We welcome Lucy Eaton to our After Hours teaching faculty. She is the owner of Sydney-based contemporary dance company, Dance Dr. We asked Lucy to give advice to students and parents about training and what to expect from her classes.
What advice would you give to families around the demands of performing arts training?
My suggestion for families is to support the athlete as well as the artist. Listening actively to your dancer debrief can be as helpful as a home-cooked meal or a good night’s rest. My advice to dancers is to learn only to compete with yourselves. Avoid the temptation to compare yourself to others and run your own race. You do you.
Can you tell us about your experience once you commenced training as a dance student?
It took me six years to finish my degree. I deferred my Bachelor of Dance Education to pursue performance, to address some lingering health concerns and to start a contemporary dance company. It was a business plan barely in the infant stages, with very little working in it’s favour (no staff, no studio, no reputation and no money)!
Over the last five years, Dance Dr. has become my job, my pride and joy and has been the catalyst for some beautiful working relationships. Although it set me back a year or two in my studies, my advice is to take opportunities when they present themselves, and learn to find opportunity where there is none.
What should students expect the gain from your class?
In the short term, I hope that dancers can feel safe and proud while undertaking a task that is so physical and emotional. Learning to dance requires vulnerability. It requires being sweaty, making embarrassing mistakes and trying to be beautiful all at the same time. I’m hopeful that dancers feel confident doing this in my class.
In the long term, it’s important to me that my students learn to move beautifully and wisely and that they remember what brought them to class in the first place.