Task 1A

Throughout this first module I have given thought to how I would present myself in a professional profile. I have read other BA PP students' profiles as well as looking at my LinkedIn and other online network contacts' pages.  After a few drafts this is the profile I have come up with, geared towards furthering my career in teaching / the managerial side of arts companies.

Professional Profile

I studied full time from the age of 16 on the dance stream at Performers College.  I trained in contemporary and classical styles as well as musical theatre and acting.  Since graduating I have worked largely abroad in a variety of tours that have allowed me to travel extensively (France, Spain, Italy, US, Mexico and Brasil). I see myself as a contemporary jazz dancer primarily and professional works include:  Tihany Spectacular (Brasil tour), Disneyland Paris (face character and dancer), Hoteles Royal Solaris (Mexico) and C-12 Dance Theatre (East London Dance). I returned to England around a year ago, and am currently teaching dance and run drama workshops for children in and out of schools. I have also gained managerial and administrative experience working at a large racquets and sports club in Bristol.  I am looking to find a role that will incorporate my managerial and teaching experience I have gained in my employment over the past year with my passion for the arts.

I have also used this profile as my summary on my Linkedin page.  I think it best summarises my past experiences with the areas that I would like to pursue now.

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=365870856&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

Our CV is more often than not an employer's first point of contact.  Why else would we spend so much of our late pre audition evenings aligning photos, adding and deleting work experience and changing fonts.  Like many other BA PP blogs that I have read I am so much like everyone else in that I probably have more versions of my CV than I do fingers.  I have come from a performance background and change my headshot on my CV depending on the nature of the dance job; if it's a hair show I may use a more 'commercial' look headshot, a Panto I would probably use a smiley headshot - something I feel is more fun and approachable.  Furthermore,  I can't always rely on my performance or teaching work alone as income.  Therefore I have CVs for customer service jobs, bar and waitressing work.  Most recently I have developed a CV that is aimed towards the managerial and administrative side of arts companies, an area I am interested in pursuing.

Below is an example of my current dance CV:

Here is how I have added my professional profile to my current CV.  This CV is focused towards teaching work, as well as applying for managerial / administrative roles workign with arts companies.

My current dance CV.
Below title I would usually have text boxes of personal information such as height, hair colour, age etc,
info probably not too suitable on an open blog for an academic course!

 

Having read Adesola Akinleye's blog 'how are you experienced', I was delighted to address some themes I have mused on since I first started out in the world of auditions and constantly marketing myself as a dancer: How much of ourselves do we lose in the process of projecting what we think the employer wants?  How much of our CV is an honest representation of us as people or is just a pretence to show what we think / we have learnt they want?  Most importantly, is this front effective?


Links:

Akinleye, A. (2013) 'How are you experienced' Available from: http://adesolaa.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/how-you-are-experienced.html'