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I have given up teaching. I now try to create opportunities for people to learn - thankfully, most of time this includes myself.

I feel like the first rule of being and artist, and eating, is being willing to do whatever work comes your way. The second rule is: love teaching.

I don’t think you can really teach someone to be an artist. At all. You can provide enrichment experiences, which is great. But ‘arts education’ is a bit of a misnomer, I think. People who want/need to be ‘artists’ find a way, those who don’t - no amount of education will change that. People certainly enriched e.e. cummings, but it doesn’t look (thankfully) like their enrichment did too much damage.

I was recently talking with Helen Rea, who is writing a piece on education for the next issue of Bourgeon (the local dance journal I edit. Online at www.dayeight.org! - sorry for that.) We were talking about how many teachers teach for themselves, not the students. I spoke of the difficulty that as a teacher one must presume that one knows how to proceed better than the student. It’s a catch-22 there, a bit.

The ‘public’ is willing to pay us to provide enrichment experiences for them and their children much more than they are interested in providing ‘us’ with enriching experiences. I know that reads very bitter. I’m not so bitter about our capitalist system. I think it makes sense. But I do deeply agree with Daniel’s post regarding the skills other than ‘artist’ that one needs to eat as ONLY an artist. If you want to be an artist, it’s useful to develop one’s heartfelt desire to teach….

The “if you build it, it will happen” idea is a load of crap. If you want to be a creative artist (and I mean, specifically, a dancer/choreographer) you need to have great entrepreneurial skills - writing, networking, being able to position yourself, communication, marketing, etc. Look at Liz Lerman - whom I respect - but, she is AMAZING when she is working a crowd - they love her and she is really smart positioning herself with the subjects she picks, the projects she creates. I don’t think she’s being dishonest, but she knows how to make it work in ways that many of us find difficult. You have to be willing to ask again even after you’ve been told NO or turned down 100 times. And it doesn’t matter, really, how good you are. I mean, it matters some - you’ve got to be a good dancer, have good dancers working with you, have something original to present that is captivating on multiple levels. But, there are numerous artists who fit this bill and have a really hard time making. It is possible, but it is really hard…it REALLY helps if you like teaching…

but it’s interesting…a number of the comments above mention an element of faith–and so did one of the women in the ny times article about actors. sort of that “if you build it, it will happen” idea. but along with that comes a need to stay in the present, go with what comes, b/c as kelly pointed out, things might be great for a while and then suddenly dry up. it’s certainly much more of a meditative way to view life, but is also a leap into the unknown.

i’m just thinking out loud here, but need i say that i’m trying to figure out my own life? trying to figure out what i want and what’s possible. ahh, it’s all a process!

I started out w/ the National Association for the Self Employed (nase.org). Then, I went for it on my own.

As a side note, I have beef w/ health insurance & it’s treatment of pregnancy. In a nutshell, w/ most companies you must pay for a “pregnancy benefit” 10 months before you get pregnant. I was told by several doctors that I couldn’t have kids, and was on BC, so I didn’t see the need for shelling out an extra $100 per month. When I found out I was pregnant I was denied coverage. DAMN, that sucked financially!

That’s blue cross blue shield for you… I’m still in the bitter-barn about that one!

I’ve been there two years, and while the money has been nice (as has the benefits), I’m reaching the point very swiftly where I want that kind of freedom again. Yes, trying to find jobs constantly was a strain (and let’s not talk about the difficulty in having to track down the bills. Oy.)

Now, having had a two year vacation from that, I’m about ready to pick up the reins again. Unlike the body workers, I have skills in web design and video to make ends meet, but one of the biggest problems with the last attempt was that I never DID make my OWN work the focus - it kept being put aside in favor of making a living in other ways.

Not this time. I do actually believe that if you do what you love, the money will follow. You just have to keep remembering to do it…

I was hipped to this post from Doug at Great Dance. Fabulous topic, and one that I definitely identify with. I loved your bit about being creative about how to make money being creative. I think that is key for artists. Recently I’ve been finding inspiration from business books. Not that I want to be a money-grubbing capitalist, but because the entrepreneurial mind-set seems to be very creative and maverick. I recommend the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” books or Jim Collin’s “Good to Great.” If you read them through the lens of art-making it can be really eye opening.

On another tangent, I think that dancers are so poorly educated about how to deal with the real world. We get absolutely no business classes, or financial planning/strategizing, etc in our training and college careers. It’s really terrible. With just a little introduction to the basics of financial management and marketing, dancers would not be struggling so badly. This romantic notion of living in a garret and starving has got to end!

Thanks for sharing your search and good luck.

Another comment to the comments is that question of giving art the time that it deserves. The best work I have seen reflects the process – the attention that the choreographer was able to give to it – through the grantwriting process before setting foot in the studio, the building relationship process with the collaborators, and the actual creation process in the form of a residency or something – the presence and focus.

I am working as an artist, dance consultant and holding a pretty much full-time corporate company job and I go back and forth about what the best balance is. I think about holding on to the corporate job for a year or two and taking a break from “the cause.” “The cause” is emotionally draining – the arts education fundraising, the women’s rights, the environmental advocacy – whatever it is or yours is. I think this is a result of osmosis from this city!

I also think about, leaving the corporate job and solely working for myself, helping more independent artists and dance organizations be the best they can be at what they do. And, continue to dance.

Something has to give, because doing everything plus running to rehearsals all weekend is emotionally and physically draining – as we all know. I applaud all the artists out there for living a creative life. I am optimistic.. If you build it..