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113. Breaking the Burnout Cycle in Dance with Rylie Beck of Inner Studio
112 Plays15 hours ago
What if becoming a stronger dancer had less to do with pushing harder and more to do with creating space to breathe?
In this episode of The Brainy Ballerina Podcast, I’m joined by former professional dancer and founder of Inner Studio, Rylie Beck, to talk about burnout, dancer identity, nervous system regulation, and the mental habits that so many dancers struggle with behind the scenes.
Rylie shares her journey from student to professional, and how repeated experiences with burnout ultimately led her to create Inner Studio - an online platform offering guided meditations, visualizations, and wellness resources designed specifically for dancers.
This episode is so healing and necessary to start unpacking the pressures dancers face to constantly achieve and the culture of self-criticism that is so prevalent in our industry. You’ll walk away not only feeling completely seen but with practical tools to start building a healthier relationship with dance.
Key “Pointes” in this Episode:
- The realities of burnout in the professional dance world
- The culture of negative self-talk and perfectionism in dance
- Why rest feels so difficult for many dancers
- Simple nervous system regulation techniques dancers can use every day
- The benefits of meditation, visualization, and journaling
- How mental rehearsal can improve performance without physical strain
- The inspiration behind Inner Studio and how it supports dancers
- Why dance educators should introduce wellness tools earlier in training
- The importance of trusting your own inner wisdom throughout your career
Connect with Rylie
WEBSITE: https://inner-studio-affiliate-program.peachs.co/a/caitlin-sloan-1 (affiliate link)
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/innerstudio.app/
Links & Resources:
REGISTER FOR SEE AND BE SEEN: https://eisenhowerdance.org/beseen
SHOP MSeam Apparel: https://mseamapparel.com/ (use code BRAINY25 at checkout for 25% off all items)
Let’s connect!
My WEBSITE: thebrainyballerina.com
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/thebrainyballerina
Questions/comments? Email me at caitlin@thebrainyballerina.com
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Transcript
Caitlin's Ballet Journey Begins
00:00:00
Speaker
I definitely had that experience of like, I am going to be a professional ballet dancer. I'm going to move through the professional ballet track. You know, it starts with this and then I go to apprentice and then I go to this and I go to that. And that wasn't the the plan for me. And I think that the meditation piece, what I've found, it slows you down to be able to then create the space to like see all the opportunities.
00:00:26
Speaker
I'm Caitlin, a former professional ballerina turned dance educator and career mentor, and this is the Brand New Ballerina podcast. I am here for the aspiring professional ballerina who wants to learn what it really takes to build a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry.
00:00:42
Speaker
I'm peeling back the curtain of professional dance world with open and honest conversations about the realities of becoming a professional dancer. Come along to gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to succeed in a dance career on your terms.
00:01:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Brainy Ballerina podcast.
Riley Beck's Transition from Dance to Entrepreneurship
00:01:03
Speaker
I'm your host, Caitlin Sloan, and I am joined today by Riley Beck. Riley is a former professional ballet dancer turned founder of Inner Studio, an online platform for guided meditations, visualizations, and workshops designed to support the whole dancer. Riley, we're going to talk all about Inner Studio today, but first, could you tell us a bit about your professional dance career?
00:01:25
Speaker
hi Yes, absolutely. My, I guess, roots started in Kansas. So I am from a town just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. i grew up just like I would say most dancers in a small hometown studio quickly just realized that that was the path for me. From when I was three onwards, that was my life. That was what I wanted to do. And in high school, I really started taking dance more seriously and started going to summer intensives. i spent three summers at ballet Austin, which was so fun. i loved it. And going into my last year of high school, it really started to make sense to me to start looking at more pre-professional program.
00:02:07
Speaker
I had been auditing classes at UMKC, college for performing arts. I was really just looking for that deeper training and had my mind set out on becoming a professional dancer. And so I started looking at different programs and I fell in love with Charlotte Ballet. um It was formerly North Carolina Dance Theater. and I ended up going to a summer program there. getting accepted into their training program. And that's where I kind of ended out, I would say like my high school years into my early professional career. So I was really lucky to get to take class from Patricia McBride every day, who is such a sweetie and an idol for
Challenges in Professional Dance and Mental Health
00:02:46
Speaker
me. From there, I decided that Austin, Texas was a city that I just loved and really wanted to be spending more time there. i
00:02:55
Speaker
Like I said before, had spent time doing summer intensives out there and fell in love with the company itself. It's a similar style with that Balanchine technique. I would say like an adjusted Balanchine technique. It's very specific to ballet Austin and ended up going out there and joining their Butler fellowship program. From there, I moved to Tucson, Arizona and joined ballet Tucson and danced in the company there. And after that, i started to kind of decline in my mental health. I had a lot of like inner thoughts in my head that were really starting to just deteriorate my mind and my body. And I would say that Arizona was kind of that pivotal point where i was dancing there and I was loving dancing, but I was also waking up at 4.30 in the morning and I was working as a private chef for a family ahead of time. And I just hit a level of burnout, I think being in that space that I had to take a step back and realize what is coming next in my life. And dance is what I wanna do, but it's also like killing me at the same time I felt in that moment. And so I ended up leaving Arizona, moving home, And my thought was, and this is me, you know, early 20s, it's like, I'm done with dance forever. I'm going to move somewhere and I'm going to study Ayurveda. That was the thing I wanted to do. I wanted to study holistic nutrition for dancers because as we know, there's so much room for growth in that regard in the dance community. And so I took a few months off and just kind of was getting back to myself and
00:04:32
Speaker
really taking a lot of like long walks and diving into meditation. And it sounds like forever in my mind, like the the amount of time that I took off dance, but I think it was only two or three months.
00:04:43
Speaker
I really missed it. And I wanted to go back and take a ballet class. And I didn't know where to go. i was taking some classes at Kansas City Ballet, just their adult open classes. And I had a friend that said, oh, there's this company, a circus performing arts company in Kansas City, like Cirque du Soleil. They do drop-in classes. It's like $5. Go take a class and see you know see what happens. And it was the first time that I felt like I was dancing for me and not for somebody else in
Creative Freedom and New Beginnings
00:05:10
Speaker
that class. And immediately after that, the dance director of the company came up to me and she's like,
00:05:16
Speaker
Who are you? Where are you from? Where did you dance? Like you're not just somebody random off the street that's coming in as a dancer. kind of gave her my background and said I was in the Kansas City area for who knows how long.
00:05:29
Speaker
She said, well, we really need an extra dancer. And we're going on a gig to Mexico next week. Can you learn this choreography and come with us? And in my mind, I was thinking, Oh my gosh, like traveling and dancing. That's awesome. At the time I had to say no, because it was my brother's wedding next week.
00:05:47
Speaker
But I ended up joining that company and dancing with them for over four years. They're called Quixotic Fusion. They're like Cirque du Soleil, but they do a lot of corporate events. So we would do a lot of Cirque based opener shows for corporate conferences all over the world.
00:06:03
Speaker
and also self-produced shows as well. And that was a really amazing time, I think, where I got to discover my artistry outside of maybe the box of ballet. I've always felt like I was the black sheep in the ballet studio. And i was always the dancer that had her arm a little higher than everyone else or a leg a little bit out of the, you know.
00:06:23
Speaker
I never quite fit into the corps de ballet world, even though I loved ballet so much. And so this company really gave me a chance to work on my artistry.
00:06:34
Speaker
And I did a lot of solo work, but then also work with a team. And it was a lot of ballet dancers that were in the area. It was just a very expanding time for me. And after that, I kind of started to fall into another mental mental pattern of overworking myself and another round of burnout came. And that ended up being about the same time that COVID hit.
00:06:59
Speaker
And at that moment, I remember sitting there and i was you know working on something in the studio and our director came in and said, i don't know how to tell you guys this, but every gig we have for the next two years just canceled on us in the last 30 minutes.
00:07:18
Speaker
And we were all like, okay, what do we do? Kind of a direction shift. That was a really, i would say difficult time, just as far as what does this new pivot look like? Not only for me, but for everyone that was in the company. I ended up going on a road trip during that time, a camping trip during COVID.
00:07:38
Speaker
falling in love with a small town in Northern Idaho, very close to the Canadian border. And I ended up moving there on a whim with my boyfriend and we are still there. We're still in this town and we have just been loving it And I have since kind of shifted from dancing professionally to teaching and really learning so much about my own relationship with dance through being a teacher now. And that's kind of where I'm landing here today. So that's kind of the the long and the short, I guess. Yeah, I can relate to so much of that.
Support Systems in Dance Education
00:08:13
Speaker
If you're a dancer starting to think about college or a parent trying to navigate the often overwhelming world of dance admissions, I want to tell you about an event that I wish more dancers knew about.
00:08:25
Speaker
CNBC is a unique college recruitment weekend designed to connect dancers with college dance programs in a supportive, non-competitive environment focused on growth, learning, and possibility.
00:08:38
Speaker
Hosted by Detroit Metropolitan Dance, formerly Eisenhower Dance Detroit, at Central City Dance in Canton, Michigan, this two-day event takes place October 3rd and 4th and brings together dancers, parents, and college representatives from programs across the United States.
00:08:55
Speaker
Unlike a traditional audition setting, CMBC gives you multiple opportunities to engage with schools through college fair style booths, masterclasses taught by college faculty, panel discussions, and workshops.
00:09:09
Speaker
In addition to these classes and workshops, dancers can audition and receive valuable feedback while being considered for admissions, scholarships, and other opportunities. And the programming goes beyond auditions too.
00:09:22
Speaker
Dancers and parents can attend sessions covering topics like navigating the college application process, FAFSA and financial aid, careers in dance, nutrition, health and wellness, injury prevention, resilience, and preparing for life beyond high school.
00:09:36
Speaker
Whether you're just beginning your college search or preparing to audition this year, seeing and be seen offers a chance to learn, connect, and gain clarity on your next steps.
00:09:47
Speaker
To learn more and register, head to the link in the show notes and start planning for an inspiring weekend this October. You mentioned the burnout was definitely a factor for you. Were there specific experiences that you had as a pro dancer that made you realize that dancers, all dancers, need more support mentally and emotionally?
00:10:07
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's an accumulation of so many small moments. One thing that I feel a lot of is in the dance company environment, at least, there's a lot of people that talk about the struggle, but there's not a lot of action that goes with it. So so there's not a lot of solution. And I'm somebody that likes to find solutions for things. And so, yeah, there are moments, I think, specifically, i think in the dance world, where if you have to work a job outside of then going to dance for eight plus hours a day and on the weekends, you don't necessarily have the time to be able to come back to yourself and kind of regulate and learn just the ways that you want to move through the world outside of being a dancer. And then I think another thing with the burnout is the identity of being a dancer. And there's so much that goes with that because you have to have that identity to be able to move to the level of dance that you want to be in.
00:11:05
Speaker
You have to have that drive. And at the same time, sometimes that identity can become your world and you forget that you're a human outside of being a dancer. And then what happens if you ever decide to step away from dancing professionally, or if you get an injury or whatnot, it's an earth shattering moment when you realize I have to be outside of the studio and a human.
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah, an accumulation of a lot of small moments, but that really feels like one of them to me is, yeah, that feeling of of pulling everything together and and realizing that you are a human first and a dancer second and not being so immersed. Because when you're so immersed and it's you're hyper fixated on everything, there's not a lot of balance in your life and that's where the burnout can really hit. Yeah, and it's so hard because I had the exact same experience as you, like dancing for Valley Tucson. I had a schedule where I woke up and babysat 7 to 9 a.m., went to rehearsal 10 to 4, and then worked at a restaurant 4, 30, and 9, 30. And I just yeah rinse and repeat. And it's it's so unsustainable, and you just can't –
00:12:05
Speaker
keep it going like that, but you also can't not because you have to pay your rent and you have to pay your bills. And so you're just in this constant cycle. Are there any other patterns that you really noticed in yourself or in people around you in the dance world that you think we fall into, whether that's out of necessity or because we just think we have to as dancers?
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah, good question. A lot of things that I noticed, even as a student in some of these professional company environments, was that There's a lot of negative self-talk in the dance world. And I think that that's a pattern that just feels culturally like what you do. You go away for Thanksgiving and you come back and you're like, I feel like a slug or like, you know, or worse, you know, people say some crazy things in the dance studio. But like, I think that there's this feeling of like, somebody else maybe said something that was a little self-depriving. And then there's another kind of person that feels like, well, then they need to say something because it kind of creates this this negative cycle. And I don't think that that's necessarily
00:13:07
Speaker
Something that's intentional that's happening. I think it's just something that becomes kind of that like subconscious patterning that you just fall into or you hear it over time as a student. Like I remember hearing it as a student and being like these beautiful women that I'm looking up to are just talking poorly about themselves and I'm looking at them as my idol. And like that doesn't make sense to me. You know, at the time, like being like the kind of small, like pre-pro and in the company class, you're like, you can't tell anyone like, you're beautiful. Like, I i didn't feel like I could, you know, but like, I think that there are moments like that that might have hit me differently. And that might have made me start to like consider how i talked about myself as well. Yeah. Like if you hear somebody that you really look up to, something bad about themselves, and you're also like, well, what do they think about me? If they think that about themselves, like how awful must I be? And then it just starts to really, yes like you said, be a very toxic cycle.
00:14:02
Speaker
And it's almost like how we try to relate to each other as dancers, like who can be the most yeah self-deprecating. Absolutely. It is one of those things. And yeah, the power of positivity is a real thing. Our words become our reality. And so just being really conscious of the words that we put out into the world, because that's our mirror back to us. And that's what we're telling the world that we are. So if you're telling the world that you're this, then that's what the world is going to show you back. So so really just being...
00:14:31
Speaker
I don't even want to say careful, but it takes a level of self-love to be able to to speak those words out into the world. Yeah. And I think a lot of dancers really think that the anxiety, the overworking, the self-criticism are just part of being dedicated. Like the more I do this, I'm a real dancer. I'm really dedicated to my craft. And I also think we hear a lot that like we need to listen to our bodies. We need to slow down and take time to rest.
00:14:57
Speaker
And we all know that. and we would tell it to our friends. But when it comes to ourselves, it's so hard. Why do you think it's so hard for us as dancers to feel safe actually resting?
00:15:08
Speaker
o It's language, like language from the very beginning. Like you hear teachers. I had a teacher that used to say, for Christmas break. It was like, for every one day that you take off is like two weeks of not dancing or something, something along the regards of that. And it kind of puts this like thing in your head of it. Well, if I stop, if I slow down, there's so many different like angles. It could be, I'm not going to be loved. but I'm not going to be seen. I'm not going to be this or that. And yeah, the rest piece is so interesting. and And like, as you're saying this, it's something that came to mind is I used to get annoyed in the dance class, but like, some of the dancers that, for lack of like better words, like just didn't care, like didn't have like that, like holding on that grip were some of like the best dancers in the class or the most flexible dancers in the class or whatever it was. And you're always like, but they're not trying, you know, it was like one of those things, they're not trying.
00:16:03
Speaker
I'm trying so hard, you know, but I think there's something to that. Like when there's This loosening of the grip. I talk a lot about breath and just breath and like how we move. And like I was somebody that held my breath all the time when I was balancing or doing anything really in dance. And so that was something I had to learn to hold on to something or to like grip something so tight doesn't give it space to breathe. The loosening of the grip allows the space to breath breathe and grow into what You need to be, it brings oxygen, you know, into your body and there's a tight grip, but I do think it comes from language over time. And it starts from the very beginning because you're told from so young that to be a serious dancer, you have to be there every single day. The thing is, is there's truth to that. You do have to show up, but how can you create mental spaciousness in showing up?
00:16:53
Speaker
That is kind of that like counter space to actually settle in and be the dancer you're meant to be. o Yeah, because I feel like it gets to the point where you feel like you can't miss a day out of fear instead of out of wanting to be there.
00:17:10
Speaker
I mean, I was the dancer who actually i would rather not go at all than be late. Like if I showed up late to class, my mom would be like, okay, go in the studio. And I was like, I can't. Go in. Take me home.
00:17:21
Speaker
Class already started. Like I was so scared to be late because I was like, that was such a thing that was driven into us. Like you have to be on time. have to be on time. But then you're also a kid. I have three siblings. My mom's trying to drive every person in my family around different places. It's out of my control sometimes, out of her control. So it's like things happen, but you're scared almost. Yeah, it's like you started this because you love it and you want to be there.
00:17:42
Speaker
and then all of a sudden it becomes like this fear. If I miss a day, if I'm late for class at all, then I'm going to fall behind. Then I won't make it. And then it becomes... less joyful. Definitely. And from personal experience, what I can say is if you don't make the room for rest, rest will find you in the ways that it needs to find you. Because i definitely remember there were times specifically in Arizona where i was sick as a dog. I came back from Nutcracker or the last day of Nutcracker, ended up having like 103 degree fever that didn't break for days and days and days. And I was out and looking back on it now, I can tell that that was my body saying, you needed to rest. Like you were overstretched. And like, that was the only way that you were going to be able to rest is to like literally put you in bed and say, you can't get up. And so yeah I think being able to start those conversations with the dancers younger to kind of
00:18:39
Speaker
show how you can incorporate rest in really easy ways. Like rest could look like five minutes before class, just closing your eyes and breathing and doing a certain breathing exercise. Or rest could look like at the end of the day when you get back from a full day of rehearsals or a full day of classes, depending on where you're at in your journey. you know, after dinner, just doing like a decompression meditation to kind of reset and come back to like life outside of the studio to create that
Inner Studio: Meditation and Mindfulness for Dancers
00:19:07
Speaker
balance. That's a lot of what I am creating with inner studio is those practices.
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Speaker
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00:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel like you just touched on my next question because I wanted to ask you if you can talk about how dancers can really start to regulate their nervous system and often in small ways and ways that they can apply, you know, even just in the studio. Yeah, absolutely. Inner studio is a great place to start. Outside of just the practices that are in there, like box breathing is a great thing. Like if you start to get anxious or you start to feel a little like whether it's scattered or your heart starts racing, box breathing is just breathing in for four counts, like holding at the top of the breath for four counts. And then releasing that breath for four counts and doing that four times. That's something that's like an easy thing that if you just needed to like in between classes, when you're putting on your pointe shoes, when you're going to the restroom, whatever that might be, if you're starting to feel that tense or like jittery feeling in your body, that's such an easy one to just kind of bring you back into that regulated state. And really the nervous system is doing a job. But the problem is, is when it thinks the job in the dance studio is to keep you safe. And so to be able to come back and say, hey, body, yes, I am safe here. I'm choosing to be here right now.
00:21:31
Speaker
and just kind of reminding yourself of that. Another one is journaling. i think journaling, I put it off for so long. When I was younger, it could start in two different ways. if If you're new to journaling and you want to really have some structure with it, it's so easy to start your day. I did this when I lived in Austin, starting my day with three things I'm grateful for and then three things that I wanted to show up in the world as for the day. And then at the end of the day, three things that happened that i was so excited about or so grateful for. Because I think a lot of times we can look at our days and be like all the things that went wrong.
00:22:09
Speaker
And so to be able to kind of create the habit of finding all the things that went right is really awesome. And then if you've done journaling or you're kind of, you don't want the structure of it, it's just word dumping. Just write all of your thoughts out. And even if it doesn't make sense, just writing it really does something to the body that just settles it as well. And then the Inner Studio app has categories for all different sorts of the dancers experience and there are guided practices in that. And so that's been a really fun and exciting thing for me to be working on in the last few months.
00:22:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Tell us more about Inner Studio. What is it exactly? Who's it for? What kind of support is inside? I did the sleep meditation last night and that was incredible. By the end of it, I was literally feeling was melting into my bed. it was amazing. So tell us all about Inner Studio. Like I said, when I stepped away from performing, I started teaching and started to notice all of these things that I thought were just a personal experience as a dancer realizing, oh, this is a collective, like everybody moves through this. And I started teaching high school girls that were on a competition team and they were doing long days of school and they were all like excellent students taking, you know, the extracurriculars, all the things that and then coming to dance and dancing all night. I just could tell they were so stretched. They would beg to have like, they knew I did meditations and led guided meditations. And they would like, every class would be like, can we do a meditation at the end of class?
00:23:40
Speaker
And I was like, of course. And also I can't do that every class because that takes out of our class time too. So there were moments when I really could tell they needed it, whether it was finals week or right before their first competition of the season when they're in extra rehearsals or whatnot.
00:23:55
Speaker
But I started doing that and seeing the actual physical difference in their dancing before meditation and after meditation and not only the physical difference in their dancing, but their difference in their energy, their faces. Like, i was like, oh my gosh, okay, there's something there. So Inner Studio was created for them. it was created for like the younger version of myself who so desperately needed a place to come back to, to remember who I was and who they are. And it has a collection of guided meditations and visualizations to support the whole answer. So mind, body, spirit, and we have five categories. There is prepare, there is recover, there is rest, there is reconnect, there is beyond the studio. Each of those categories has different meditations in them for very specific experiences. So there's one for rest without guilt. And it takes you through the experience when you're feeling like, if you're somebody like myself that has a hard time just like sitting down, like I'm not a napper, i know I probably could nap more, but just creating space in your day for something like that. Or there's an awesome prepare meditation, it's eight minutes. So you can listen to it before class or while you're driving or in the morning, you know when you're drinking your coffee, but it gets you in the head space for the day ahead. it really walks you through
00:25:19
Speaker
the different nervous system techniques and and regulations for each of those experiences. There's one for injury, which I think is so important because so many dancers have a hard time with injuries. Like it's not fun for anyone. i mean, an injury isn't fun, but especially for a dancer. So to be able to create that space that comes back to yourself and really just reminds you that whatever's happening in your world is is there for a reason and you're gonna get through it. Yeah, outside of that, there are workshops. So I'm working with some awesome dancers in the industry to kind of create, there'll be seasonal workshops, so for a year, and those will look anything like maybe a nutrition class or maybe it's a somatic movement expert.
00:26:04
Speaker
I love it. And I'd love to hear from you about what role meditation visualization have played in your own relationship with dance and you you know just kind of working through this almost healing you had to go through. Like every dancer has to go through as we sort of shift from the identity of what we think we're going to be as a dancer to what we kind of become.
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. That exact what we think we're going to be as a dancer and what we're going to become. I definitely had that experience of like, I am going to be a professional ballet dancer. I'm going to move through the professional ballet track. You know, it starts with this and then I go to apprentice and then I go to this and I go to that.
00:26:43
Speaker
And that wasn't the the plan for me. And I think that the meditation piece really What I've found, it slows you down to be able to then create the space to like see all the opportunities. Cause sometimes like when we're in it and we're training, we can be on a very one track mind. But if you take just a few moments and like, again, none of the meditations in inner studio, at least are over 15 minutes because I know a dancer, if it's taking too much of their time, they're not going to do it. So everything is within it ah space that feels attainable within a daily life of a dancer, but
00:27:17
Speaker
Taking that moment to slow down and create the space to then be able to really see all the options on the table or maybe just see that those like pieces that you're missing. And I think it does take that slowness and that quiet that's in your mind to be able to see that because so much of our time is spent being in our heads. So it kind of offers that sense to get out of your head. And that definitely helped me in my experience. And then visualization is something really interesting, like a visual rehearsal. Some dance teachers talk about it. They use it a lot in sports, but the the closing of your eyes and visually practicing everything that you're doing. So like football players use it a lot and they will go through their plays in their heads and they imagine doing every single thing exactly, like catching the ball in the right way. And like to apply it to a dancer's world is like, If you're really trying to get your triple pirouette, if you imagine it in your head and you feel it in your body, like you have to kind of pull yourself down into a certain type of like slowness to be able to get into that energy, but you start to feel yourself do that pirouette. and land it perfectly or do the jump, whatever it might be.
00:28:24
Speaker
There's scientific studies that are backed with this to show how much that this helps dancers and athletes. And so that was a big piece for me when I was moving through to my kind of, i would say like my second half of career with the circus performing arts company and being able to rehearse all of my acts or, you know, the dance choreography pieces we had with my earbuds on and not necessarily like physically exhausting my body to do it, but still having the same results as if I had been practicing in the studio. But those are the two ways that they've impacted me in a personal way. But I think the biggest piece is to be able to pull yourself out and see your life from a bigger picture. Whereas sometimes when we're moving through our day to day, We're seeing it so close up that maybe we're missing some of those things that are maybe just right in front of our eyes. Yeah, that's really good. And just having that trust that like your body knows what to do.
00:29:21
Speaker
You know what to do because the dance world does really celebrate like the hustle. You always feel like you're behind. You always feel like there's not enough time. My career is short. There's like always that rhetoric. So letting yourself like just take a breath. And like you said, they're short you know meditations. They're not going to take your whole day, 10 minutes before class, you'd probably scroll on your phone during that time anyway, replace it with a meditation from inner studio and just see how that class goes. See if it makes a difference for you.
00:29:49
Speaker
Exactly. Yes. What conversations do you hope the dance world starts having more openly because of your work, because of the people like you who are introducing these different tools to the dancers?
00:30:03
Speaker
One thing is definitely would love to see more conversations happening in the teaching world around this, because I think if we start these conversations from a young age and normalize it, then we're mitigating a lot of those issues that come up in high school. or kind of like in that middle ground where like start to be a little self-conscious or different things come up that start to feel, yeah, you know what it's like to be a teenager. and So hard. Yes. That's a big one for me. And that's a lot of what I'm doing right now is studio outreach and creating studio partnerships to say, hey, for those dancers that are on that pre-professional track or on the serious competition team, Like, what does it look like to start providing those resources from a studio perspective and being able to offer that to your your students and your community? So that's a big one, because I do think that if the conversations start earlier and we could start integrating the practices earlier, then some of the things that I went through as a teenager might not have existed if I had started some sort of at least just knowing that there's tools that I could use for when I get anxious or when I get really like bad stage fright or whatnot. And then outside of that, yeah, I think it's a bigger conversation within the dance community of checking in on your friends, just being more open and transparent with where we're at, because we're performers. Like, that's what we do. And it's really easy to slap a smile on your face. and say everything's fine and that I don't need help and whatever that might be when really maybe even just a conversation with somebody in an open and transparent way could solve all the problems that you might be having. Because you could have like that thing of like a reflection from a classmate or somebody that says like,
00:31:49
Speaker
No, you're on the right path, you know, like you're doing great. And then outside of that, I would say just, yeah, creating that more normalcy and finding aligned rest. Because for dancers, it's one thing to say, like, you want to rest, you can do all that. Like in the wellness world, it's a really big thing, but it's hard to make that connection as a dancer when you're like, but I physically have to be.
00:32:11
Speaker
strong and I have to be like moving and stretching and keeping up with my training. And so finding those balanced moments of rest, I think is is another really key piece to this. And I hope that the industry can take something from that.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Last question I have for you. If you had to give dancers who are pursuing their professional career, one piece of advice, what would you tell them everything that you learned throughout your career?
Trusting Inner Knowledge in Dance Career Decisions
00:32:38
Speaker
Don't outsource your inner knowledge. I think a lot of times we outsource what we believe to be right for ourselves based on what our teachers are saying or what other, you know, the the industry is saying. And when it comes down to it, we all know what's right for ourselves.
00:32:55
Speaker
And we don't have to outsource that information to be told from somebody else what's right for us and what's wrong for us. And so that would be a really big piece that I would love to share is don't outsource your inner knowledge.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yes. Thank you so much for this, Riley. This has been so interesting. I hope that every dancer listening checks out Inner Studio and just see if this kind of resource could be helpful for you in your training. If anybody listening wants to learn more about your work at Inner Studio, where can they find you?
00:33:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. um So you can find us on our website at www.innerstudio.app. or on social media at interstudio.app. Okay, perfect. I'll put that all in the show notes. Thank you so much, Raleigh. This was such a great conversation. I really appreciate you. Awesome. I appreciate you. so nice to to meet you.
00:33:49
Speaker
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00:34:01
Speaker
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00:34:14
Speaker
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