The first time I traveled outside the country not counting Canada (cause I’m from Detroit,lol) was to New Zealand for an internship while I was studying at the University of Michigan. I LOVED seeing the different cultures, food, lifestyle and traffic signs. But I can honestly say that the travel bug didn’t REALLY bite me until I started dancing full-time for StepAfrika! We traveled domestically and internationally performing and teaching and boy oh boy was it the life. Since then it’s been hard for me to stay in one country for too long. Maybe it’s tough to imagine traveling as a dancer due to time, energy and maybe financial restaurants but there are a number of ways you can go abroad as a dancer.
Join a touring company
When I was working as a full-time company dancer, the company would get booked to perform for venues and festivals world-wide. Tours would last a couple days to a couple weeks depending on the location. Everything is covered by the company like transportation, hotel, and food so I didn’t have to worry about the travel essentials. We even got per diem (like a daily stipend) to cover any extra expenses and food while touring that we could use how we wanted. When we weren’t performing or teaching we were free to use our time as we pleased. Often we went out as a group and explored the city. This is the true definition of traveling for business and pleasure.
Artistic Collaborations
Worldwide there are dance organizations that offer artistic residencies, cultural exchanges, festivals, conferences and performance opportunities. As a dancer you can submit your work or idea to potentially work with one of these orgs. Each of them are different as far as time frame and funding but even if part of the trip is covered, it gets you one step closer to traveling while exploring your craft. I recommend checking out Dance ICONS for more information about artistic opportunities worldwide.
Save and do it on your own
Saving can be tough in the midst of covering our basic needs and unexpected expenses, however we all have habits that we could cut back on to save for something else. Imagine you stopped drinking your daily Starbucks for 3 months. If there are 30 days in a month, your $5-$10 daily coffee saves you $150-$300 a month. In three months you could have up to $1000, from cutting out coffee alone. If you pull back on other habits too, you’d have a couple thousands dollars to work with.
Connect to networks
Before I went on my 6 month Eurotrip, I told EVERYONE I knew that I’d be traveling around Europe which led me to meeting an staying with friends and friends of friends of cousins of dancer friends, lol. This network allowed me to save money on housing, time on searching for dance classes and opportunities and energy on researching the answers to all of my questions about travel and work in Europe. Often the people in our lives are the best resources when we need help or unsure of what’s next.
Be Creative
To accomplish any goal like travel, you gotta get creative and use your resources. ? Who do you know that’s already traveled? What do you already have that can get you closer to your ideal trip? What type of trip do you want to take and what will you need to make it happen? Asking yourself specific questions allows you to start where you are and build from there.
Thanks for you reading,
Briana
“Pay Attention, cultivate awareness, feed your strengths and you will find your way.”
-Jay Shetty “Think Like a Monk”
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