Another year another coffee

Well in all honesty another year for myself means just another set of numbers. I do not need to focus on new plans for self improvement or plans to change my ways in life. My question to everyone....why does it always have to be 1st day of the 1st Month that we believe we need to make changes.  We can make changes for ourselves at anytime.

For many of you who do not know of me I am one of many professional dancers within the Entertainment industry here in the UK.

For over ten years now I have been part of one of the toughest and unstable professions that is present. Do not get me wrong this profession comes with many highs but it can come at some serious low points for many artistes in this working field and it can cost them.

An average member of the public "Joe Bloggs" will go and see a show such as a Musical or a Ballet for example to observe the talented dancers who are actually "Performing Athletes" and yet compared to our country's love of football those artistes are far from a footballer's salary. During a performance on a stage you would not see a member of the cast rolling around holding their face within their hands and performing "Crocodile Tears" faking an injury whereas I am always bemused to see our footballers puling such bullshit during their live games is beyond my belief. They do make some award winning Drama performance do those boys in shorts!

Artistes within this industry are always running the gauntlet as it is a world where our daily lives consists of auditions , rehearsals , performances sometimes all three in the one day.

As Dancers the drug of the physical art form is addictive and many thrive on the feel good factor of staying in shape , or being on stage and thriving on the energy of an audience or there are some who just thrive on attention in general.

My experience has seen an art form become sadly a fashion one minute it is in then the next it is out. Over the years the industry has gone through serious change. 9/11 blew the West End out of the water and we can see it is still challenged and we hold our breathes when new productions open and the big question is always...how long will this last???

Reality TV shows now have created a influx of people believing they can Dance which again these shows have discovered some incredible talents that have not trained under or been trained nor guided for a life in this profession so how are they going to mentally prepare for the rollercoaster of this profession. Yet the reality is live theatre is now dying out .

Unless something is seriously amazingly created to not just the older more mature'r generations then the new Generation of audiences I am referring to those of the 1990's generation who have grown up to experience entertainment at the touch of a button.

It is very rare to hear of my brother and his friends who are ten years my junior of them even knowing or understanding of a musical theatre production or a straight play. Nope they are the internet generation.

This phase is pushing the creative demands of choreography to really throw out all technique and move to more freestyle with acrobatics as this is creating more interest for to a modern day audience and to up and coming aspiring dancers.

However this is becoming gravely alarming as within this profession there are some incredible dancers who are trained to the highest advanced standards in Dance some like myself trained in Classical Ballet yet I hate to admit this ....but these days this no longer matters there are now more dancers out of work not because they have the strongest technique or they have a CV that fills over three pages of A4 (but you should know this but do try to keep it all on the one page otherwise Casting Directors start to just scan through and not really pay attention.) or because they are incredible artistes and beautiful looking ones at that. Its now becoming more about the latest fashionable image. I grow tired of seeing people try to attempt Ballet class wearing sneakers!!!!!!!! Or even dancing around in them with baggy pants hanging of their lower butt cheeks...to say this..."PULL THEM UP GET A GRIP AND GET YOUR SNEAKERS OFF!!!"

It is now rare to see more dancers doing ballet class these days then when you look at a freestyle / hop hop class and see these are packed with condensation covering the studios mirrors.

It use to be Dance consisted of four major categories  Ballet , Tap , Jazz , Modern. Now there is classes for even the latest craze of ZUMBA in which they say you can be qualified to teach this within a day.

Dance is not a craze its an art form however its has been allowed to be a fashionable craze like the clothing shops on the high street.

Professional Dancers are now having to push themselves to extremes where for some they are totally having to re train their styles and adapt and even forget about certain techniques or movements why????  IT IS OUT IT IS NOT IN NO LONGER.

Many dancers in shows are always pushing their physical instruments to the extremes and many have to receive Physiotherapy or use holistic therapies to rehabilitate from or aiding an injury that Dancers acquire.

Injuries include commonly , torn Hamstrings , spraining of the ankle joints , meniscus tearing within the Knee , lower back injuries , rotator cuff injuries and neck injuries.

However alot of dancers still are not healed from previous injuries why? As they can not afford the costs to do so. West End wages continue to go up and down although they seem to be more down than up. The dancers are not normally on anything over 700 GBPs a week.

This brings me back to the mentioning of the difference between footballers and Dancers....Dancers are Machines...footballers are boys who are mothered in cotton.

You learn to adapt in every situation as a Dancer every contract you take is never the same , you have to be adaptable you have to run the gauntlet of the day to day auditions , rehearsals and shows to survive but then there is no set security. BY this I am referring to the point we may be in work for a contracted period of time then after this contract is over...unless you are lucky and can do everything you may be out of work for some serious time sometimes six months of waiting tables or even one to two years standing on a shop floor. Waiting for your time again. Even though you may have been rejected from numerous auditions as every audition is different I find it depends on the day.

You can be the most stunning guy and in great shape and can dance , but if you can't sing then bye bye...or You may be an incredible singer ...but can't dance to well then bye bye, It will even come down to your height , hair I lost a job once because of my hair this was when the (Mullet was in ) some four years ago...the casting director did not like that at the time. With auditions you never know what they really are looking for.

Many dancers spend alot of their careers off stage then actually on it in their lives. Do not expect to be loaded with money  and can buy everything materialistic then be set for life. It is not the reality of it all. It is one very tough profession where by the strength of a persons Character and Talent can help them survive and ride out the ups and downs within the life of a Dancer.

Many Dancers these days will retire and even career change five years after graduating as they realise its not all Glitz and Glamour at all.

Though for some the drug keeps them going and they are top of their league but then even they may not work for long periods of time.