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How do you, as a dancer or artist, keep on going despite what others say about the performing arts? Why aren't the arts prioritized as much as other things?

I am an undergraduate majoring in dance. I love dance and creating, and I want to be able to pursue this in my future. There are a lot of negative comments and ideas about pursuing the arts for one's future. I know there have been many times when I have felt discouraged and nearly stopped dancing to do something others deem right and traditional.
How does one maneuver around those feelings of discouragement and keep on creating? Why aren't the arts prioritized when art is such an important part of everyone's culture? Without art ,we wouldn't have the majority of what we have now.
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Rebecca’s Answer

It is people like you that make the world a better place. And I agree we need to keep the Arts alive and well. However, the reality is that dancing is a difficult profession to make a sustainable living. I have a friend who is a beautiful dancer and went out to California to dance and is barely surviving and unable to support herself and now is getting older without anything to fall back on. I would recommend a dual major path. Since you are creative maybe a teaching path where you can teach art and dance on the side or maybe nursing which is a caring field and flexible such that you can also dance. Or maybe a business degree which would allow you to dance and open your own dance studio. Don't put all your eggs in one basket so you can have some other skills to fall back on. But keep on dancing!
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Anelise’s Answer

Completely agree that the arts are undervalued and underpaid. I wish the stigma against studying dance in college didn't exist. The unfortunate truth is that the arts aren't prioritized because they aren't lucrative; dancers aren't paid well because what we produce is fleeting. And performing is an unstable profession with a short shelf life. Not even the highest-paid dancers are immune to career-ending injury, burnout, or disillusionment that causes them to exit the industry altogether. So continue to feed your ambition, but shore it up with a practical back-up plan.

If you're certain you want to pursue a career in dance, add a Business or Dance Education minor to give you options after your performing career ends. If you're interested in STEM, Exercise Science or Nutrition can lead you to a career that still intersects with the dance world. You don't have to decide on a specific "backup" career right this second—you can choose a minor with broader applicability to the job market, like English or Computer Science. You can also minor in Dance while pursuing a more "marketable" major (that's the route I took).

For now, enjoy your time on the stage and in the studio and don't take it for granted. Wherever your education and life lead you, you NEVER have to stop dancing and you NEVER have to stop creating. It's so essential to keep that creative spark in your life as you enter adulthood—just keep an open mind, because it might look different than you imagined. For me, it looks like going to open class and teaching a few nights a week. When I was much younger, I would have called that "giving up." But I'm glad I didn't make dance my full-time job. There's something very healing about dancing on your own terms.

I hope this gave you some food for thought—we need creative, passionate people like you in this world!
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