Akram Khan is a natural collaborator, where he has collaborated with ballet actresses, choreographers and visual artists. He is recognized for his storytelling as being “effortlessly intimate”[4]. He has trained in contemporary dance however he has also trained in Kathak which he uses in his dances along side the technique from the collaborators to tell the stories that are “epic”[4].

In 2012, he was invited too create a section for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. His brief that he was given was the word “Mortality”, this included “50 specially selected professional dancers” [5]. This piece was too a piece that’s called Abide With Me by Emeli Sandé. “Khan’s work brought an infectious stillness to the Ceremony, a reminder of our own mortality and the transfer of possibilities and hopes between generations.”

Akram Khan has inspired choreographers too be able too tell a story, too include their traditions into their dances. For example, Khan’s piece Desh. It is about tracking his fathers footsteps in Bangladesh. [8]

 

Information gained from Bibliography:

[1]

[4]

[5]

[8]

[1] BBC, Bernadette O’Brien, DANCE REBELS – a story of modern dance (Came out – 2015) (Video)

[2] Martha Graham Dance Company, History (Date Accessed – 3rd September 2019) (Website)

[3] Biography, Biography.com Editors, A&E Television Networks (Date Accessed – 3rd September 2019) (Website)

[4] Akram Khan Company, Company Profiles, Akram Khan (Date Accessed – 3rd September 2019) (Website)

[5] Akram Khan Company, Productions, London 2012 (Date Accessed – 3rd September 2019) (Website)

[6] Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Our History Rudolf Laban (Date Accessed – 12th October 2019) (Website)

[7] Merce Cunningham Dance Capsules, Nearly Ninety (Date Accessed – 12th October 2019)

[8] Youtube, Conectedance, Akram Khan – ‘Desh’ (Uploaded 19 January 2018) (Video)

When you have graduated at either a uni or Conservatoire school. Your thoughts would be to where you want to work in your area of dance.

Many conservatoire schools will provide you with training in their style of dance so it would be feel familiar to audition as a part of their company (if they have one). This is because you know what they are expecting from a dancer who whats to join the group as you have trained with them.

If you’ve just come out of university, getting a job could be found to be a harder task. This is because you might not understand as well what you need to do compared to a dancer from a conservatoire. However, dance companies are auditioning people with some dance background.

This is an audition for Rambert2 –  which ‘brings together dancers with outstanding ability, creativity and individuality, to form a second Rambert ensemble.‘ – The only thing you need for it is to have three-year’s dance training at uni or at a conservatoire.

To be able to get a job in the dance industry, there are multiple ways you can go. Either as a choreographer or a professional dancer. But depending on what you chose to do for education, will limit what you can do unless you get training in other dance styles ( which is highly recommended).

To start with, choreographer. If you are going down this route, the best way to do this is by uploading some videos of some dancers dancing to the choreography that you have set. this video can go onto YouTube or some other video service that is popular. Here is an example of this found on YouTube.

 

Next a professional dancer. For this you can you can do open auditions at different dance companies. View the first image on this page to see an example of this.

Finally Musical theater. This step is the same for the professional dancer but however you wont be going into an open audition applying for the group, you’ll be auditioning for a main part or a background part. If your going into this you’ll have to network with the others there to be able to get a job after it but also you’ll need too be able show your best and not disrupt the choreography.

Depending on where you live, and how far you can go to find a job, also limits what jobs you can take and the availability of some. For example, in London, you can find lots of dance jobs, some requiring dance experience and others not for example:

 

When becoming a professional dancer, you need to make sure you keep healthy and active. This will include what you should be eating, how to keep yourself active during shows and when you looking for other dance jobs.

To start with, Food.

We all need to have a certain amount of food that has been set by the NHS, this says that the ‘Daily reference intakes for adults are: Energy: 8,400kJ/2,000kcal, Total fat: less than 70g, Saturates: less than 20g, Carbohydrate: at least 260g, Total sugars: 90g, Protein: 50g, Salt: less than 6g’

However, this is only a guideline, only you can keep track of what you eat. You can set apps to say how many calories you have a day. For example ‘Myfitnesspal‘. This app will tell you how many calories you have had and also how many you have burned off. This app will also help with your activity by tracking your run or walks you go on.

Next, keeping active.

When your finding a job, you need to keep active by either going for a walk/ run or do a activity/ club. A walk/run around your park can be for 10 minuets – 2 hours. However if you do an activity, the time scale is already pre-set, but it could help you with your dance journey. This is only because your activity could be extra dance lessons in other styles than what you trained in at the university or conservatoire school. To be able to ‘keep’ your abilities you’ve gained or already had from other experience you will need to make sure you keep practicing for example splits for the flexibility.

You will also have to keep a good social life. CLICK HERE for some information what you could for socializing.

Imagine, you’ve just finished your courses at the school you went too. You’ve gained multiple skills to do with dance. But now you have a job at a supermarket. Your still looking for work in the theater. There’s a rehearsal at London to preform on the west end. You need too get some type of transport there. But also time off work. It would cost over £50 to get there and back but also you’ll need to be able to book into a hostel or a hotel (Travelodge), the average rates too be able to hire somewhere to stay for a night is £172.57 according to the website Statisa.

Then if you get the job there you’ll need to also pick up another job at London because you’ll need to have enough money for a place to stay while you are in the west end and also for food. To start with, you may need to have two part time jobs to be able to get enough money to make sure your in an apartment.

When your working either it being a part time or as a dancer, you will need to balance your working life with your social life. To do this you could hang out with friends that you already know or you could network with people you work with because they probably have some background with dance professionally. If you do this you are giving yourself more opportunities to be able to preform in front of an audience.

If you are networking with people when your professionally dancing, you would have to behave towards the performers, choreographer, directors and the costume departments, in a well-mannered way. This is because, if you act in a vile way towards someone, the word could get around and you wont get as many people wanting to hire you as a dancer because of this. Another thing to be careful about, is if your apart of a moving dance group and you leave the venue in a mess, that venue will ban you from coming back so you wont be able to perform in that venue but also they will let other venues know in what state you left it in so you may not be able to perform in other venues, or you might have to pay an additional fee.