When I tell people I'm a dance major they have two reactions. The first is a surprised look and the question: "What are you going to do with a dance degree?" The other is a condescending, "That's so brave of you. I would never be an art major!" Many of my dance company friends have aso experienced these common reactions. If being an art major is so bad, why do we choose to spend large amounts of money and time on this?
For one, I am a dancer through and through. If someone told me to stop dancing, I would fall apart in less than 24 hours. I grew up in a dance studio. It's where I found all my best friends, where I learned what kind of person I want to be, and where I learned how to work hard to get what I want. Dancers know that dance isn't just something we do––its something that defines us. A wise teacher of mine, Dana Lawton, says "How we dance is how we live our lives. The way we act in the studio is the way we act outside of it." This philosophy is part of the reason I dance.
The fear that dancers will never make enough money is common among dancers young and old. This can be true, but going to college for dance can open innumerable doors to the dance community, so that dancers can be hired right out of college and even continue our studies in graduate schools. College degrees in dance can also lead a dancer to many career options that dancers without degrees will have a much harder time getting. These include physical therapy and somatic practices. Dancers with degrees can become dance professors and a degree in dance and business can help a dancer run a successful dance studio.
Dancers are healthy due to all the exercise they get and the encouragement to eat healthy from their professors. There's no need to worry about the dreaded freshmen fifteen when you work out as part of your major. All the exercise we get also makes us really happy! To quote the ever-intelligent Elle Woods of Legally Blonde, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands. They just don't." Happy people also tend to do better in academic classes and feel less stressed and overwhelmed by all the tough work college students face.
Lastly and most importantly, majoring in dance is something dancers do when they are super passionate about dance and know that a future in dance will make them happiest. Many of us don't care if it is hard to make money at first, and we don't care that people don't understand what we do. We just want to dance because of how it makes us feel. The opportunity to make a living doing what we love is more important to us than any amount of money. The friendships and bonds we build in our college dance company are priceless things that a cubicle job can't give us.
What we major in seems like the biggest choice of our college lives at some points, but the most important thing to remember is that you should do what makes you feel wonderful and fulfilled.
