Ar... Have I told you that it is hard to have a dance career? Well dance career is a very broad term, it can be a performance dancer, a competition dancer, a dance choreographer, a dance instructor, a dance studio manager (oh yes, to be a dance studio manager does not mean you have to dance well, nor you yourself need to be a dancer, nor you get to know dances, but if you do love dancing it will be much a grateful job). Among these I was following the path of being a dance instructor, the freelance one.
I do have other income sources, it is not because I do not want to fully devote to the industry of dancing, it is only because I cannot survive if I solely depend on dancing. It now provides decent income but things can be changed overnight. Try imagining this, I had a class sizing 25 in one month, then the next month same time same venue but the enrolling number could drop to just 7, then slowly climbed back up to 17 or so; I also had a small technique class with 7 students coming consistently for over a year, but then suddenly 4 of them dropped out without notice, I had to struggle for more than three months to regain the number back to four, then five, and lingered for a year. And I myself as a single mom and have a mortgage to pay, having roller coaster highs and lows had been very stressful.
Of course there are core students keep staying and they even become tutors and help expanding the group, however, just not to be overjoyed and ignore the quality of the dancing and the dance teaching because these are part of the reasons people get to learn from you. Undeniably, people have thousands more reasons not to come, especially for those who have kids, who are pregnant, who have busy work, who have just been promoted to a GM at work, who are freshly married, who are ... Oh in short, people are rightfully not to pay you for dancing, what a dance teacher should do, in the prime time, is to stay humble, stay calm, and keep improving. Only this way will the lows of life not able to make harm.
Through years I have learned that not to care about the income too much (but surely I love money, who doesn't?), the point is if you need to make dancing an income, you lose the passion. Well, on the other hand, you don't need to get too upset with the lows. Perseverance will do you good and the quality of you will finally prove what you deserve.
You may also like to read about 'Promoting your own dance studio'
part 1- gauging ideas
part 2- social media is cool but ...
part 3- the insights
part 4- the (non) working tricks
part 5- when you can finally claim yourself a dance teacher
part 6- never get too high with the highs
part 5- when you can finally claim yourself a dance teacher
part 6- never get too high with the highs
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