ( 2 months After)
Company Manager - Ellen Cornfield ( 4 Months after Graduation)
Company Manager - RaceDance (4 months after Graduation)
Host- Sarabeth's Restaurant ( 5 months after graduation)

What was the highest paying job you’ve had?
Company Managing

What are 3 most important lessons you learned from the bill-paying jobs you’ve had?
Bills will always be there; find something you enjoy.
A job is just a job. It's there to support what you want to do.
You can make it work.            
  
What are you doing now? How does it supports you as a dancer with David Dorfman Dance?
I work around my dancing, if it doesn't fit, i don't do it.

What’s your advice to dancers out there in finding the right job to pay the bills and support their dancing?
Work around your dancing, don't dance around your work.

RAJA FEATHER KELLY originally from Fort Hood, Texas, is an honors graduate from Connecticut College. Having received his BA in Dance and English. He is currently a company member of David Dorfman Dance, RaceDance led by Lisa Race, Kyle Abraham’s Abraham.in.Motion in NYC, Zoe Scofield|Juniper Shuey in Seattle, WA and Christopher Williams Dance. Raja has also performed with Colleen Thomas and Dancers, IsadoraNOW, Sue Healy Dance company in Sydney Australia and Dairakudikan from Tokyo Japan. His own choreography with thefeath3rtheory had its premiere in October 2010 at DNA in NYC. Raja is also very excited to have been selected as a DanceWEB scholarship recipient for the 2009 Impulstanz Dance Festival in Vienna, Austria.

* Check out this review of the recession report in the New Yorker.
It’s an amusing commentary on the “irrationality” of such reporting and its usefulness to the everyday citizen.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2010/09/is-the-recession-really-over.html#ixzz1PBogN36U

David Dorfman Dancers throw down! ...and pay the bills

By Meghan Bowden

If you’re an artist of any kind you will have a “bill-paying” job to supplement the income you receive from your art (and often BE the primary source of income to support your art-making). Finding the right one can feel like a job on its own, but once you’ve found it, the bill-paying gig can be just as rewarding as time in the studio or on stage. It can provide an excellent outlet for other creative interests, build marketable skills applicable across the job market AND support the demanding physical work of dancing professionally.
Here are few facts about earning potential for artists, specifically dancers, compiled by the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Median hourly wages of dancers were $12.22 in May 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $8.03 and $18.82. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $7.28, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $27.26. Annual wage data for dancers were not available, because the wide variation in the number of hours worked by dancers and the short-term nature of many jobs—which may last for 1 day or 1 week—make it rare for dancers to have guaranteed employment that exceeds a few months.”
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos094.htm#earnings

$12.22 per hour is approximately $25,000 per year (before taxes), and that’s working 40 hours per week for 52 weeks, which is unfathomable in the dance world (and down right unhealthy!). The reality is dancers work around 20 hours per week, for less than 21 weeks out of the year, which is closer to approximately $5,000 per year (before taxes!).

So what’s a dancer to do?
Keep it MOVIN!  Try one of the following professions of a David Dorfman dancer: Teach. Write. Choreograph. Judge. Draw. Manage. Study. Model. Dance. Train. OR, check back here each week to learn more about the life of a David Dorfman Company Member.

This week features the fiery and fabulous, Renuka Hines. Renuka joined the company in 2008. Here’s what she had to say about paying the bills and making dances happen.

Renuka, what’s your job title outside of DDD?
Dance Teacher

What was the first job you had after college?
 Dancing for David and as a Nanny for a 3.5 year old child.

What was the highest paying job you’ve had?
Being a Nanny.

What are 3 most important lessons you learned from the bill-paying jobs you’ve had?
It's all about balance--paying the bills is important because finding a consistent source of money allows me to dance more. I'm not exhausted from piecing together odd jobs to pay my rent.

It's impossible to be everywhere at once, and there will be times when the demands of all of my jobs don't align.  I find that when I try to be in the moment wherever I am (and not worry about where I am NOT), I feel like I truly give my whole self to each job. We really don't spend all of our time dancing, so the jobs we do outside of dance need to be fulfilling in some way also.  Ideally, a bill-paying job can also be creative and energetic fuel for the art that we make.

What are you up to now? How does it support you as a dancer with David Dorfman Dance?
I currently teach 14 classes a week in NYC to dance students ranging in age from 2-10. My students' energy, creativity, and vulnerability constantly amaze and humble me, and in teaching them I remember to apply those same things to my work with David and the company.

What’s your advice to dancers out there in finding the right job to pay the bills and support their dancing?  
Don't sacrifice one thing for another.  Dancing is what we do because we love it; it is the thing we are most passionate about, and many people don’t have the opportunity to do the things they are most passionate about.  That being said, finding a job that supports your work and life as a dancer is also important.  Being a dancer is hopefully a long career- one which is sustainable because you balance your passion for dance with the reality of being able to live securely.

   Renuka hails from Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from Columbia University in 2008 where she received the Louis Sudler Prize for the Arts and was also a finalist for the ACDFA/Dance Magazine award for Best Performer.  Renuka joined David Dorfman Dance in 2008.  She is also currently performing with Nicholas Leichter Dance and has worked on projects with Tze Chun, Colleen Thomas, and Bill T. Jones.  In addition to dancing and performing, Renuka is happy to be teaching young dance students at schools and studios around NYC.  Renuka is constantly humbled by the incredible support of her family and friends and would like to thank them for believing in her as much as they do.

Stand...

By Meghan Bowden

That’s my Step!  A History of Funk in 550 characters
(that’s 5 tweets for you twitterbugs out there)

James Brown, Black and Proud, introduces the musical groove.

Sly and the Family Stone (integrated by race and gender) slap the electric bass guitar, extending the funky groove. Their joyful sound and socially conscious lyrics catalyze funk to mainstream success.

George Clinton and the Parliament’s innovative style clearly define and propel funk to its commercial peak.

Prince redefines contemporary funk by mixing diverse instrumentation and musical styles.

David Dorfman Dance performs Prophets of Funk, featuring a groundbreaking collaboration with The Family Stone at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, funkifying New York City on 8/11/11.

A Dancer Prepares

By Meghan Bowden

It’s a little over an hour before the show. Dinner was good. Tech and dress rehearsals went well. My Afro is well-picked. There’s only one question that keeps coming up:

What in the hell should I do to warm-up?

Everyone has their own pre-performance rituals. The David Dorfman dancers have chosen over the years to forgo a company class, instead opting for an hour of reserved stage or studio time to warm themselves up however they see fit. The choices vary within the ranks from: giving oneself a full ballet class complete with barre, center and across the floor exercises to moving through pure calisthenics including jumping jacks, pushups and jump squats. Whatever the case, I’ve found the most success with the following formula/highly open guidelines.

1. GET YOUR MIND RIGHT: Get inspired, mentally and physically. It’s time for plenty of positive self talk, deep breathing, mental reviewing and Michael Jackson (ok so the song choices are definitely open, but having a playlist to pump you up can sometimes do more wonders to a performance than any amount of tendues, leg swings or crunches ever will). I figure, if it worked for Michael Phelps, it can work for me.

2.  OSCILLATE THE JOINTS: Get some initial juices flowing. Not necessarily heavy stretching. Modern dancers tend to roll around on the floor at the beginning of the warm-up. They could be doing one of two things: a) looking for loose change or b) allowing breath, gravity and some light muscle activation to work its awakening magic.

3. CONNECT TO YOUR CORE: Get the abs and your ass moving. Generate some heat by moving vigorously enough so that plenty of oxygen is pumping into your muscles.  Improvise, follow a short set of exercises, review your favorite combination, anything really; just get moving. Worry less about form and instead pause often to do some core work. I particularly love the running plank. Push up position with body aligned as if planking and running the legs. Seems to get everything tight and right every time.

4. REVIEW. Now is NOT the time to rehearse the show. You’ve done that. You’ve got it. Check! Now IS the time to rehearse the moments (and I do mean moments) that you might have blanked out during recent rehearsals or just plain screwed up. Don’t overdo it. Get the right mental and physical neurons firing by rehearsing these sections a couple times and move on. I like to buddy up during this part of my warm-up. The team spirit helps to get connected to the group.

5. STRETCH: Now that you’re nice and juicy, stretch a bit more. Again, don’t overdo it. Overstretching before a performance can lead to injury. You want the muscles ready to fire, not worn out and ready to sleep.

That’s it! Five easy steps to prep so you can soar on stage…kick ball change with fierceness…or shake your thang to a funky beat!

*Post warm-up, post make-up, pre-show follow-up: Breathe and look into the eyes of your cast mates before you go onstage. Whatever happens, you’re in this together (aka you go down, you got folks to take down with you!)

Merde and have a great show!

Eco-Friendly Fitness & Wellness Center Opened by DDD Company Member Whitney!

Whitney is the proud co-founder of the recently opened eco-friendly fitness and wellness center, Studio 26!

Check out their website at www.studio26nyc.com or better yet walk in and see her at 250 W 26th St, 4th Floor between 7th & 8th Aves.

You can sign up with Whitney for a private Pilates session, or take her class with a small group Sat-Thurs!