What IS your profession?

Something that really interested me in the lecture we had was simply the question of ‘What is your profession’ or what it means.  We got into pairs and asked each other these questions – something which in theory should have been very easy.  Here are a few basic things we shared with each other.

Myself

Actress Dancer Singer

Various part-time jobs – Teaching/ receptionist /Retail

Graduated from Millennium Performing Arts

Want to gain academic knowledge/credibility from this course

Nicole

Trained at London Studio Centre

Works at a bar/ Training to be a dance teacher and learning to teach syllabus

Trained at Arts Ed performing Arts school from the age of 11 which she found was too young.

Verity

Trained at Italia Conti from the age of 13, moved from Birminghm to  London

Teaches Dance at Stage Coach school

Went to college predominately as a dancer/changed to Musical Theatre

Studying – something to fall back on.

It was humbling to find that we all came from similar backgrounds and though we are completely different individuals our paths/choices all seemed to correlate in some way.  We spoke about how we all work ‘in between’ jobs to sustain ourselves and how we felt we are often acting/committing to  different roles each day eg one day I’m a receptionist, one day I’m a waitress, then a Bar Maid etc (something a lot of people in ‘normal jobs’ would not find easy to do) and we somehow learn how to multi role so well!  I believe our drive and determination to do what we love is what allows us to do this.

 

What do YOU do?

Through further analysis another issue we touched on was being able to explain what we do as a profession  to our best ability.

We spoke about how often when people ask us what we do we shy away from the question maybe due to feeling we may be judged, feeling our job is insignificant compared to what they do..or simply not being able to fine tune what it is that we do into a clear and concise manner.

How we over came this

We spoke in a group about our aspirations as Actress , Dancer, Playwright etc

We listed our jobs that we do to sustain ourselves.. Receptionist, teacher, retail worker

We spoke of general life  goals and achievements we have in mind.

I found the key is being able to speak about the skills you have positively.

If  you speak confidently (without arrogance) positively and charismatically about what you do these feelings will radiate through to the people you are talking to who in turn will be able to appreciate the sense of pride and certainty that you have for your chosen profession.

When networking it is very important to be able to be able to talk about yourself and leave the other person feeling good after speaking with you. The Performing  Arts  circle is a small one so Its important to make a good impression at all times!!  The profession is also hard due to lack of jobs, government arts cuts etc (we all know how painful this is!!)But when we are networking don’t want any of this resonating and bringing us down and making us sound dreary and dry!

When asked  What do you do ?I can now reply:

I’m a Performing Artist, I graduated from Millenium Performing Arts 2yrs ago. Since then I’ve been involved in various Commercial Dance work , I’ve also filmed various adverts and most recently I  was in a Play for 3 months in central London. I aspire to be An extremely successful Actress so I am auditioning whilst I work part time for Virgin Active where in administration and also I teach Zumba classes. I have a passion for teaching which I also get to exercise at ‘ The Funky Chick Academy’ where I teach Acting Singing and Street dance to kids AGE 3 – 16.  I am currently studying for a degree in performance practise at Mdx University. This is aiding my growth as an all round forward thinking artist.  Achieving a The BA honours degree is important to me in terms of creating future opportunities that may be open to me when becoming a graduate. I’m hoping for a big break soon but whilst I search and wait I have plenty of things to keep me focused through which are challenging me everyday

So obviously I would make this conversational and not just one big rehearsed paragraph!!! But the point I’m trying to make is that I would once hesitate when asked this question thinking I didn’t have anything creditable to say..it turns out I have lots!!! J

Planning Ahead!!!

Hi Guys I’ve been  feeling a little stressed at this past month so thought I would blog about it as  I  feel my worries and anxietys are issue that many of you will be able to relate to in some way...

I have recently finished a long acting contract so I was in the transitional period of changing jobs/getting work. As normal, as my contract neared an end I tried to secure as much part-time work as possible for once my Job contract had ended..However I was unsuccessful in securing anything. Since then I have been working a few odd promotional jobs and a few commercials, tv extra work  and commercial dance jobs but as we all know we don’t receive payment for such jobs for up to 3 months+ after the job!! I can honestly say these last couple of months have been the hardest months I have had to experience since devoting my life to my profession. Lack of funds has affected me in so many ways –professionally – not having the money to travel to performance Jobs I   was offered, not being able to do dance class or acting or singing lessons to perfect my craft, socially- not being able to engage in social activities like dinner, drinks with friends..:( All of these issues combined put a great strain on me mentally wish eventually affected me physically as well

I am a very pro active individual, always busy and focused. During my time of struggle I have been unable to focus on important things in my life as much as I should e.g this course..contacting agents..building my profile as a performer. I have been feeling very low and I’ve found this affected my motivation in ways that I could never have imagined. After great resistance concluded my only option was to go on the doll (receiving job seekers allowance) I never thought I would be in such a position, but I figured the government have created the scheme for people like me so as a tax payer I am entitled to seek help in times of need. I then learned that I would have been in a much greater position had I applied for this assistance much earlier. I also applied for support from my local council to pay my rent as I was payments behind with no income. They were very supportive

I had my first appointment two weeks ago and received a payment of which was very minimal but helped all the same.  I explained to my tutor how I have been looking for work relentlessly and have been unsuccessful and this is of course an extremely common issue in these times of our countrys financial predicament. Luckily last week I attended an interview at Virgin Active gym and was successful in securing the job (finally!!)I was extremely happy as this means regular income allowing me to clear accumulated debts, pay rent and also I get free gym membership (major bonus for me) :D

The main thing I have gained from this experience is the importance of budgeting and being way ahead of the game. I assumed that  with all my qualifications and experience getting a part time job would be so easy but I was so wrong. In our profession in particular we have to be extremely organised as the inconsistency of work can lead to big problems if we do not prepare efficiently. I just wanted to make sure people were aware of the services the government can aid us with if you are ever in financial trouble. As an actress dancer, I did not know I was entitled to this if I had known I would have applied as soon as I began looking for work and saved myself so much stress! I have now removed myself from the benefits scheme but it is important for people to know what is accessible to them in desperate times, I was so unaware so I hope this helps some of you!

 I am very happy in my new job and can now focus on my course and my career. I look forward to securing my next acting/dance contract in the near future and insuring I never get into such a position again !!

Working Professionally vs Working Academically

HELLO EVERYONE!

You may well have noticed that I have only recently added a blog and that this is one of my first posts...Since September I've been working professsionally on tour in Germany and then onto another project (in a play which opens this week) Starting this course is something that Ive always been enthusiastic about..however I found myself at the point where I wondered whether carrying on with it would be possible. I have found the balance of professional work and academic work exremley hard to master. I decided to blogg this as prioritising work and personal life is something that all performers or people in the industry will have to face at some point, there are ways over overcoming this and  it has taken me 3 months to realise this. After leaving my job on tour I got a job in a show with a 7 week rehearsal period (10 am - 7pm Monday to Friday). These were long strenuous dance rehearsals and after waking up two hours early to travel from South to East London and arriving home at about 9pm I would be exhausted when returning home. By the time I had showered, had dinner, written up all my notes for the day and packed my things for the next day it was 11pm and time to sleep o wake at 7am. I also work on the weekends as a make up artis in Harrods, I used to work more hours but had to stop because of rehearsals and working weekends is the only way of keeping my job which gives me a good/essential bit of pocket money! Before I knew it I had done 3 weeks of this routine without doing any Uni work. I find that being bound to a long contract in this industry does not facilitate other work, that may be just as important. The job comes first and literally takes over your life and this is the way that it will always be. The only way to get around this is by realising that there will never be enough hours in a day and that sometimes you will have to face work through to the middle of the night and only get 5 hours sleep, because your future and academic qualifications are something that you will gain and which will remain constant,  whereas a contract  in a West End musical will come and go .

As I've entered my week of tech rehearsing things became worse. Rehearsals are now 10am - 10pm with no extra pay. 12 hours of working which gave me even less time to do any uni work. I felt as a cast we were definatley all being over worked so I rang my agent and asked for some advice. My agent advised me that legally the company I am working for are not within their rights in asking us to work 12 hours a aday all week. By asking my agent and reviewing Equity guidelines I was able to lower the rehearsal time on a few days after having a meeting with the full cast and director. This higlighted the sheer  importance of knowing your rights as a performer, we are taken advantage of so easily as we love our craft so much, but we have to make a stand when things are not right, without having to worry about jeoopardising your relationship with someone who may be influential in your career in the future. If we all continue to do this we will find that people will find it harder to take advantage of our position as  performers.

My show opens at the end of the week for a month and a half. Therefore I will be performing every evening with my day times free. I have decided NOT to take on any extra jobs during the day or Sundays (my only day off) so I will have my daytimes free to complete all outstanding work  and also complete the upcoming work too so I do not fall behind. Financially this will be difficult for me as my outgoings will not correlate with my incomings..however I will have to comprimise this. I aim to make myself a strict budget for the month which will cause various little changes in my social life  shopping, eating out , how much i use my phone etc. It will be very hard but I will have to remember that this is just a temporary thing. I always found timetableing very childish as Im an extremley organised person and felt  like I can handle things without having to use a mode of organisation that i used when i was 17 doing my alevels! I have learned that there is nothing childish a bout physically writing up a plan with an allocated  time frame  where you can tick off things once youve completed them, the visual aid axtually  really helps.

So to round this up, once I get myself up to date and back on track PLAN myself a schedule, be clear about my PRIORITIES- then  i will be able to balance professional practise and the academic work a lot easier with less stress and just accept this as a way I will need to work in this industry whilst simultaneously  moving forwarded in my academic study.