The Dancer's Toolkit: A Step-by-Step Guide for Navigating Your Dance Career

The Dancer's Toolkit: A Step-by-Step Guide for Navigating Your Dance Career helps young dancers and dancers at any stage of their career prepare themselves to leap from their initial training to the professional world and begin or continue their journey with a plan and with confidence.

Divided into five parts, The Dancer's Toolkit provides the logistics, experience, and encouragement necessary for understanding the reality of a professional dance career. Reinforced by testimonials from a diverse collection of esteemed professional dancers and industry leaders, the book explores the different aspects of a dance career, from training, auditioning, and performing to injury prevention, dancing with a disability, dancing at an advanced age, and more. With a narrative rooted in research, interviews, and personal experience, The Dancer's Toolkit provides a window into the challenging yet rewarding life of a professional dancer.

This is the essential companion for anyone wishing to achieve their dream of becoming a professional dancer, whether they are a student in a university dance program, conservatory school, or private studio. The Dancer's Toolkit is an equally rich resource for professionals, teachers, dance administrators, funders, and audiences wishing to learn about the demands, dedication, commitment, and support necessary to achieve a successful career in dance.

Virginie Mécène is a native of France with dual citizenship in the United States. A former Principal Dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company (1994–2006), she has danced with multiple other dance companies. At the Martha Graham Center, USA, and since 2007, her positions include Director of Graham 2, Director of the Graham School (2007–2015), and Program Director. She teaches and restages works at multiple national and international conferences. Her choreographic works have garnered acclaim in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, such as the New York City Center in New York City and the Palais Garnier in Paris.