So you’ve been working your butt off on your latest piece of dance and now it’s time to get out there and put it on a stage!
As part of our ongoing series with AustralianSuper, helping you kick start your career, Crave is thrilled to have dance maker extraordinaire Amrita Hepi on board all this week to impart her wisdom on the dance industry and today she’s got the lowdown on how to develop, finalize and showcase your skills!
Let me preface this article with two things:
All of the points listed are merely ideas for you to explore, rather than any hard or fast guide. The stage you want to be on may be different to the one you’ve been watching (maybe it doesn’t even exist yet and you’ll get to create that platform!).
This year will see me putting my first full-length show onto the stage within a festival context and within a contemporary dance/independent realm. I am not a guru, but I am a hard worker and here I’ll share with you what I have more or less worked out!
Start with the big ideas, get bigger, then clarify and cull
I love beginnings because everything feels so full of potential!
Great first ideas are sometimes simple, or maybe they are complex, but I think regardless of where you start it’s important to think big and imagine how things can be the best they can!
In the early stages, go through all your options and know what doesn’t work. Be brave and try things that you think might not work, and then clarify your concept, such as the “phrases” you might want to further explore.
I’m never great with taking things out of my dance – and at the beginning stages of choreographing my impulse is to shove everything in – but I’ve recently learnt that letting go, leaving things out and letting it all “breathe” is effective and feels good.
Don’t let your initial ideas restrict you!
Make the work you REALLY want to make – not what you think you SHOULD make
While there is always an awareness of the audience, and a questioning of “how does this read?” and “who is this for?”, avoid tailoring your work for a festival or a specific audience.
I’m a firm believer in making what you want, being true to the message and fully exploring the idea before thinking about selling or the specifics of the stage. Don’t limit yourself to fit a mold.
Identify WHAT stage you want
When I first started going to see dance theatre I had no idea how people went about getting a work up. Same for commercial events such as industry or carnival, company works, works in galleries, works that were in cultural festivals.
But I could see vaguely where I wanted to put my work as the ultimate end goal and then looked at mid-emerging career artists for guidance – and when I say I looked at them – I went and supported their shows, took their class, found out where they studied and what they had written.
These were the people that were making work that I was interested in, the companies that I thought were engaging. Dance is so broad and the great thing is there is not just one stage – there are so many that exist. Whether that’s a stage alongside an artist/singer/actor or whether it’s creating full-length works of minimalist/maximalist contemporary dance, see, support and participate in dance on stages of all levels and sizes. Identify your stage and do the research. Which brings me to my next point…
GO AND SEE ALL THE DANCE ON ALL THE STAGES – as much as you can
This one needs its own point as it’s the most important message I can share with you.
You’ll be surprised what you can find!
Apply for everything
Everything! Every performance opportunity, development, secondment and anything else you can get your hands on! I know it takes time, but if this is your career, make the time.
What’s the worst that could happen? You don’t get it sure, BUT you have taken the time to work on your CV and make a great application. Or you do get it and you have to make something and perform it – great!
Or perhaps you realize it’s not for you – great again! Or you have the time of your life and realize that after doing a residency in the Canadian Rocky Mountains that you’re going to collaborate with a Himalayan throat yodeler – super great! Every application can lead to endless opportunities.
Take risks, collaborate, learn when to let go and when to be in control
I feel like this advice is the stuff you always see in millennial advice listicles so I’m gonna try and break it down! I always thought after watching endless dance movies that being in a studio by myself practicing was really professional and the ideal (cue: Save The Last Dance, Centre Stage, White Knight… which, P.S. can I add are all very white heteronormative ideas around being a professional dancer).
More often than not though, even if you are working on a solo piece you will need to work collaboratively with the musicians that are soundtracking it as well as the lighting designer producer and other players.
Know there is no shame in asking for help and letting go of the control a little. Whatever you want to make or where ever you want to perform, take the risk and be brave enough to know that it’s possible to voice it to others, to have conversations and start creating and showing people.
Show people who you trust and ask for their advice (again you don’t always have to take their advice) and don’t over explain or apologise, or say “this is dumb”, just know it could, and can, get better. It may actually be closer to being “perfect” than you think!
Watch: A tutting tutorial at FBi Radio with Libby Montilla and Amrita Hepi
Amrita Hepi is a Sydney based dance maker. Find out more about her and her work here.
If you’re just starting out in your career, a few right moves early on can help set you up for life. For more stories in our AustralianSuper KickStart series head here, or go to AustralianSuper.
This article has been sponsored by AustralianSuper Pty Ltd ABN 94 006 457 987, AFSL 233788. The views and opinions expressed in any article accessed through Crave are those of the author or Crave and not the responsibility of AustralianSuper. For more information, please visit australiansuper.com
