Literature Review

Following my previous literature review, on 'Life after Dance: Career Transition for Professional Dancers', written by Joan Jeffri and David Throsby, I began to look into one of the authors, Joan Jeffri.

Joan Jeffri is the Founder and Director of the Research Centre for Arts and Culture. She is former Director of the programme in Arts Administration at Columbia University and past President of the Association of Arts Administration Educators and the International Arts Medicine Association. She has had multiple publications, and provides varying services, including: creating educational programmes, coaching, writing, research and mentorship.

Below is a link to her website, and a list of her publications:

http://joanjeffri.com/publications/

One of her publications, 'Making Changes: Facilitating the Transition of Dancers to Post- Performance Careers' (2004, with William J. Baumol and David Throsby), was used as the basis for 'Life after Dance: Career Transition for Professional Dancers' (which was published in the International Journal of Arts Management in 2006). 

The full paper on ' Making Changes: Facilitating the Transition of Dancers to Post- Performance Careers' can be seen on the link below:

http://www.tc.columbia.edu/centers/rcac/pdf/FullReport_14.pdf

'The many transfer- able skills and experience that professional dancers accumulate during their dancing years,  including self- discipline, team work, and stamina, are significant resources that are in danger of being unused as their active dancing careers come to an end'. (p. 16) 

This paper examines the main approaches used to ease the career transition process, (by dance companies, career transition centres etc.), by formulating a series of hypothesis, and testing them against available evidence. 

Multiple dancers (both current and former) across Australia, Switzerland and the USA were asked to complete a survey regarding career transitioning. It's interesting to see how the participants view this stage in their lives. Hypothesis 8 and 10, (p. 7) were of particular interest to me.

Seen below is one of the statements that 216 dancers (current and former) in Australia were asked to respond to. (p. 279) 'Many dancers do not realise that skills developed are transferable to other occupations', with the majority (115) answering agree/ agree strongly. 

If dancers were made aware that they acquire skills that are transferable to other occupations, maybe it would become easier for them to transfer these skills to other work- places, utilising them to their advantage.