"Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill
Who would have thought that this grouchy guy would jolt me into remembering the importance of tireless enthusiasm?! ('Tis a skill as well as a life choice - tireless enthusiasm - and one that can be acquired and developed, as I have learned over the past several months).
It can be difficult for people who are not dancers, actors, and singers to get their heads around the idea that we dance and sing to "interview" for jobs. We do these multiple times, often on a daily basis. It is perhaps a bit more self inflicted punishment -- because performers are essentially ASKING for rejection multiple times a week -- than the average 24 year old might submit themselves to, but by GOD it's also character building!
.... No wonder some celebrities go crazy and shave their heads or jump on couches on national television while others seem to achieve a zen-like state of awesomeness....
Last week I had a great audition for Cohoes (a theater somewhere in New York state), and the fallout enthusiasm of that helped propel me into this post-birthday week with auditions for Beauty & the Beast and Addams Family national tours.
Since I've been going to dance class and vocal technique class more often, I'm starting to get to a place where I am consistently confident that I have given my best at auditions. That is an amazing feeling in of itself, a feeling that I had been blind to while I fixated on the frustration of not getting jobs that I knew I had the skills for.
Today, however, I had a momentary blip of aggravation at the Addams Family audition. I didn't listen to my gut and sing what I wanted and sang something that I thought would be right for the show instead. But hey, that's life. You win some, you lose some. I'll take the losing with as much of a stiff upper lip as I can muster, because there really is no other choice for me. I dance because I love it, and I choose to learn and grow so that I can keep doing it. I had a great job at the Met Opera, and in order to succeed in this industry I have to know that another great job will come along if I just maintain my motivation for searching it out.
Memo to self: "having the skills" and "being the right type" are two huge weights that tip the job scales (another is nepotism, but I must do more research). While I have some control over the former, I have no control over the latter. And you know what? That's ok!
In summary, thanks, Churchill. I appreciate your attempt to redefine success, but I think the life of a performing artists merits a redefinition of "failure." In my darker moments, I focused on the assumption that I was a failure if I wasn't being offered these jobs I've been auditioning for. In reality, each auditioning experience that does not end in a new contract is just the next stepping stone that gets me closer to my next dance job.
Regardless of our profession or interests, we all fight for something we want. We all move from one obstacle to another. Sometimes we get what we want, sometimes we don't. What makes us successful is our ability to keep up our enthusiasm, to keep moving forward, despite what life may throw at us.
