I wanna use this platform to show you my opinion in different things. One of them is something that still surprises me, and it’s about prejudices for dancers. We often get comments and looks that we don’t deserve. That’s why I wanna tell you all what it actually takes to be a competitive or professional dancer!
I often hear comments like “dancing for sure isn’t a sport” and “don’t you just put on some make-up, have fun and look pretty?”
People can say and think what they want, I just wanna make sure that everyone knows how much effort we put in! There are many different dancestyles, and I can mainly speak for the styles I do myself. But I’m pretty sure most dancers will agree with me despite the different styles!
First of all, you have to train like a top athlete
When I was doing all of my competitions, I was training around 30 hours a week. That’s 6 hours a day during weekdays, and then there was competitions every Saturday and some Sundays. In addition to that, I went to school, which means the days were pretty much filled up for quite a few years.
Even though you’re training all of those hours, it doesn’t help if you don’t give it a 110% every day. In other words you need to push yourself and stay motivated to be the best. You have to eat right and enough to last through your training, and make sure you get enough sleep and recovery in between everything. It’s really hard to find the time, and that’s why you have to prioritize and make dancing your main focus.
You need to be really flexible and have great balance
To be able to do all the extreme positions we use in dance, you have to be very flexible. It takes years of stretching, and the later you start the harder it is. You really have to push your limits, and make sure to maintain the flexibility in your whole body. Balance is also very important for a dancer, and you spend hours and hours working on it.
You need a honest and nice expression, and be able to use dance as an art form
Not only do you have to be 110% physically, you also have to be aware of what you do with your face and what message you want to give. The more thought and meaning behind it, the better it will be, and it should be easy to see if you’re sad, happy, angry or tired. This has been a big challenge for me, and it took me years to be able to express myself properly. It’s so easy to become this machine that does everything perfectly, but with no emotion. That’s why it’s so hard to combine the two, especially at a young age!
The way you look can be important
There are so many directions to choose from when it comes to dance. I’ve chosen a direction where looks still matter, if you like it or not. That’s the way it is, so you can either go with it or do something else. For me it’s been an easy decision, because I absolutely love the dancestyles I do. That wins, and it makes me do whatever it takes to succeed. As an example, being a “showgirl” you should be tall, have long legs and not weigh too much.
My point is, that as a skier you can put on your skidress and fully concentrate about skiing fast. You can make funny faces, drool, spit and whatever, the important thing is how fast you can ski. As a dancer you have to concentrate about dancing the best you can, in addition to think about the way you look, how you dress, your make-up, hair and so on.
Your mentality needs to be strong
I saved this for last, because I believe this is the most important thing for a dancer. You can do all of the above 200% perfect, but if your mentality is weak you can just forget about it all. The danceworld can be so tough, and if you don’t believe in and stand up for yourself you’ve already lost. What makes dance so hard, is that there is no finish line or rules or goals where you can score. Dance is so personal, and it all gets down to weather a person likes your style, the way you dance that style and if they personally like the performance. Everything is up to each person in the audience, and their opinions. That’s why it’s really scary when you’ve literally put your soul into a project and you only get criticised. That feels like criticism of yourself, your ideas and your thoughts not being good enough. Those are the moments where it would be so easy to hide behind a set of rules instead.
After you’ve done all this work, you would think getting a job would be easy. Think again, because there are probably 1000 others who wants the exact same job as you. Normally you go to an audition, but they might not even invite you. Sometimes it can be really brutal, and you’ll be sent home right away because you didn’t have the right look.
To sum up a post that turned out to be much longer than planned… (I get eager ;))
Dancers work really hard towards their goals just to be a part of a tough world where you have absolutely no guarantee for a job. When you’re lucky enough to get the job, it’s not very well paid and it’s very rare that you get any attention in media. You train like a top athlete while having 100 other things to think about, without your own team to get help and support from.
In other words, stop thinking about dance just as a hobby you do for fun, and give us the credit we so badly deserve. I’m so happy and grateful for being allowed to do what I love, but I for sure worked my ass off for years and years to make it happen!
martine camilla 