Suzie Jary of CTFD, Transitioned Dancer turned Counselor

Suzie Jary is a consultant for Career Transition for Dancers, a former CTFD counselor, and also a former CTFD client.  In 1986, after 14 years of professional dance and a long stint as a dancer in David Merrick’s production of 42nd Street, Jary first considered transitioning out of dance and into a new career.  Her transition was slow and somewhat hesitant.  It took seven years.

(Click below to access the rest of the post, and to read its recent addendum re my Feelings and Thoughts re movie-making…) 

Dance Aid, NYC

New York is a dance city, and this is thanks in part to the existence of a number of city-based organizations created solely to help professional dancers deal with dancers’ issues.  Click below for a breakdown of some of the city’s prominent dance service orgs, their origins and their individual missions.

Dance and the Masses

The clash between classical dance and dance in popular culture has been frequently featured in the media over the past few years, with the rise of popular dance-themed TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With The Stars.”  This week reporters at both the NY Times and the Washington Post wrote of the clash, raising the done-to-death question of whether giving the arts-lite version of dance to the masses is truly preferable to giving them no dance at all.

Filming Dance (for the Web)

This morning a first attempt to film a dance session– an advanced-beginners ballet class at the Broadway Dance Center in midtown– revealed a few complications in filming dance which are especially unfortunate for a newcomer to video.

The most obvious problem: dancers move around, a lot.  At higher levels their movements are fast and their footwork is intricate, but even simple steps can be difficult to capture steadily.  And getting close is a non-option.  Ballet extension keeps the camera at least a leg’s length away.  

Ballet Dancers Are Elusive

Pursuing the story of Ballet Tech School means pursuing the stories of the students themselves.  I’d thought first of looking solely at BTS’s Beginners Program and profiling a few of the school’s youngest participants– the eight-year-olds moving through the 18-week audition period in hopes of acceptance in May.  I’d thought next of looking at students at different stages in the program: a potential student, a mid-level student, a student on the verge of graduation.  The age range at BTS is wide (8-18) considering that the school’s focus and goals are so specific.  I’d thought of profiling the school through Eliot Feld, choreographer and founder of Ballet Tech and its school.   Program profiles like the one I hope to write rest, I think, on the involvement of a loosely representative figure, a student who somehow typifies the struggles of her peers, a faculty member who exemplifies the school’s mission.  A strong character is a necessary vehicle to exploring the greater story.  But finding this person requires access first, and Ballet Tech is awfully careful. 

Starter’s Info: Career Transition For Dancers

Career Transition for Dancers is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting professional dancers in periods of transition– most notably, the inevitable transition out of professional dance and into additional schooling and second careers.  CTFD provides one-on-one counseling and several specialized support groups, as well as scholarships and grants of up to $2000 for eligible individuals. CTFD was founded in 1985 in response to an international dance-themed conference held London that year, a conference which significantly addressed the issue of “the dancer’s situation;” that is, that a dancer’s career will inevitably reach its end due to either age or injury, much earlier than most professionals in mainstream careers (or even various other performance careers) face retirement.  This situation leaves professional dancers in an awkward and uncertain position, as many eschew other types of formal training and education in order to wholly pursue–and succeed at–dance.

In its early stages the organization, motivated by the efforts of professional dancer Ann Barry who would act as its founding and executive director, existed as an off-shoot of the Actor’s Fund.  Eventually it grew large enough to sustain itself as a non-profit.  Much of its funding was found in the profits of the organization’s annual dance gala, which grew in scope and spectacle each year.  (This year’s gala, themed “Dance Rocks!“, will take place on October 29 at the New York City Center.)