You may have noticed that I have not written here for the past few months.  I want to tell you about what I’ve been doing!  This semester I am completing a research project on how social and new media technologies are affecting choreography in the dance world.

I have been working the past two months with a group of six dancers to create a 10 minute performance/installation which explores Facebook as a virtual space and method of communication.  The piece incorporated projections, live interactions with social networks, and a choreographed flash mob that was organized through Facebook and Youtube.  I’ll put some clips from the performance up soon!

Being a dance major with six months left before I enter the real world of graduated folks, I am constantly asked “So are you going to dance professionally next year?”  When I say that no, in fact I’m planning on working in social media strategy, I generally receive a look that can be characterized by a mixture of surprise, interest, and pity.   “But how?” they exclaim!  I could go on for hours on how dancing has prepared me extremely well to do almost anything (maybe not molecular biology), but instead, I’ll leave you with five things I learned in the past few months from choreographing a 10-minute dance.

The message I’m trying to send is to be creative when it comes to your learning.  There is no one way to go about your education so be sure to look for opportunities in places you wouldn’t expect.  For me, that place was choreographing a dance piece.

Photo credit: All photos by Teague Hopkins.

It’s getting to that time of the year where us college students are wrapping up our summer internships and heading back to college. It’s pretty easy to just peace out on your last day and get swept up into the craziness that is your undergraduate education.

You don’t want to do that. Take a moment to run through this checklist to make sure you get the most and continue to get the most out of your summer job experience.

1. Create a space to maintain connections.

I’m not sure how I feel about LinkedIn. The site is pretty ugly from a design standpoint, and I haven’t made made any connections on it to people I didn’t already know. However, LinkedIn does offer a space for you to maintain connections that you made while at your internship.

Take some time to create a complete profile and then add your colleagues and connections. When you begin looking for a permanent position and need to ask for recommendations, you’ll be thankful that you stayed in contact with your colleagues.

75% of hiring managers use LinkedIn to research job candidates before making an offer, so even if you don’t see the immediate benefits on using the site, you can be sure that it is actually important to have a presence here. What if your colleagues aren’t on LinkedIn? See my next point…

2. Send a personal note to any individuals that you worked with directly.

Photo by kcolwell on Flickr

Sending a note isn’t just about sucking up to your boss (although a little flattery never hurts, does it?). Carefully think about what these people taught you and thank them for those specific things.

This will show that not only are you appreciative of your summer experience, but that you can reflect on what you have learned and grow from it. This also creates the space to contact your colleagues by email in the future.

The format of your note depends on the formality of your work environment. In more formal workplaces, a handwritten note might be appropriate, whereas in a more casual environment, a simple well-written email would be received just as well.

3. Make a list of what you accomplished on the job.

Keep a list of all the projects and accomplishment that you directly influenced and the specific impact that these projects had on your company. Be as specific as possible.

For example, instead of “Helped research search engine optimization strategies,” write down “Implemented specific SEO strategies which brought our forward-facing website from #9 to #1 on Google.” Not only will this help you update your resume more effectively, but you’ll also be able to better convey in future interviews what deliverables you have to offer.

4. Reflect on what you learned about yourself and your values.

I ask myself every Monday, “What did I learn last week?” To get the most out of your internship, you have to be consciously aware of what you are learning about yourself. Internships are the perfect time to try things out. Even if you didn’t have the super awesome internship experience you were hoping for, you now know what to look for and what to avoid when you are looking for a job in the future.

For example, I loved working this summer at NationalField because I had full control of choosing and executing my own projects. The startup atmosphere was exciting and fast-paced and I was able to set my own hours.

What did you like or dislike about your internship this summer? Make sure you remember these things when looking for a permanent position in the future.

I went to a seminar last week where Seth Godin talked about how to become a linchpin.  He talked about the things he usually talks about: being irreplaceable, spreading messages that are worth spreading, being willing to fail, etc.

Photo Credit: Wa-J on Flickr

It was an extremely engaging talk and got me to thinking about how the dance world could really benefit from his advice.

Dance is going through a very interesting and somewhat frightening revolution.  We are seeing a new culture emerge that embraces “the hired body,” the dancer that masters a set of techniques dictated by a specific dance vocabulary, almost like a checklist.

That’s a lot of jargony language, but basically what I’m saying is that today, dancers are being trained so that they can be hired.  They are being trained so that no matter what kind of movement a choreographer gives them, they will be able to do it.

The problem with this is that instead of becoming artists, instead of becoming linchpins, and instead of becoming irreplaceable, these dancers become cogs.  At the very best, they become exceptional at being told what to do.

Photo Credit: PhillyLambs on Flickr

We see this on shows like So You Think You Can Dance all the time.  They accept exceptionally trained dancers that can convincingly perform any style of dance that is thrown at them.  And they are all very good at being told what to do.

So what’s wrong with being told what to do? A lot!  It creates the impression that the only way to be successful as a dancer is to be a hirable body, when in reality if that is all you can do, you’ll be replaced by some 18-year-old by the time you are 27.

You shouldn’t be able to write down art.  Art is about self-expression but it seems that the emphasis in mainstream dance is trending towards perfection and mastery.  It makes people describe the dance world as “cutthroat” instead of supportive and innovative.

I’m not arguing that technique isn’t necessary.  I’m arguing that having good technique shouldn’t be measured by someone being able to execute a checklist of movements.

Singers and musicians aren’t respected just because they can hit high notes; they are respected because they put their heart and soul into their work to create true art.  Dancers should be judged no differently.

Photo by Yannick Bindert

So what do we do? We give dancers the tools to be successful while being different.  We create a community that allows people to fail in order to promote innovation.  I think we can learn a lot from the avant-garde fashion industry, which praises and respects designers and artists that take a chance, even if they (or their models) fall on their face.

We need to show dancers that you can still make beautiful art without pointing your toes all the time or being able to do a triple pirouette into a front flip suicide.

Let’s make real artists and not just hired bodies.

By slworking2 on Flickr

In a traditional company, employees roll into the office at 9 am, bleary-eyed and holding a cup of coffee, ready (or not) for another 8+ hour day.  This is the way it has always been, so why change things now?

Because the status quo in the workplace is changing.  The 9-5 workday is antiquated, inefficient, and needs to be re-examined.

A case study: 37signals, the makers of Basecamp and a slew of other cloud-based tools, instituted a 4-day work week a couple years back with the philosophy that with three-day weekends, people come back more refreshed on Monday and actually work harder and more efficiently during the four-day work week.  They found that about the same amount of work gets done in four days versus five days.

Here is my plea:

• Don’t mandate the hours that your employees work. Instead, tell them what meetings they need to be at in person and let them choose their own hours.  They will get their work done more efficiently if they work at the time that is best for them.
• Don’t measure employees’ performance by how many hours they work. Instead, measure their effectiveness by how much work they get done.
• Don’t micromanage your employees. Instead, hire people that are driven and don’t need constant supervision.
• Don’t expect your employees to work for 8 hours straight, unless you are going to provide them illegally with Ritalin and caffeine pills.

As Seth Godin has said, we might as well say goodbye to the office as it is archetypically defined.  You can embrace the changes and figure out how they affect your workplace or you can fight the changes and probably piss off your employees.

Changing the 9-5 work schedule might not work for all companies, but my hope is that companies stop blindly accepting workplace norms just because that’s the way things have been done.  Change starts with a simple conversation, so start a dialogue in your office!

This was just too cool not to share with you all. If you didn’t know, Oprah has been holding a competition to find a standout TV personality for her new network.

I’m sure the network producers weren’t expecting the TV personality that seems to be running away with the competition.  Meet: Zach Anner.

I think this is great. Zach Anner is a comedian who has cerebral palsy. These are two things that you wouldn’t generally put together, but why not? The more underrepresented minority groups we have on TV, the easier it is to fight against all forms of prejudice and discrimination. I urge you to go vote for Zach. The last day is July 3rd!