The first piece of literature is a report on an inquiry into dancers and career transition entitled ‘Life after dance: Career transition of professional dancers’ conducted and written by Joan Jeffri and David Throsby in 2005. Jeffri and Throsby studied dancers and their career transitions in three different countries- Australia, Switzerland and the United States with the aim to discover ‘Insights into challenges of career change as seen from the viewpoint of the individual dancer’. (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005).
While this inquiry explores a wide range of dancers (classical, contemporary, folk, commercial and others) one of the main limitations for my research purposes is that it does not cover dancers in the UK. It States that there is a ‘difficulty in speaking about career transition in a global way’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005) so this made me consider there could never be fair results globally as each culture would treat the topic differently. However, I still feel the results are useful to me as a general guide and many of the ideas represented in the paper are reflected in examples of dancers from the UK who I have come across. For example the paper argues that there is a ‘higher level of post-transition career satisfaction among those fully prepared to meet transition than among those not fully prepared.’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005). I agree with this statement as many of my friends and colleagues who have been successful in career transition have been more prepared than anyone else. However, in my experience there are also many other factors that contribute to success which are not explored in the report such as willingness to change, desire, reason for change, current skills, knowledge, attributes, networking, luck etc. This led me to consider exploring all these other factors in my own inquiry in order to establish which are the most important factors in achieving successful career transition.
The author concludes that the majority of dancers go on to work in something related i.e. dance teaching or choreography and there is only a small number who go on to explore a different field completely. I agree with this as in my experience most dancers I know have done teaching at some point in their career or as a transition due to injury but the inquiry did not go on to research the other careers which are unrelated and what they may be. As I want to go into television, which would be a different industry altogether, it is the unrelated careers which perhaps interest me more and it also did not explore why dancers may want to try something new. I also found it limited as it only researched into dancers undergoing transition as a result of injury or age but not those who simply have a desire to work in a different industry. Therefore in my own inquiry I would like to explore transition at a younger age among dancers who have ambitions and goals in other areas.
I found it particularly useful that the report noted skills including ‘Self-discipline, team work and stamina’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005) which are acquired by a dancer which are useful in most professions. It covers the importance of education and qualifications in order to progress in other careers and the importance of retraining for other careers in advance of needing to undergo transition. All of the conclusions are agreeable and justified by data collected from surveys and questionnaires. The main conclusion that is reached is that ‘expectations and realities differ’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005) which has been useful to me as I am now aware that the ideas of the dancers I may interview may not be the reality of how their career will progress. Overall, the report was useful in establishing the importance of preparation, awareness and transferable skills towards a successful career transition. However, it does not go in depth into other possible careers for dancers and other reasons why dancers may choose a career transition. Therefore, I would like to include the points in my own inquiry.
The second piece I have been looking at is a newspaper article from The Guardian entitled ‘Former Countryfile presenter fronts ITV investigation into ageism on TV’ written by Tara Conlan in February, 2011. It focuses on the case launched by Miriam O’Reilly against the BBC for age discrimination after she was sacked from her job as the presenter of Countryfile. The article tells of how O’Reilly won the case and as a result is now potentially going back to work for the BBC. I found this interesting as it showed the nature of the industry and made me realise how important public support is to its success. The BBC are obviously more concerned about losing public support than sticking by their view on who is right for the job. This was useful to me in researching the culture of the industry and the pressures and demands that come with it. In my inquiry I would like to look into pressures I may be faced with if I was to succeed in making a successful transition to a television presenter. The article highlights others who have faced this same pressure such as Arlene Philips which pointed out the urgency in making this transition sooner rather than later.
In the article the author quotes Miriam O’Reilly herself saying that ‘My ability to do my job on Countryfile had never been questioned. I didn’t think it was fair to lose it for something I had no control over- getting older’ (O’Reilly, 2011). While I agree that obviously ageism is wrong and she had the right to fight against the BBC, unfortunately dancers face the same obstacle of losing their jobs due to age but because they are not in the public eye they cannot launch cases of ageism against all agents, directors and employers. There was barely any counter argument presented in this particular article. All quotes were from O’Reilly and none from the opposing. Therefore, I feel this article may be biased towards O’Reilly as it does not show a balanced view and then reach a conclusion. To me it would have been plausible for the BBC to want to give the show a younger image and attract more viewers through a young presenter, this does not mean she would not be suited to any presenting role.
The only counter argument provided throughout the whole article was one quote from former newsreader Buerk who argues ‘Get over it. It’s show business’ (Buerk, 2011) This is not taken any further in the article and the writer then goes on to defend O’Reilly by stating that the public want to see older presenters on television. I found this article useful in highlighting age as a major pressure on many television presenters. Perhaps, at the moment this is a good thing for me as I have youth on my side. However, if I am to make a successful transition then I fear this is a pressure which may come around all too quickly. During my inquiry I would like to research into other pressures and demands facing television presenters and how these could possibly be overcome or eliminated.
The last piece of literature I am going to review is another report on an inquiry launched into dancers and career transition entitled Retirement Transition in Ballet Dancers: Coping Within and Coping Without’ by Irina Roncaglia. The aim was to investigate the experiences of career transition in ballet dancers, from a life course perspective. It also focused on how ballet dancers cope with the transition and the different factors influencing the coping process. One of the first limitations with this report is that it only focuses on ballet dancers. Due to the fact that I am not a ballet dancer I feel that some of the conclusions reached may be different depending on the type of dancers being studied. I would like to study a range of dancers in order to get a more rounded and fair conclusion. However, many of the same principles can still be applied. The paper states that the data was established from ‘semi-structured interviews from fourteen international ballet dancers (Roncaglia, 2010)’. While the qualitative data gained from these interviews must have been helpful in establishing the views of the dancers, it is not a very large number of people to base statistical results and conclusions on. During my inquiry I am to interview and survey a much greater number of dancers in order to make my results as fair and accurate as possible.
The paper uses Schlossberg’s model (1981) as a framework for coping strategies used. It identifies these as ‘situation, self, support and strategies’. It then uses Taylor and Ogilvie’s model (1994) to show causes which initiate the retirement or transition process as ‘Age, deselection, injury and free choice.’ This was useful to me as it covered free choice as opposed to being forced to transition. However, unfortunately it did not go as far as to explore the reasons for free choice and what other careers are available. Therefore, I would like to cover this in my own inquiry. The paper identifies eight psychological processes as possible coping strategies for retirement or transition as ‘denial, alienation, letting go, isolation, severance, acceptance, renegotiation, reconstruction’ (Roncaglia, 2010). I have found all of these to be applicable to transition as well as retirement and from my experience so far I have found that people find letting go and acceptance among the hardest to deal with.
Overall, the paper was useful in providing reasons for transition outside injury and age and in exploring the notion of free choice which is something I would like to focus on more. It was also interesting to learn about the coping strategies experienced by the dancers interviewed and this may be something I can come back to during my inquiry. However, the report was limited as it only focused on ballet dancers and used such a small amount of people to provide such general results.
References:
Conlan, T, 2011, Former Countryfile presenter fronts ITV investigation into ageism on TV, published by The Guardian Newspaper. Available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/10/countryfile-miriam-oreilly-tonight-itv?INTCMP=SRCH (accessed 28th March 2011)
Jeffri, J and Throsby, D, 2005, Life after Dance: Career Transition of Professional Dancers, available from http://neumann.hec.ca/aimac2005/PDF_Text/JeffriJ_ThrosbyD.pdf (Aaccessed 28th March 2011)
Roncaglia, I, 2010, ‘Retirement Transition in Ballet Dancers: Coping Within and Coping Without’ Forum: Qualitative Social Research FQS , Volume 11, No. 2, May 2010. Available from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/viewArticle/1348/2929 (accessed 29th March 2011)
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