New Book Passionate Work Spotlights Corps and Freelance Dancers

Many stars of the dance world have shared their journeys through books, chronicling their glamorous or fairytale-like rise from student to premier ballet dancer. Rarely, if ever, do we read stories from the corps de ballet, despite the fact that the majority of ballet dancers make up this rank. That is precisely why sociologist Ruth Horowitz, professor emerita of sociology at New York University, decided to write her latest book, Passionate Work (Stanford University Press, $32). “I read some ballet books, and most of them were autobiographies about famous dancers,” she says. “Where are the books on the corps de ballet? What literature is there on freelance dancers?”

These questions led her to interview 87 dancers, from freelancers to corps members, and from both big and small companies, to explore the challenges they face in this rigorous career. Pointe spoke with Horowitz to find out what keeps these hard-working artists dancing and doing what they’re passionate about.

Your book takes a sociological approach to examining the lives of corps and freelance dancers and what drives them to continue pursuing a career in dance. What sources helped shape the narrative of your book, and how did you go about finding the dancers you featured?

I tried to get as diverse a sample of 87 dancers as I could, so I looked around me, went to various dance schools, and asked people for an interview. Then I’d ask those people if they knew of dancers I could talk to. I’d go to ballet performances and events and tap people on the shoulder to see if they’d be willing to sit for an interview. We call this a “snowball sample” in sociology because you find a person, then ask them for a few recommendations for the next interviews, and then you ask those people for other recommendations. But you start in several different places so that you don’t just get one cluster. So I asked a number of people who were teaching dance, some who were still performing, and others who had moved on to other careers.

What do you think are some of the most misunderstood or overlooked aspects of life as a corps de ballet dancer?

That dancing in the corps can be fulfilling in various ways. Many times, companies allow corps dancers to perform featured roles, which gives many of them a sense of accomplishment and proves to themselves that they are “good enough.”

Another overlooked aspect of corps life is the camaraderie. These dancers frequently form tight-knit friendships within this group. Being in the corps brings people together in ways other positions in the company can’t, because you can’t do a triple pirouette if everyone else is doing a double. So while ballet can be very competitive, being in the corps requires a lot of teamwork and a certain amount of cohesiveness that is a building block for some of these deep-seated relationships.

One whole chapter of your book revolves around The Nutcracker and the role it plays in the ballet industry, as well as in a dancer’s life. What insights did you discover about how this annual tradition impacts the lives and careers of corps and freelance dancers?

I did not ask about The Nutcracker in any of the interviews. But almost all of the dancers I spoke with mentioned The Nutcracker. I didn’t realize how important [this ballet] was in a dancer’s life until I started reading the transcripts, but there it was. It could be their introduction to ballet, their first performance, or even their first featured role. It was such an important institution that everyone had to mention it.

And then you look at it from an industry perspective—it’s in every community. I went online to see if I could count the number of Nutcracker productions one year, and there were over 300. A lot of the smaller companies hire freelance dancers for their Nutcracker productions too. So it proved to be key to so many different people and organizations in the dance industry, and everyone has an emotional connection to it.

In the final chapter of your book, you discuss how dancers often transition to new careers due to the typically shorter lifespan of their performance careers. Could you elaborate on some surprisingly useful habits and skills that the dancers you interviewed found helpful in their careers outside the dance world?

There are a number of things that one learns in dance class beyond the shaping of the body. One learns how to cooperate, because when you’re in the corps, you can’t enter when and where you want to for a performance. You learn how to compete, but you learn how to compete gracefully. You learn hard work and discipline, which are incredibly important in any kind of career. You also learn organizational skills, because most parents require the dancer to do well not only in ballet but also in school. So you put in a lot of hours at dance and learn to balance that with school, and that’s an important skill for most occupations.

The only skill that many dancers seemed to develop that might be a negative in other careers is the acquiescence to authority. Some artistic directors will push dancers beyond their bodies’ limits with too many hours of rehearsal or by making them dance while injured, and the dancers don’t say anything. You have to stand up for yourself. So that can be a drawback in other fields, as well as in dance.

What do you hope dancers take away from reading Passionate Work?

I hope it will enlighten some who make the decision to have a dance career that it’s going to be a fairly difficult process. If they go to college, it will be expensive, so they’re probably going to have to freelance to some extent in order to eat during that time in their career. And even if they make it into a company, many do not pay enough to live off of, even with a 30-week season. You need to have some other interests and will most likely need an additional way of making a living. Be realistic and have an idea of what other interests you have and what other things you like to do.

And also, just reminding dancers that while it’s a short career, it doesn’t mean your connection to dance ends when you stop performing. There are many ways people remain connected, whether they have kids that dance, sit on the boards of dance companies or schools, or simply attend dance performances.