Attempting to navigate your career during “COVID” should be worth all the RPL Credit possible!

Christina here, starting Module 2. for my first blog post of the semester, I thought I would do a de-brief of where I am with my professional practice.   During Module 1 I was working in the Ballet Company of the State Opera Nova in Poland. I was on an International Tour when COVID first emerged and we sadly all got stood down from our contracts. I then managed to land a guest contract during a pandemic.   I packed my bags and headed to Eastern Europe. What I intended to only be a 3-month contract ended up being nearly 12 months.   

To date, it was the most frustrating and questionable time in my Career. 

The constant battle of feeling like my livelihood was on a knife edge. Not knowing if we would make it through the week without being shut down. The anxiety of trying to maintain a performance ready condition when you are in 14 days isolation.   The fight to fuel my passion, to be deemed "non-essential" to the world got me questioning “why do I do this”?   Well, the plot gets thicker! In May 2021 I landed a contract that I just felt was too good to be true. As “creatives” in the World, we never back down from a big upheaval of our lives. We grin and bare it! We come out of it somewhat more invested into our practice.   So, I did just that! packed up flew to Australia. 14 days hotel quarantine, and the excitement for a long contract in the Sun after a tough Polish Winter. 

 

   

  

As every Human has experienced the last 18 months   nothing goes to plan. The day I get out of hotel quarantine there was an outbreak of the Delta Variant in Australia. Causing the second Lockdown of the state of NSW. The highest amount of community transmission throughout the whole pandemic was recorded.   This caused a massive impact and uncertainty that the production I was due to be working on sadly got canceled. The Heart-Breaking announcement to the cast over Zoom, was just somewhat familiar. I knew what was happening! I had been in this exact situation last year. As the saying goes “fool me once, shame on you; 

fool me twice, shame on me ”And here I am doing ballet class every morning in my kitchen, having now experienced National Lockdowns and COVID outbreaks in 3 Countries. All for the desire to succeed in this profession. 

I am trying to use this time now to invest and enrich my practice. Many people outside of the sector will deem this to be "unhealthy" but to me, my practice is my identity in the World. 

When it's taken away, you question everything! To me being a dance artist is my place in the world. 

The Studio: no matter if you are a teacher, dancer, student, choreographer, director or a pianist the studio is Home. It's where we get the work done! It's the place you go when you need to explore, the place you escape to during stage calls. The place you find empty at night to just be alone.   Being a dance artist and having constantly packed up my life for jobs. The one constant you have on the road is the Studio. No matter where in the world you go you will always find that Barre. This round object that we dreaded at school provides comfort along the journey.   Getting back on track with my direction of enriching my practice. I am researching into how much of oneself needs to be invested into their practice.   

 I am also looking at Identity within the dance sector and how the image of success is portrayed and the effects this has on a dancer's identity.   

  

 

Rounding off the de-brief, I am keeping up the fight for what matters to me and hopefully in 3 weeks I will be back “home” to the studio.