Apparently, dancers know where to look for jobs and auditions.  We know where to turn for classes.  We may even know where to turn for help with taxes, insurance, etc.  But it seems to me that we don't know where to find peace to help us weather the storms.  Here are two strategies that have helped me maintain my peace while I'm waiting for my dreams to come true.  

From great classes, to opportunities for professional advancement, to awesome performance opportunities, DHDF is something that every Hip-Hop head should experience, and it's exactly the type of Hip-Hop event that the media needs to scream about from the mountaintops. 

Last Friday night, I had one of the most magical nights I've had in a really long time.  I had the extreme pleasure of attending the opening night of Dreamgirls at the Dallas Theater Center.  Here's what I found unforgettable...

Every blog post I've posted thus far has been geared towards giving you insight you can apply to your dance career pursuit, but this one's a little different. This one's for me. It's my way of counting my blessings. I'm acknowledging where I've been in my dancer career journey and how I've gotten where I am today.

Since auditioning is such a huge part of a professional dancer's career, the info in this post is priceless. Not only am I giving you a whole slew of valuable audition tips, but I'm going to tell you about my worst audition ever! It's important to me that you know that there is life after a failure. If I can recover from my epic crash and burn and go on to have a fulfilling dance career, then you can too.

Okay. So here's the story.

Networking is vital in developing your professional dance career, and I've laid it all out in my upcoming book, The Freelance in Dance Road Map. The book outlines four key steps to getting work as well as a plethora of additional tips to help you along the way. Here's a sneak preview of the section on networking.

"What has been your biggest obstacle as a working dancer?" My response may throw you for a loop. See  for yourself. 

When it comes to building your dance career, the impressions you make are even more important. Developing relationships and leaving positive lasting impressions are essential to getting and sustaining work as a freelance dancer.

When I started making money solely from my work as a professional dancer, tax time got so much more complicated. Get all your ducks in a row well before next year's tax season. Here are a few tips to help you do that.

My dance career pursuit was in the pits.  Part of my trip to "Bitter-Town" and "Resentful-Ville" was funded by my winnings from the Dare-to-Compare game I'm always playing. And it goes a little something like this...

I'd like to introduce you to Sole Talk, the "chat room" where our working dancer tribe can ask questions that haven't been covered yet on TheWorkingDancer.com. Tweet your question to me at @ChoreoByShate, and I'll feature it on my next session of Sole Talk.  First up, what to do after your gotten your college dance degree.

I wasn't moving forward as quickly as I wanted to, and my ego wanted me to quit. So I did. Or at least I tried to.  Learn from my mistakes.  Don't let anything come between you and your dance career dreams.