Funemployment?

The sting of my degree finishing and intermittently receiving those all important results has hit me hard.

I have been fortunate enough to complete the best 3 years of my life so far in the form of a Dance and Drama degree at Kingston University.  The blood, sweat and tears have all been worth it in terms of my growth as a person and my achievement of new skills.  The question is, has my particular degree been worth it in terms of now getting a job in the industry?

Now, I knew undertaking a degree in the Arts was a massive risk to take.  It seems almost impossible nowadays to get a job that pays the bills for you doing the thing you truly love, especially if it involves theatrical performance of any kind.  Perhaps I have shot myself in the foot here?!  

Unemployment so far has shown a great drop in my levels of motivation and a huge amount of uncertainty about what my reasons for getting a job may be.  For example, 'Ahh stuff it, should I just try and get a job at Foxtons because I'll get paid a lot?' 'No. Because people who work at Foxtons don't have a soul.'  'Ahh right, back to the drawing board I go then...'

Tell you what else sucks...not being able to tick the box 'Student' and having to move to 'Unemployed' instead, not cool.  Our student card discounts run out soon as well!  Noooo. Now we have to pay full price for stuff and everything.  Also not receieving any more student loan and instead facing the bitter realisation that YES YOU DO have to pay all that back!  Ouch.  Monopoly money no more...

As a graduate, you may find yourself making rash and totally unprovoked and or ill thought out decisions:

'Right!! That's it.  I'm going to Thailand to teach underprivileged children, and they're going to be pleased about it.  I'll probably like be made a head teacher there in the first 3 months...'

*Checks bank balance*

'Maybe I'll go next year instead...?'

Courtesy of : bumbumbee-tira.blogspot.com

I personally feel as though my whole unemployment situation phase is not that much fun at all.  Every time I go out and do something fun or relax, I have this niggling in my brain saying 'Oof you really should be getting on it now.  Get a job, you lazy thing!'  I have developed an actual fear of writing a proper Cv and my eye twitches every time I open up the dreaded document on Word.  I have probably put on what feels like a stone from emotional eating and sitting at the laptop and trawling through possible job options, and to top it off I feel like I don't have a driving force in my life.  A reason for being. 

My dad has told me to enjoy unemployment whilst I can, this is from a man who once held down 5 jobs at the same time when I was growing up to make sure we could like eat and stuff.  The man may have a point, but now that he's retired and finally unemployed he always says he's got to keep himself 'busy and doing little jobs' for fear of the minute that he stops, he dies.  That's what I kind of feel like I think.

I like having a purpose in life and a reason to get out of bed.  I genuinely thrive on challenges and am a competitive and hard working individual who gets a real kick out of getting paid for working hard.  I like to feel that I have earned my money and I am certainly no stranger to a working environment.  I just feel that waitressing/bar work isn't enough of a challenge for me anymore.  I want a job USING my degree please?  Then I promise I will look back at my unemployment phase and agree that it was quite fun after all!!  

  

Close Encounters

Swan Lake in-the-round, Dress Rehearsal

I’m pretty sure I must have had the best seat in the house for Tuesday night’s preview of Swan Lake; front row centre, and immediately next to a thrust of the stage – which provided a main entrance and exit for the dancers.

Photography by Ash
http://www.flickr.com/photos/englishnationalballet/sets/72157633595583731/

However, as I was about to discover, the position of your seat will not prevent your enjoyment of this fantastic performance!  The nature of this particular show being staged in the round means that any member of the audience has the opportunity of being inches away from the action, literally, at any given time.  Being in an aisle seat, I personally had the pleasure of being subjected to very close encounters with the performers.  And when I say close, I mean close.  The seaweed-like tendrils of wrath belonging to James Streeter’s costume, struck me on more than one occasion as he stormed on and off stage.  He played a fearless Rothbart showing an intense purpose which made us all gasp in delight.

This is not the only advantage of the staging.  Deane’s brave choice to use 60 swans for the production means that they flood the misty lake of the stage with ease, their synchronisation and canons meaning that you never miss a movement.  Your eyes take in the ghostly scenes unfolding from the haze; an overall closeness for the entire audience is achieved as their pirouettes and arabesques seem to reach every inch of the stage whilst remaining in perfect line formations.

Intimacy was achieved throughout the performance through the flawless technique showcased by the two principal roles of the evening, Daria Klimentová and Vadim Muntagirov, who personified a powerful chemistry as a duet.  A competitive edge was evident with each of them trying to surpass the efforts of the other during their pas de deux.  This took their already strong characters further, and gave a slight air of a mating ritual that was impossible to ignore.

Aside from the comments of approval that laced the audience as they left the Royal Albert Hall, perhaps the most talked about aspect of the adaptation was the welcome fairy tale ending.   You really must go and see it to believe it, from whichever seat you are sitting in!