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TAYLOR GORDON Dancer, Student and Journalist New York, NY UYSA BIO | POSTS |
As of this week, I officially graduated from college! I have my BA in Communication Arts from Marymount Manhattan College…and since I’m only 19 it’s a little scary to be facing this major turning point in my life!
It’s been a LOT of work trying to continue a dance career while finishing school in 2 ½ years, but I have to say that I’m really glad I stuck it out, because now I have two career paths to follow, both of which I love!
Before I write about some highlights of the last two years, here’s a quick update of what’s been going on lately and what’s coming up soon:
-I did a workshop with Rebecca Kelly Ballet, a contemporary company here in the city. One weekend I got to understudy the company for a small showcase they were doing, which was really great but hard! Learning choreography in the back of a studio while trying to stay out of the way of the company dancers flying by is really the art of the apprentice…haha.
The next week she taught a whole series of work from her repertoire. It was lots of quick learning and contemporary movements, some of which were rather foreign at first to my ballet based body. They have an interesting approach where feeling and expressing the movement is emphasized. She spoke a lot about getting rid of the “student” image and dancing more like a “professional,” which is definitely what I’m working on at this point in my dancing. It was such a great experience!
-In terms of my writing, a lot is going on. I started my internship at The New Yorker, which is great. You can read more about that on my other blog. And I was asked to take over the studio newsletter at my former studio, Ballet Academy East. On top of working on that, I got a new article assignment from Dancer Magazine, and my piece in movmnt magazine comes out in the next few weeks! Keep a look out for both of those articles, and see some recent reviews I wrote on ExploreDance.com
Moving on…
TOP 10 MOMENTS FROM MY 2 ½ YEARS IN COLLEGE AND DANCING
(in chronological order)
1. Moving to my dream city
2. Getting an internship at Pointe Magazine & seeing my first real (short) article printed
3. Dancing a soloist role in Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations with BAE
4. Working with big names in dance at BAE
5. Meeting the best teacher in the world
6. Finding the guts and opportunity to interview important people
7. Cashing my first major paycheck for performing with a ballet company
8. Having my website take off and getting writing opportunities from it
9. Starting my internship at The New Yorker
10. Realizing that all the hard work paid off as I graduate and move forward with both careers
To anyone who is torn between pursuing dance or falling back on college - I say YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL 
Last but not least, today we had another blogger meetup like the one at Cedar Lake a few weeks ago…this time it was at NYCB’s matinee performance, which was amazing by the way! I’m reviewing it for ExploreDance. It was nice to see all the other bloggers again!
