As one of the “old timers”, I haven’t posted on the MT forum in quite a while but happened to stumble on this thread and noted the urgings of some posters for posts about successes outside of theatre, so here goes. My daughter graduated 4 years ago with a BFA in MT. During her senior year, she got certified as a Spinning instructor. Immediately after graduation, she also got certified as a personal trainer. She had always been a gym rat/fitness enthusiast and her thought process was that the fitness industry could be a great, fun and very flexible way to meet her survival employment needs post graduation. After graduation, she got a bunch of shows, both equity and non-equity, and racked up a load of EMC points. It looked to us that she was well on her way to building success in a performing career. Along the way, however, her “survival” employment took some very interesting turns. Tremendous opportunities were offered to her to grow and develop a career in the fitness industry. She was featured on television on the local news doing a series on fitness, was featured in major regional print and web based media, was asked to make a series of videos at a nearby beach resort for the web-zine division of a major regional magazine, was used as a print model in the major local newspaper and was offered a position as the general manager of the first indoor cycling studio in our city. As all of this evolved, she was also offered employment as a spinning and group fitness instructor and personal trainer at the largest most upscale fitness facility in our city. She also developed a very solid book of in home private personal training clients.
Suddenly, what had started out as a cool idea for survival employment had turned into a career. My daughter got to the point where she had to make decisions about prioritizing how to spend her time. The fitness industry “won”. She found it increasingly difficult to take time off for auditions and shows because of her sense of commitment to her clients, their reliance on her and the rapport and relationships she developed. And on a very practical level, she was making more each week on a consistent basis than Equity scale in Broadway productions without any of the vagaries that are an integral part of performing.
While my daughter loves performing and was experiencing successes at that, she has an equal passion for working in the fitness industry. She finds tremendous gratification in working with people assisting them to achieve their fitness and health goals and in many cases transforming their lives. She uses her creativity and performing skills on a daily basis in structuring her classes, connecting with clients both in group fitness classes and in personal training and in creating and projecting an atmosphere, “story” and imagery that keeps her clients engaged and inspired. On a daily basis, she gets “audience feedback”, both in person and on widespread website blogging, about how much she has touched other peoples’ lives.
So now, 4 years out, the fitness floor is now my daughter’s stage. Having attended her spinning classes, I have observed first hand how she uses her skills and talents as a performer to make those classes the huge success they are. My daughter continues to work as the manager of the cycling studio and will become an equity partner as it expands to a second location. She continues to work at the upscale fitness facility and with her private book of clients. She is going to be featured in July in an article in the largest cultural/social scene magazine in our region. In addition to the fitness industry, she continues to work as the dance manager and only female MC for a very successful entertainment company that stages life event parties in our region, a job where she started as dancer at the age of 15 and worked her way up.
My friends ask me how I feel about all of this, given that she trained so hard to be a “traditional” performer, spent 4 years in a BFA program and we spent 4 years of college tuition all for purposes of performing on the stage and she was achieving successes at that. My response: she is deliriously happy with what she is doing, is deriving tremendous gratification from her endeavors on a daily basis, has achieved great recognition as a professional in her business - and at the age of 26 is fully self supporting living in the heart of a dynamic, youthful city where her life is filled with loving and caring relationships. I think by any definition, that spells S-U-C-C-E-S-S.
