⭐️ 5 Pros & Cons of Being a Professional Bellydancer
It’s not all stars and roses…
PRE-P.S. My brand new private masterclass showing you what's working for professional bellydancers now goes live in a few days on Thursday April 25th, 2024 at 9am CT! 🚨
That’s also when we’ll be opening the doors to The ⭐️ ALL NEW⭐️ Cohesion Collective - the most comprehensive teacher training and performance development program for current and aspiring professional bellydancers.
➡️ Apply now to get your private invite to my brand new masterclass (going live for accepted applicants when enrollment opens)!
There are so many pros to doing this work of being a professional dancer but there are also some cons. So let’s get real about that. I bet some of these things I’m going to say today may surprise you.
(I give lots more details and nuance in the podcast episode which you can listen to here). ⬇️
5 Pros
of Being a Professional Bellydancer
1. You get to make your own schedule
Everyday you wake up and get to decide what you will do and in what order! This flexibility enables you to work around other priorities in your life (perhaps you are a care-taker, a parent, or have specific needs to keep your mind and body healthy). You can be a night-owl or morning person or something in-between. (Night-owls might have more night-club gigs on their schedule. Morning people might have more daytime classes or performances at markets and fairs on their schedule.) This job is completely customizable to your lifestyle, needs, and priorities!
2. You get to work with amazing people
Whether those people are your students, your creative collaborators, or event producers who have hired you, you get to nurture fun and enjoyable relationships with people you truly enjoy and are inspired by. I am grateful every day for the lasting friendships I’ve built through dance. This work brings some of the most powerful inspiring genuine people into my life. Building connections with other like-minded people if one of my favorite parts of the job.
3. Moving your body is a built-in part of your job
The incentive to remain connected to your body and keep yourself moving is high. While there ARE sit-down aspects of the job (computer work related to client communication, contract negotiation, student organization, online marketing, putting together playlists and other stationary activities like perhaps sewing costumes) you always have an excuse to take breaks from sitting and looking at a screen to go dance, workout, or stretch. This is one of my favorite aspects of being a professional dancer: the permission and encouragement to make movement part of my daily routine.
4. You get to be creative
If you are a creative person who has a lot of ideas and wants to express yourself and share, this is such an awesome way to channel those desires. A lot of us feel depressed when we are not creating and bringing our ideas to fruition. It gives us vital life energy to be dreaming and crafting new experiences. The constant newness of the job is so dynamic - things are always changing and you don’t get bored. There is always a new dance to make, a new prop to work with, a new venue to perform at, new people to create with, and new ways to experiment with moving your body and expressing yourself. Not only that, but you get to spend your time learning new skills that excite you (like adding instrumentation to your dance through finger cymbals or frame drum, or through the use of new props like veil or sword). You get to follow your interest and passions!
5. Your work has a positive impact
Whether through teaching, event production, or performance - whatever activities are part of your unique dance business - you get to see the immediate reward of making people happy and helping to inspire them. This is what is often missing from many other kinds of work: the personal fulfillment that comes from making a positive impact. There are so many different ways to do this through bellydance: whether you are bringing much needed representation to groups of people who don’t often see themselves reflected in pro dancers, or teaching your students skills that build their confidence, or creating safe spaces for people to gather and connect with their bodies and others.
Okay now…
5 Cons
of Being a Professional Bellydancer
1. You are in charge of your time
Being in total control of your day, your projects, and how you spend your time is actually a big responsibility. A lot of people are surprised to learn how challenging this freedom and flexibility can be for them. You need strategies for making the most of your open calendar, for knowing what to focus on, for staying motivated, and for not burning yourself out. It’s easy to get distracted with busy-work that doesn’t actually move the needle on your true goals. If you don’t understand yourself and what conditions and motivations you personally need, then this can be challenging. I use the “Getting Things Done” system and I share every single detail, my calendar, and templates for how I organize my days as a creative entrepreneur inside The Cohesion Collective. I also share ways to assess how you may be different than me and other ideas for ways you can work with your natural tendencies to get things done in an efficient and enjoyable way for you. We get tons of positive feedback from dancers on how much these strategies have helped them organize their time and creative projects!
2. When you work for yourself you don’t collect a regular paycheck (like you do when working for a company)
The flip side of this is that your earning potential is not capped - there are always clever ways of earning more income. If you want a raise you can go out and get one without having to appeal to your boss. Your profitability is in your hands, not someone else’s. But sometimes being responsible for generating your own income can feel like a lot of pressure. That’s why you need to have at least some of these support systems in place to ease that pressure: an emergency fund, an accurate picture of your expenses, perhaps some family support, maybe even an additional non-dance job. Whether you have those things or not, you definitely need a library of diverse and effective strategies for bringing in more revenue. We give you all that inside The Cohesion Collective - a bunch of ideas and strategies for how I and the dancers I’ve worked with over the years bring in consistent reliable income. I’ll be sharing some of those strategies in my upcoming masterclass for accepted applicants! (So apply now to get your private invite to this masterclass before it is released in a few days)
3. As a self-employed person there are no included health or retirement benefits
You have to pay for your own health insurance and retirement (depending on the country you live in). This is often the thing that holds people back from quitting their job and going 100% full time as a professional dancer. To that I say: great choice! Being a part time professional dancer DOES NOT make you any less of a serious dancer. I know plenty of kick-ass inspiring INCREDIBLY talented and dedicated dancers who have full time or part time non-dance jobs. That being said, it is possible to make working for yourself work for you if you have the right data and you know what to do with it. I use a digital-envelope-budgeting system (this goes way beyond tracking your expenses!) so that I always know how much to apportion to my savings, taxes, retirement, and medical expenses. I use accounting software to collect data that shows me which of my professional efforts are paying off and which ones are not. That way I’m able to make informed decisions about where to put my energy. You can absolutely do this too if you don’t already and I would be happy to show you exactly how I do it inside The Cohesion Collective. This “Profit First” accounting and budgeting strategy has brought so much order and peace of mind to the dancers I’ve shared it with!
4. Moving your body is a built-in part of your job
That’s right: this “pro” can also be a “con.” If you have a disability or chronic illness that makes moving your body challenging some of the time then that does affect your relationship with dance - especially if dance is the main way you earn income. However I do know many part-time and full-time professional dancers with disabilities. You are the only one who can decide what you want to do with your one precious body. Don’t ever let anyone push you beyond your limits and don’t ever let anyone else limit you. You are the ultimate authority on what it feels like to be in your body and what your body needs. In some ways, disability is unavoidable for all of us. That is the ephemeral condition of being in a body that deteriorates over time. This is one reason why all the dance techniques I teach inside The Cohesion Collective are adaptable to various levels and abilities and why we have a heavy focus on safe, sustainable movement practices. Taking care of your body for the long-haul is of utmost critical importance.
5. Breaking down a creative practice into practical pieces demystifies the art a bit
Some people do not want to know how the sausage is made, so to speak. For example, I love watching movies and I don’t have a clue about what it takes to make a great movie. I get to enjoy the movie with blissful ignorance of what techniques were used or how well they were executed. I know too much about dance to engage with it in the same way. When I watch dance I am reading the meaning, I am seeing the choices that are being made, I am taking in the context around those choices, I am imagining how that movement would feel in my own body, I am seeing what muscles are motivating the movement, I am aware of the skeletal alignment of the dancer, I am getting ideas for things I want to try in my own dance. It’s not the same experience as watching a movie for me. I personally enjoy having insider knowledge that helps me appreciate dance in a deep way. The dancers who study with me also want that insider information. They want to know the tools for making a powerful choreography full of meaning that will keep an audience engaged. They want strategies for a successful improvisation. They want to break down the technical aspects to extreme detail. They want to know the common rythms and instruments and what movements are commonly done to them. They want to know the subtle techniques professional dancers are using to handle unexpected situations in a performance, how to teach effectively, give helpful feedback, create a positive classroom environment, how to prepare themselves for a successful photoshoot. We teach ALL of that inside The Cohesion Collective. We demystify all the insider stuff, with no stone left unturned. So if you enjoy the mystery of not knowing, then you would not want to ruin that for yourself. But if you want to know the nitty gritty practical tactical methods that professional bellydancers are using to craft successful creative careers then The Cohesion Collective is definitely where you want to be.
Now go quickly fill out your application to get the link to my brand new masterclass where I'll be sharing exactly what is working for professional bellydancers in 2024!
The masterclass goes live on April 25th when we open the doors to:
The ⭐️ALL NEW⭐️ Cohesion Collective
Teacher Training and Performance Development Program for Current and Aspiring Professional Bellydancers
The Cohesion Collective is my comprehensive, customizable program where we teach you *everything* you need to grow a successful bellydance career fueled by a high level of technical skill, deep knowledge, improvisation, choreographic composition, effective teaching, and entrepreneurial know-how.
The program includes all of three Stages of the Dance Cohesion courses and Teacher Trainings, a high level of support - plus soooo much more! Check out the new page to see all The Cohesion Collective includes and while you are there fill out your application. (It only takes 2 minutes and there is no obligation to join.)
🚨 You'll want to apply ASAP to get access to the new masterclass and take advantage of the incredibly valuable bonus that is available for this enrollment period only!
I can't wait to share with you all the updates and lessons I've learned over the years helping bellydancers reach their pro goals!
🔑 YOUR ALL ACCESS PASS TO EVERYTHING I KNOW
I am teaching you *everything I know* in The ALL NEW Cohesion Collective.
It’s everything I know about making it work as a professional bellydancer (gigging, touring, teaching, producing, directing) from 20+ years experience.
With everything in The ⭐️ALL NEW⭐️ Cohesion Collective, you can build your bellydance career as simple or sophisticated as you like. These strategies are designed to grow and evolve with you, just like they have served me for my entire career.
Warmly,
April Rose 🌹
Read what dancers are saying about The Cohesion Collective...
Natalie enjoyed learning the insider details of being a professional bellydancer:
“I love how you share your experiences as a professional dancer. These lectures are so valuable.”
Become a Professional Bellydancer
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