David Mead looks at a new book by Ruth Horowitz that focuses on the dancers who don’t get to stand in the spotlight.
As New York University sociology professor Ruth Horowitz notes in her preface to Passionate Dancers: Choreographing a Dance Career, most books about dancers are autobiographies or biographies. Almost all are by well-known performers. And while a few more recent volumes such as Misty Copeland’s Life in Motion, Michaela de Prince’s Taking Flight and Osiel Gouneo’s Black Romeo consider difference and battling the odds of colour in particular, they tend to be stories that dwell little on the difficulties of the profession. Books that do specifically look at the other side of the coin, such as Toni Bentley’s Winter Season, or dig into the darker aspects of the art form, such as Georgina Pazcoguin’s Swan Dive, a sometimes brutally candid account of the then culture at New York City Ballet, are few and far between.
While Passionate Dancers is a book about dancers and their careers, it’s one about those dancers who didn’t become stars, those at the back of the corps de ballet, those in smaller companies and project-based ensembles, those who need to find second or even third jobs to survive. In her revealing and often thought-provoking book, we read their stories, of their ambition, grit and determination. Why they do what they do, and why they strive so hard to continue doing it, despite all the obstacles.
Horowitz’s sociological study is based on conversations with eighty-seven company and what she terms ‘portfolio dancers,’ who move from project to project or perform with several companies. But while it is wholly American-based, the reflections and thoughts the book provoke have relevance worldwide.
In choosing her subjects, Horowitz has been as representative as she can. They are quite a diverse group. Although almost all started with ballet, they now perform in numerous styles and venues. They also range widely in age, and have a gender-split that’s like that of dance as a whole. Being absolutely comprehensive, covering all the bases, is probably impossible. Hip-hop is a notable omission, however.
The book is full of very personal stories which Horowitz uses to illustrate her subject. Through dancers’ voices, we learn of the daily struggle to build a career, balance creativity, collaboration, health, and friendship, and maintain a viable sense of self.
After an introduction that includes a succinct and useful setting out of the American concert dance scene, the reader is taken through a dance career, not forgetting what happens to those who give up, or don’t make it.
A constant theme in the book is the passion dancers have for their art form, right from an early age. She also observes how the dance world capitalises on that passion, not least how it can blind dancers to some less savoury aspects of organisations, although that she doesn’t dig further into the topic is perhaps an opportunity missed.
Horowitz further notes how it’s easy to forget that dance is still work, and that a dancer’s passion for it and the need to earn enough to live on can cause conflicting emotions. Being a dancer is a precarious occupation, with only a few of the so-called ‘full-time’ companies actually offering 52-week contracts. And even when they do, they are likely for one year only. Most dancers seek and value other rewards such as friendship, community and the emotional reward of performing for an audience.
The first main chapter considers how it so often starts. With Nutcracker. Not so much financially for companies, many of which would not survive without it, but as inspiration for so many youngsters, especially for those for whom it provides a first exciting glimpse of the professional dance world as they get to perform in it. Remember that American productions of the Christmas classic tend to include lots of children.
Horowitz then moves on to learning ballet, which almost always provides the young dancer’s first steps, and how lessons instil dedication and persistence. She also notes how competition with peers, success and disappointment, become all too real very early as scholarships, places on summer intensives and plum roles in productions are fought for.
Next, she looks at the challenges around critical decisions made by young people around their sixteenth birthday, their parents and others. Do they continue to follow their passion? What happens if they decide to, or have to, let go? Passion doesn’t just go away. How do they reconcile it with the realities of the real, non-dance, world?
For those that do get past the gatekeepers to full-time training and then into big companies, the reality is that most will quickly reach their personal ceiling: a place in the ensemble or corps de ballet. Horowitz notes how the common emphasis on the company as family, all working together, can blind people to the reality of the director’s control. Corps members, she says, work hard to create self-identities consistent with their aspirations and their position.
She discusses the often forgotten psychological demands of a stage career. “The emotional work to required to create distance from the performing self can be excruciating,” she notes.
Turning to freelance and ‘portfolio dancers,’ who are constantly seeking new opportunities and juggling schedules, she observes how side jobs are often a necessity to keep their dancing passion alive. That just adds to the challenges of ploughing through endless classes, auditions and rehearsals, wondering where the next job is coming from.
But dancing careers of all sorts end sooner than most. How do they know when it is time to leave? Then what? How do dancers adapt to the new and very different challenge of developing new skills and relationships in a very different world?
Passionate Work comes with comprehensive reference notes and index. The five-page glossary is also useful, although far from all-encompassing. The book is unillustrated, which may make it feel like heavier going that it actually is.
It may be written from an academic standpoint, but Passionate Work: Choreographing a Dance Career is a well-researched, illuminating, often compelling, often thought-provoking study as Horowitz discusses the work lives of dancers who audiences see, but I suspect rarely think too much about. In doing so, she starts to answer that most difficult of questions, even for those who are: What does it mean to be a dancer?
Passionate Work: Choreographing A Dance Career
Author: Ruth Horowitz
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Paperback, 324 pages
ISBN: 978-1-5036-3886-0
UK publication date: August 27, 2024
UK cover price: £27.99