Unconventional Choices I Made as a Pre-Pro Dance Student (That Still Led Me to a Pro Ballet Career)
So many young dancers I talk to believe there is a very linear path they have to take to become a professional dancer.
There’s a belief that you absolutely must start dancing really young, you have to move away from home to train, and you must win all the competitions if you want to succeed.
We have all these ideas of what it's supposed to look like.
But one of the main messages I hope to share with dancers through The Brainy Ballerina is that there are truly infinite ways to pursue a ballet career (or a dance career in general!).
And when you get too stuck in the “shoulds” (what you think you should be doing or what it's supposed to look like), you can miss out on so many other opportunities. Not just in your dance career, but in your life!
My path to a professional ballet career wasn't exactly conventional and looking back, I’m really grateful I followed my own road less traveled.
The choices I made along the way allowed me to stay in love with ballet instead of burning out early. I didn't want to burn so bright and fast that I burned out. I wanted to be able to maintain my career and still be passionate about dance.
So today, I want to share some of the choices I made as a pre-professional dancer that may have been seen as unconventional, but still led me to the professional ballet career I dreamed of.
Dancing with Michigan Ballet Theatre
1. I Stayed at My Home Studio Through High School
One of the first unconventional choices I made as a young dancer was to stay at my home studio all the way through high school.
When I was about 15, I was offered the opportunity to leave home and study at a prestigious year-round, company-affiliated program.
My teacher was really encouraging me to go and I knew it could be a life-changing opportunity, but I just didn't feel ready to leave my family.
And honestly, I was so lucky to have incredible training at my local studio. I didn't feel like I absolutely had to leave home because I knew that I was still going to be getting great training and great opportunities right where I was.
But more than anything, I wanted to be a regular kid.
I wanted to go to driver's ed and get my driver's license. I wanted to go to homecoming and prom. I wanted to do all the regular kid things that my peers were doing.
And of course I do think about the sliding doors and what path my life might have taken had I chosen to move away.
But for me, the memories and time spent with my family were worth the tradeoff.
Working at Abercrombie
2. I Didn't Go to a Summer Intensive My Junior or Senior Year
The next unconventional choice I made was not go to a summer intensive my junior or senior year.
This is definitely not the norm for a pre-pro ballet dancer - the final years of high school are a major time to start being seen by companies and making connections.
But again, I just wanted to experience a summer as a regular kid. And at this point, I was starting to feel some burnout in my dancing. Between school and dancing and all the demands that come with being a really high-level pre-pro dance student, I needed a break.
My parents made a deal with me: if I wasn't going to go to a summer intensive, I had to get a job. So I picked up some hours working retail at Abercrombie, babysitting, and working for my neighbor's landscaping business.
This was kind of a theme throughout my childhood: this pull between wanting to pursue ballet at a high level and seeing what it took, while also never wanting to fully sacrifice my childhood and life outside of dance.
I hear from so many dancers on The Brainy Ballerina Podcast who talk about the importance of having a life outside of dance and how they learned that later in their careers.
Somehow that was one thing I always knew. I knew I wanted to pursue ballet at a high level. I was super committed and worked very, very hard, but I wasn't willing to give everything up for it.
Performing Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty with Michigan Ballet Theatre
3. I Scaled Back My Dance Training During Senior Year
I also scaled way back on my dance classes during my senior year.
I was always the student who went above and beyond, taking every class and every style of dance possible. On top of all my ballet classes, I was taking jazz and lyrical, was on the competition team, and was a member of my school's pre-professional ballet company, Michigan Ballet Theatre.
I was doing everything that was available to me and by senior year, I was so burnt out I needed a break.
(At one point during my junior year, I was out of school for an entire month with mono. I couldn't even set foot in my school because my doctors were so worried about my health, let alone dance class.)
So senior year, I scaled back to my required ballet classes and one jazz class. I let myself just take a breath and do what I needed to do to maintain, but I didn't keep pushing above and beyond.
The most surprising thing I found was that I was actually dancing better. Cutting back allowed my body the time I needed to rest and I became a stronger, smarter dancer because of it.
Performing the soloist role in La Source (the only Balanchine ballet I’ve danced)
4. I Went to College for Dance
Going to college for dance might not sound unconventional today, but when I was graduating high school in 2006, it was a less traditional choice for someone who wanted to become a professional ballet dancer.
Again, my teacher was encouraging me to audition for companies. But at that point, I still wasn't even sure if I wanted to keep dancing professionally.
So instead of putting all my eggs in that basket I decided to attend college for dance.
I've always loved learning of any kind, and I loved being on a college campus. I really just felt called to be there. Plus, I loved getting to have dance as most of my school instead of having to go to high school all day, dance at night, grind away at homework until the wee hours at the night, sleep for a few hours and do it all over again.
College gave me the ability to keep doors open - I was still on the training path to pursue a professional ballet career, but if I changed my mind and decided I wanted to pursue something else I had options available.
Performing with the GVSU Laker Dance Team
5. I Joined My College Dance Team
The last unconventional thing I did was join my college dance team.
When I got to college, I had friends in the Dance Department who were also on the Grand Valley Laker Dance Team, and they encouraged me to audition.
It was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but it pushed me to try new styles of dance and learn how to be adaptable to performing in less than ideal circumstances.
We performed at football and basketball games, which meant we had to dance in some crazy weather. I remember one particularly frigid day in December performing on the grass in snow when the football team made it to finals.
At this point, I was still really focused on being in a classical ballet company. But I had gathered all these skills over the years, and I felt much more confident that I was going to be able to pursue a dance career in some capacity, even if the ballet world didn't work out for me.
Final Thoughts
All of this is not to say that you should follow my path and do everything I did exactly.
What I hope you take away from this is permission to do what works for you.
A ballet career is never going to be linear. And if I had stayed on the path I was “supposed” to take, I probably would have ended up walking away from dance much sooner because it just wasn't right for me.
I needed to find a career that allowed me to have a life and interests outside of ballet while still working my butt off in the studio and performing at a high level.
Stay open to possibilities and things that you didn't think were possible for you. You don't have to figure it all out now. I certainly didn't know what was going to come. I just took each decision in front of me and made that decision.
Beware of getting so closed off that you shut out every other thing in the world, because there are some amazing opportunities that you might not even know about yet.
Everyone's career looks different but I truly believe there's a place for you. And if you stay true to yourself, you will set yourself up for success in the way that is right for you.
Meet the Author
Caitlin Sloan is a Dance Educator and Career Mentor based in Madison, WI.
Caitlin received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Grand Valley State University and Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Missouri.
She danced professionally for nine years with companies including Ballet Tucson and Missouri Contemporary Ballet (now Mareck Dance). Caitlin has taught at schools all over the Midwest, most notably serving as Director of The School of Missouri Contemporary Ballet and Youth Company Director for Central Indiana Dance Ensemble. She is currently on faculty at the School of Madison Ballet.
Caitlin founded The Brainy Ballerina® in 2019, a virtual resource providing support and guidance for aspiring ballet dancers. Follow @thebrainyballerina on Instagram for your daily dose of dance career guidance and inspiration.
