DCDanceBlog

i’ve been getting email updates recently from nicole bindler, an improviser from philly. i must be on the email list she uses to publicize her performances, though we’ve only met once, a few years ago. right now she’s in japan, or was, to collaborate with a dancer there. i kind of idly read the first update last week, then got hooked. there’ve been three so far. i wish they were online somewhere so that i could link to them, but no such luck so far.

i’d like to share them b/c they’re so great! she’s in japan, encountering an almost completely alien culture and environment. i love reading her observations of japanese life and people, and imagining what it must feel like to be somewhere new and feel so stimulated by the idea of living another way.

i really like her descriptions and how honest she is about herself–including the awkwardness she feels about being new and sometimes off-balance in a bizarre-seeming country. it’s always so great when people admit their insecurities; it lets you inside them a little more.

she took classes with butoh master kazuo ohno and her description of the surreal instruction made me remember all the trippy dance classes i’ve taken. that’s partially what i fell in love with about modern dance, that sense of being totally free, totally out there, not having to adhere to specific rules about how things are done.

and i envy her simply being there, an “experimental dance artist,” traveling to a new place to expand her perspective and meet other artists with whom she can schmooze and network and talk about art.

it’s not the traveling itself that grabs me. it’s the sense i get from her of being inspired and alive. i know that feeling and i think it’s possible to find it w/o leaving home, but it takes a little more effort and life-restructuring.

i feel bad that i haven’t written here in a while. however, i’ve decided that right now it’s more important that i pour my creative energy into thinking about what i do with the rest of my time–that is, the 40 hours per week when i’m not dancing, thinking about dance, or writing creatively. i’m trying to figure out what might be a better fit for me than the arrangement i currently have.

which leads me to ask this of readers: if you are trying to be an artist or creative person of some sort, how do you make money? i talked with a dancer last night who spends at least 20 hours per week dancing in various companies (mostly for free), 15 hours making money at a desk job, and some more hours teaching dance to make up the balance.

if you are trying to make it as some kind of artist, how do you do it? what type of jobs do you have, spending how many hours at each? and do you make enough money to live on without seriously stressing?