The Job Market: What To Expect

What trainees and emerging professionals need to hear this season

Here’s the truth: You never know what you are walking into when auditioning for a company. In the current arts world and economy, open positions are few and far between. Companies, if they do have a position, are often looking for someone incredibly specific (it could genuinely be a specific height or hair color to balance out their current roster). If you’re a trainee, in a conservatory bridge, or in a second company track, it can feel like trying to board a train that’s speeding up as you run beside it. It’s frustrating. It can also mess with your head. Dancers are high achievers, and it's a difficult reality to know decisions often are arbitrary.

We don't want to reinforce any kind of narrative that your worth or skill is defined by the job you are able to land. Organizations have a myriad of factors that dictate a season's roster that go far beyond how skilled or experienced an applicant may be. That doesn't take away the disappointment or difficulty, but it changes how you frame your journey in the long run.

From our perspective as professional dancers as well as second company and trainee program directors, what we encourage you to build is a skill set that will stand the test of time. Growing into a dancer that companies can trust and rely on is huge. It’s consistency, being physically reliable enough to handle the workload, have exceptional musicality and the mind to pick up and retain whatever is thrown your way. It’s your ability to be coached, and staying curious. We want you to cultivate a mature and grounded sense of artistry, and to know yourself so that you can shine as exactly who you were created to be. 

We want to encourage you, and remind you that outside factors and opinions are just that. They are entirely outside of your control. It takes a tremendous amount of work to be in the right pool of dancers to be auditioning at a professional level. Regardless of results, you can take pride in the work you have already done, and the work you continue to do daily. Falling in love with the work, not with the results, will keep your joy for your craft alive and steadily growing as long as you choose to feed it. This is a hard industry, so a good support system is imperative. Your work and your craft belongs to you and you alone. Take pride in the gifts you've been given, and continue fortifying them so whatever opportunity does come your way, you know you're ready.

- Libby Dennen, Second Company Director & Sarah Clarke, Trainee & Conservatory Program Director