Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
53. Ballet without Brutality: Tanya Trombly’s Bulletproof Approach to a Dance Career
173 Plays26 days ago
Tanya Trombly, a freelance ballet dancer with over 20 years of professional career experience and founder of Bulletproof Ballerina, sits down with me today to discuss how her stubbornness and tenacity has helped her vision and goals become a reality.
We chat about what it’s like to go through the mental and physical challenges that come with relying so much on what you look like and how Tanya overcame those challenging obstacles in order to get to a much healthier place in both her life and career.
Much of the work that Tanya focuses on revolves around helping other dancers build confidence around the bodies that they were born with. Tanya shares that she feels as though she wasted so much time trying to change her body and now she wants to educate other ballet dancers on how to nourish their bodies rather than deplete them.
Key “Pointes” in this Episode :
- Early Dance Days: How growing up at a more casual studio was a better fit than a ballet conservatory
- Dance in College: Why Tanya chose Mercyhurst University
- Transition to the Professional World: Why Tanya didn’t think she’d make it as a ballerina and what helped her land her first professional contract
- Freelancing: What it takes to sustain a 20+ year career as a freelancer in NYC
- Health and Fitness: Why Tanya has built a business around these concepts
- Self-destruction vs. Nurturing: How Tanya is helping other dancers heal
- Business Growth: How dance has helped Tanya grow her business
- What the Future Holds: Tanya shares her big dreams she is currently pursuing
Connect with Tanya:
INSTAGRAM: @bulletproof_ballerina
WEBSITE: bulletproofballerina.com
Links and Resources:
Set up ticketing for your next event with DRT (Make sure to mention that The Brainy Ballerina sent you!)
Get your copy of The Intentional Career Handbook
1-1 Career Mentoring: book your complimentary career call
Let’s connect!
My WEBSITE: thebrainyballerina.com
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/thebrainyballerina
Questions/comments? Email me at caitlin@thebrainyballerina.com
This episode was brought to you by the Pivot Ball Change Network.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Kaitlyn and Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
And I think it's because I was so open to anything and said yes to things. And I put a lot of hard work into. That's not to say that things just fell in my lap. I think the universe read my energy. i was very much a workhorse and could push myself pretty hard. The universe just rewarded me for where I was planting my seeds.
00:00:22
Speaker
and feel very fortunate for the career that I've had. i I couldn't have planned it better myself, but I think it's because I didn't plan it that it turned out the way that it did.
00:00:34
Speaker
I'm Kaitlyn, 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.
00:00:50
Speaker
I'm peeling back the curtain of the 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.
00:01:08
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Brainy Ballerina podcast.
Meet Tanya Trombley and Her Ballet Journey
00:01:11
Speaker
I'm your host, Caitlin Sloan, and I am joined today by Tanya Trombley. Tanya is a freelance ballet dancer with over 20 years of professional experience, a health and fitness coach, and the founder of Bulletproof Ballerina.
00:01:24
Speaker
Tanya, I am so thrilled to connect with you today, and I would love to hear why did you take your very first dance class? Well, thank you for having me, Caitlin. I'm so excited to share my story.
00:01:35
Speaker
I guess the story goes, i don't remember much of this, but I guess I started crawling in a very different way. I kind of crawled with my legs straight and my hips up in the air like a downward dog position. so it was very clear I was not normal from the start. And I also would just dance around the house whenever the radio came on. so My mom took those cues.
00:02:00
Speaker
She also said that put Dixie cups on my feet, those little paper, like three ounce Dixie cups and would pretend like I had pointe shoes on. So I obviously loved ballet from the start.
00:02:11
Speaker
And she enrolled me in the local studio when I was three years old. And here we are 40 years later, still dancing and loving it. so What was your training like growing up?
00:02:25
Speaker
So from three years old until the end of eighth grade, I went to the local dance studio and I started doing ballet and tap and kind of fell in love with it and just started enrolling in all the other forms of dance that they had. So I ended up doing jazz and clogging and Hawaiian and Tahitian and acrobatics.
00:02:50
Speaker
So I just kind of spent my life at the dance studio when I was younger. And they actually gave me some assistant teaching opportunities and they really tried to build me up as much as possible.
00:03:02
Speaker
And I'm super grateful for that. That studio closed at the end of my eighth grade and I enrolled in another local dance studio for high school.
00:03:13
Speaker
And that was a bit more Broadway theater based, I would say. My dance teachers had been on Broadway and they would put on these big production numbers and it was incredibly fun and They were super welcoming to me and they just instilled this wonderful love and passion for dancing.
00:03:35
Speaker
And while it was more theater and jazz based, I probably wasn't getting the best ballet technique in terms of or in comparing it to like a conservatory or something like that.
00:03:48
Speaker
But I don't think i I would have done well with a conservatory because I was already such a self-driven perfectionist. I think a strict environment like a conservatory would have destroyed me.
00:04:00
Speaker
So I think that I'm very grateful for my younger years in training and that they they were more focused on love and passion and kindness and creating a family around dance than they were about perfect ballet technique.
00:04:16
Speaker
I don't think I would have lasted as long as I, if I didn't have that kind of warm environment to grow up in.
College and Professional Transition
00:04:23
Speaker
And then I, I graduated from high school and I ended up going to college, which I think we'll, we'll talk about a little bit later, but I needed those extra years to develop myself and to develop my art.
00:04:36
Speaker
in college. I kind of had like the the big fish in a small pond experience at my local dance studios. So I felt confident there and I always knew that ballet was my first love, but I wasn't really pitted against the the top talent in the ballet world when I was at those studios. So when I would go away to a summer program, i kind of got huge shocks because I was all of a sudden realizing, oh my gosh, I feel very behind. i feel very insecure. i feel very not good enough.
00:05:14
Speaker
And so I needed that extra time to develop my confidence and my ballet technique going to college. How did you choose Mercyhurst for college?
00:05:25
Speaker
So at the time, i don't know how different it is now, but at the time, Mercyhurst was one of the few colleges that focused on classical ballet, classical and contemporary ballet as opposed to modern.
00:05:39
Speaker
so My choices were very limited, i would say, in that respect. I knew I wanted the classical contemporary ballet experience, so i chose Mercyhurst because of its strong ballet technique.
00:05:57
Speaker
And it was also a smaller school, which I needed, i always been very shy and insecure and I had a horrible experience in high school, just feeling kind of like an outcast and a misfit and like I never belonged. And so I wanted it somewhere that was not super big and intimidating, but again, I was looking for like a smaller vibe that I could handle and Mercyhurst was wonderful for that.
00:06:27
Speaker
How do you feel like those years in college prepared you for your professional career? Well, I certainly got a lot more technique and focus on dancing.
00:06:37
Speaker
We spent long hours rehearsing, preparing for performances, and just getting in your your classes that you needed to. So I feel like it built up my stamina a bit.
00:06:49
Speaker
I had always spent all my time in the studio, even when I was in grade school and high school, but there was something different about spending all day there, solely focused on dancing.
00:07:04
Speaker
And I took academic classes too. I minored in business and I majored in ballet with a performance concentration, but there was definitely just, it really gave me the opportunity to solely focus on dancing and my dance career.
00:07:20
Speaker
I needed that opportunity ah to mature a little bit. i was a little bit of a late bloomer. was ah it was a good time. I'm i'm glad that i took those four years to transition from being ah dependent living at home to being semi-dependent and having some sort of structure with the school schedule and then to move off on my own after I graduated from college. It was a nice transition for me.
00:07:49
Speaker
Out of college, what was your transition from student professional? It was surprisingly easy, i have to say, which I'm super grateful for.
00:08:00
Speaker
and I think it was so easy because I never really had a plan. i i didn't have a five-year plan. I didn't have a 10-year plan. I honestly never thought I would make it as a dancer.
00:08:14
Speaker
So I just didn't have any vision for what I wanted my career to look like, because I thought I was going to do this college thing and I would never get a job afterwards.
00:08:25
Speaker
So part of the senior year project was applying to dance companies. We had to apply to like three or five dance companies. I forget the details, but so I went through the process of doing a resume and an an audition video. And I'm super grateful for Mercyhurst and for the staff there for helping give us that base work of how to apply for jobs So I applied to my three or five jobs and I got a full-time contract right away from that application process.
Adapting to Changes in the Dance World
00:09:02
Speaker
So once I graduated, i packed up my little car and I drove out to Bismarck, North Dakota, which is where my first job was. i set up my life there. And after I spent a year with that company, we toured through...
00:09:17
Speaker
South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana, which was very cool. I've always been a country girl, so I was so excited to have full-time ballet contract, but still get to live out in the country somewhere. was just such a great opportunity for me to start my dancing career.
00:09:36
Speaker
After I spent a year with that company, auditioned for another company in Atlanta, Georgia, because I had some friends there and I got a contract there. So I moved there for a couple of years.
00:09:48
Speaker
And then my ex-boyfriend at the time in Atlanta wanted to move to New York City for his modeling career. And I said, no way.
00:10:00
Speaker
i never want to live in New York City. That sounds like a nightmare to me. I could not handle it. Like I'm a, again, a country girl and that sounds just awful.
00:10:12
Speaker
Also, I don't think I could ever make it as a dancer in New York City. There's so much competition there and it's so cutthroat. Well, somehow he convinced me to move and I just started saying yes to things, finding opportunities and stay saying yes.
00:10:27
Speaker
And I built up a network here and I've been so fortunate to not have a dry spell in the 23 years I've been a professional dancer. And I think it's because I was so open to anything and said yes to things. And I put a lot of hard work into that's not to say that things just fell in my lap. I think The universe read my energy. i was very much a workhorse and could push myself pretty hard.
00:10:59
Speaker
And I think the universe just rewarded me for where I was planting my seeds and feel very fortunate for the career that I've had. I i couldn't have planned it better myself, but I think it's because I didn't plan it that it turned out the way that it did.
00:11:13
Speaker
Yeah, I that's so interesting that I feel like we're always told to have a plan. And I do work with dancers a lot on like, what's your plan? What's your goals? I like that you're sharing that sometimes you just have to kind of put your energy out there and put the work in and just kind of see what happens.
00:11:29
Speaker
and be okay with maybe the plan changing. Like you never thought you would live in New York City and now you've been there for over 20 years. So being open to those plans kind of changing and just going with it can help your career flourish in ways you never could have imagined. Absolutely.
00:11:47
Speaker
think if you have too narrow of a vision, you can get yourself stuck. You know, like I said, I just, I'm very fortunate that I never had a vision. Yeah. I mean, it's terrible to say that I never believed in myself, but in this case, I just kept taking one step and then the next step and then the next step. And, you know, it's just worked out into this beautiful career that I'm very grateful for.
00:12:13
Speaker
Why do you feel like you didn't have that belief in yourself? For whatever reason, I've just always been super insecure and a perfectionist. I have this terrible belief that if I can't be the best, then I'm worthless.
00:12:29
Speaker
And I wasn't born as a thoroughbred dancer. you know I don't have the genetics for the ballet body. I don't think I understood that our bodies are all very different.
00:12:44
Speaker
And I thought that If I could just work hard enough, if I could just dedicate enough of my life to ballet, if I could just make it hurt enough, I would somehow be able to do these things that were genetically impossible for myself.
00:13:03
Speaker
And I spent a long time torturing myself, quite honestly, trying to look a certain way and trying to do certain things that my body just couldn't do, no matter how much I ripped and destroyed myself.
00:13:17
Speaker
And it it took me a long time to learn that my art doesn't have to look like this thing that is the ideal image of ballet that's in my head.
00:13:29
Speaker
My art can look unique and special by learning to work with the gifts that I have instead of fighting against myself. So it took me a long time to learn that and to really appreciate what I had to give to the dance world and to the world at large.
00:13:46
Speaker
When it comes to dance ticketing solutions, I have tried them all and honestly, none can hold a candle to DRT, the premier online ticketing provider for dance studios. Whether you're planning a recital, a summer camp, or the Nutcracker, DRT is the one I recommend over and over again.
00:14:03
Speaker
so what sets them apart? DRT offers turnkey solutions and custom ticketing sites completely free. Plus, their dedicated customer service team works extended hours to support both you in the dance studio and your patrons.
00:14:17
Speaker
I have been lucky enough to experience their incredible customer service firsthand, and I am always blown away. No request is too crazy. They always find a way to make it happen so that you can sit back and focus on the dancing, knowing your customers are in great hands.
00:14:32
Speaker
Are you ready to get started? Tap the link in the show notes to learn more and be sure to mention that the Brainy Ballerina referred you. Having been in New York City dancing freelance for over 20 years, can you give us some insight into that freelance dance world and what you believe it takes to make a career in this way?
00:14:53
Speaker
is is a great question. I would say, first of all, there's been a huge shift in the freelance dance world. I can't speak for the rest of the world um or the country, but certainly in New York City, there's a big distinction between pre-COVID freelance dance world and post-COVID freelance dance world.
00:15:16
Speaker
And I would say in terms of the world we're living in right now, this post COVID era, the number one thing for being a freelancer is your connections.
00:15:28
Speaker
It's always been a bit about connections and who you know and showing your face and all that kind of stuff. But pre-COVID had a bit more of a hierarchy, a bit more structure to it, a bit more order.
00:15:42
Speaker
There were more auditions, I think. In this post-COVID era, it feels a little bit more like a free-for-all. um It feels more like you're being chosen for contracts and for jobs and for roles.
00:15:56
Speaker
Based off of I don't want to say almost entirely, but it's a huge factor based off of who you know and who you're friends with. As opposed to whether you have good work ethic or talents or commitments or loyalty or reliability.
00:16:14
Speaker
All of those good old-fashioned values mattered much more pre-COVID. Or I've seen and I've felt this huge change in these last, what, five years since COVID happens in the dance world. And that's not to say that every dancer or every company or every director is operating in this free-for-all state. Certainly that's not the case. There some very experienced and reliable companies and dancers out there still.
00:16:47
Speaker
So I don't want to make a overgeneralization like that, but certainly I've noticed a lot more on both ends, the dancers and the directors, people breaking contracts, people just not being reliable or showing up on time or being dependable.
00:17:06
Speaker
and they still get the job. So there's a big difference now versus before. If someone did that before, they would be cut and it would be a lot harder for them to be rehired. But it doesn't seem like that stuff matters much anymore, which is a shame.
00:17:22
Speaker
Why do you think that COVID had that effect? I think COVID took a lot of the experienced people, both in terms of the dancers and the the management, the directors and stuff. I think it took a lot of people out of the running because they were just like, ah it is such a struggle to try to make art in the city in the first place.
00:17:47
Speaker
How are we going to rebuild after this devastating loss? And COVID just kind of wiped the slate clean. So anyone that had built something already had been struggling so hard to build something.
00:17:58
Speaker
All of a sudden, they were taken down to a level where everyone else was starting from zero. And that's, for someone that's been fighting and struggling for a long time, it's devastating. So I think a lot of people just said, forget it, I'm done. There are a lot of people that retired, a lot of people that just stopped their company,
00:18:19
Speaker
work There were a ton of companies that I used to work for that just don't exist anymore because it was just such a struggle as it was to make art. It wasn't worth it anymore. When those experienced people and the people that were running things before when they said, that's it, I'm done. It opened the door for all these new people to come in, which is great. I mean, it's awesome for new people to have an opportunity to create art and get a start. But I think that that also some of those people weren't, they didn't have the experience to be doing what they were doing.
00:18:52
Speaker
And we lost a lot of the professionalism that goes along with this art. With seeing all of these companies that you worked for fold and seeing dancers sort of leave the stage during this time, what kept you going and made you want to keep performing and dancing through all of that?
00:19:11
Speaker
I am incredibly stubborn. I wasn't ready to retire when COVID hit, but I certainly suffered tremendously emotionally losing all of those contracts that...
00:19:26
Speaker
I had built up for you know almost 20 years, for 15 years at that point. It was devastating emotionally. And i I spent years trying to heal from the loss of losing contracts that i was at the height of my career when everything hit. And I just, I lost so much.
00:19:47
Speaker
So it was crushing. But at the same time, I didn't want to be defeated by that. Everything was quiet for about a month or two in New York here, but then little things started popping up. There were opportunities to dance at an art gallery or do these little projects that I had built up a network for myself. So people were asking me if I wanted to do these little things. And I was like, yes, yes, yes. So I didn't really stop dancing during COVID. I found, again, these amazing opportunities to
00:20:23
Speaker
to dance, even though they weren't maybe on big stages. i just kept saying yes to things and I kept dancing and building myself back up one step at a time. And I'm still not to where I was pre-COVID in terms of how much work I have, but I've been able to build back in a very satisfying way. Maybe even in a more meaningful way, I'm dancing for companies that I really value and really enjoy dancing for. so Let's shift into talking about health and fitness.
Tanya's Coaching and Mindset Shift
00:20:54
Speaker
I'm curious what led you to become a health and fitness coach. The mistakes I made and the pain I endured. i read this great quote the other day on Instagram and forgive me because I can't remember who said it, but it perfectly relates to my purpose and my situation. But it says, i turn my pain into wisdom and I share it with others.
00:21:18
Speaker
I spent a long time, probably the first half of my career, torturing myself and so using destructive methods to try to gain control of my body and to try to feel good enough in my dancing.
00:21:33
Speaker
And i almost destroyed myself. It took me a long time to heal from that. We're talking both mental stuff, physical stuff, eating disorder stuff. It took me a long time to learn that those methods were not making me better. They were making me so much worse.
00:21:55
Speaker
And to find methods that nurtured me into transformation and helped me work with my body instead of fight against it. I hope to save other dancers the time and the pain of going through that process that took me so long. i hope to save them a little bit of that suffering and help give them some of what I've learned.
00:22:19
Speaker
What are some of those self-destructive behaviors that you've seen in dancers you've worked with or that you experienced that you are helping them? heal Before we talk about the behaviors themselves, we have to talk about the mindsets behind them, the mindsets that drive them, I should say.
00:22:35
Speaker
And I think for for me personally, and for many of the dancers that I see and that I work with, the two...
00:22:46
Speaker
major insidious mindsets that are running in us are, first of all, the mindset of that, the more I suffer or the harder I work for my arts, the more I'll be rewarded. And then the second one is when we try to use our ballet to fuel our self-worth versus building your self-worth outside of ballet and then using that self-worth to fuel your ballet.
00:23:15
Speaker
So those two mindsets can cause you to do so much destructive behavior in an attempt to feel good enough about yourself. For example, the if you have the mindset, the more I suffer, the more I'll be rewarded.
00:23:30
Speaker
You can get into all kinds of delayed gratification stuff, ah restrictive eating, overexercising, obsessive exercising, that kind of, if I torture myself, if I make it hurt enough, then I'll finally be seen as good enough.
00:23:46
Speaker
It just doesn't work that way. And then if you try to earn your self-worth through your ballet, that is a self-defeating mindset as well, because that's gonna get you into people-pleasing stuff. It's gonna fuel your perfectionism.
00:24:03
Speaker
It's gonna squeeze all the passion and the joy out of your dancing. Because if you start to focus on what other people think of you, you're gonna be in trouble because ballet, there's no winning and ballet. There's no finish line in ballet.
00:24:20
Speaker
no matter how hard you work or how good you do, you can't control what that other person is thinking of you. And so you can try your hardest to please your teachers, to please the directors, please your peers, please the audience.
00:24:37
Speaker
And no matter how good you are, they could still choose not to like you or not to like your dancing, I should say. So whenever you're basing your worth off of these external factors, you can get into some very destructive behaviors in an attempt to gain control.
00:24:55
Speaker
Can you share how you work with dancers to approach fitness and caring for their bodies in a more nurturing way? As dancers, so much of...
00:25:07
Speaker
our work and our ballet is about what we look like. Again, like we're always looking in the mirror, judging ourselves based off of what we see in the mirror. Then, you know, we're concerned about what does the teacher see? What does our director see? What do our peers see? What does the audience and the critics see.
00:25:27
Speaker
So much of it is about the look. In our focus on how we look, so much of our time and our energy is spent out here and so little is spent in here and valuing what we feel inside. And so my Bulletproof Ballerina training is not about how you look, but how do you feel.
00:25:49
Speaker
So I coach my clients to feel certain things on the exercises versus trying to do the exercises themselves. It's all about how you feel doing it.
00:26:02
Speaker
It's about feeling muscles contracting or your joints moving in a certain way. It's just really meant to create almost like a Zen-like meditation where you get inside your body and feel and appreciate how your body moves and works as opposed to looking at it from this external viewpoint, which is what we're so used to doing as dancers.
00:26:23
Speaker
And once you start to feel things, you gain understanding for things and appreciation for things. And you learn to work with your body because you understand it better as opposed to fighting against it, trying to achieve this thing that you think it's supposed to look like.
00:26:43
Speaker
Before I started training this way myself personally, i was just always so frustrated with my body and that it couldn't do things that the ballet world wanted it to do.
00:26:56
Speaker
And no matter how hard I tried and leave me, I ripped and tore my body apart to the point that I thought I was going to need hip replacements in my 20s because I was trying to force external rotation and extensions that were, i was basically grinding bone on bone trying to do stuff that was genetically impossible for my hips.
00:27:20
Speaker
It wasn't until I started lifting weights in this very specific manner that I use that I learned how to use my body better. And I started to work with it and to optimize it in its uniqueness. That's what really gave me confidence because I was leveling up, but in a way that was aligned with my body. And instead of trying to achieve ballet perfection, it's learning to work with and build your body from ah place of understanding versus forcing it through submission.
00:28:01
Speaker
you're almost taught to make it happen by whatever means necessary. Like it doesn't matter what pain you go through, just make it happen. And so many of us, I do think, lack that understanding of what it should feel like.
00:28:16
Speaker
Because you're just – like you said, you're so conditioned to look in the mirror and look at only what it looks like and you don't really know what it feels like. And I do like that's lot of times why it can be so stressful to turn the piece around and face away from the mirror, even to get on stage because all of a sudden – You're missing that external feedback of what do I look like and you don't know how it's supposed to feel anymore.
00:28:39
Speaker
so it's like I love this way of training of what is this supposed to feel like in my body and then being able to translate that out into the
Defining Success in Dance
00:28:48
Speaker
ballet world. We don't want to fail at things. Like most of us are perfectionists.
00:28:52
Speaker
you know We get so frustrated with ourselves if we have a little bobble that no one else sees, but we're like, oh, why did that happen? We really tear ourselves down for – little imperfections.
00:29:03
Speaker
But part of this training is actually you're lifting heavy enough weights to reach muscle failure to the point where you can't do the exercise anymore, even if you're trying with all your might.
00:29:16
Speaker
So confronting that heavy weights in the first place, learning that you can lift it and you can move it through space is super empowering.
00:29:28
Speaker
And then encountering this this failure where you can't do it anymore, even if you're trying your full might, but realizing that that failure is not ah bad thing, but it's actually your goal. it's It's making you better.
00:29:44
Speaker
The reaching the muscle failure is what tells your body to build itself stronger and become better. It's super empowering for us as dancers that are so so fearful of failure.
00:30:00
Speaker
So it's one of the things mentally that has helped me as well to get over my perfectionism and be okay with making mistakes, learning that it's not going to kill you if you fall out of a pirouette or You know, if something bad happens, it's just a part of learning and a part of growth and a part of life. And if you don't have those challenges, you don't grow or you're holding yourself back.
00:30:28
Speaker
So it's been super transformative for me in that way, too. And I think for many of the dancers I work with, getting them comfortable with failure is It's really life-changing.
00:30:42
Speaker
And I've had a lot of dancers that I work with say that to me, that they can feel the benefits of encountering that challenge, not backing away from it and learning that, it hey, I'm still here. it didn't kill me.
00:30:57
Speaker
I didn't get annihilated because I failed at this thing. It's actually gonna make me better in the long run. There is so much dancers need to learn as they pursue a professional dance career.
00:31:09
Speaker
It can be completely overwhelming. Where do you even start? With your intention. To me, this is the first step in defining success on your terms.
00:31:20
Speaker
Once you have an intention for your career based on your core values, you can begin to hone in on a strategy to make your goals a reality. But without it, you will always feel out of alignment, out of control, and ultimately unfulfilled in your career.
00:31:35
Speaker
So how do you figure out what success means to you? with the Brainy Ballerina Intentional Career Handbook. This is not just your ordinary book. The Intentional Career Handbook walks you through it everything you need to think about as you embark on your dance career.
00:31:49
Speaker
With over 50 guided question prompts, you will dive deep into determining what really matters to you in a dance career based on your individual core values. By the end of this handbook, you will not only be crystal clear on your goals, but in the mindset you need to make it happen.
00:32:06
Speaker
Tap the link in the show notes to download your copy today and start pursuing your dance career with intention.
00:32:14
Speaker
How do you feel like being a dancer and this background has helped you and growing your business?
Creating Bulletproof Ballerina
00:32:20
Speaker
I have this concept of thoroughbreds and misfits, which has helped me in the dance world.
00:32:29
Speaker
Being that I'm a misfit and I'm not... a thoroughbred that is born with the body of the ideal ballerina and is born with the social and lifestyle situation that allows you to train and focus on that solely. But I've i've had to be a workhorse my whole career in that I might not be the most talented in the room or the most gifted in the room, but I can work harder.
00:33:00
Speaker
than other people. And because I'm very determined and stubborn and hardworking, I've been able to build this career for myself, you know, by by saying yes to things and by just constantly doing things and not giving up. And so my Bulletproof Ballerina business, I started as a freelancer, I think in 2015, I went off on my own to do this. And It's hard. I mean, you know, like you think nowadays, nowadays everyone's trying to start a business and it's kind of like the popular thing to do. And you think as soon as I put this link on my Instagram or as soon as I put this website up and running, everyone's going to come flooding to my sites and it doesn't work that way. Like you really just have to be consistent with
00:33:56
Speaker
and work on things every single day, even when you don't get the validation for it or you don't get the feedback for it. You never know when something's going to hit big.
00:34:07
Speaker
Sometimes you'll go for days, weeks, months without getting any positive reinforcement. And you just have to keep plowing away at that same steady pace for a long time sometimes before you get that little hit of, oh, yes, this person heard me or this person wants to sign up for my program.
00:34:28
Speaker
And I think there's a lot that relates to ballet in that sense, too. Like you don't always get the positive feedback, but you just have to keep putting the work in and trusting that, know,
00:34:39
Speaker
you love this thing and you want to keep doing it. You want to keep getting better and you might not get the validation for it. You might never have someone put you on or recognize you again. All of that stuff is subjective.
00:34:57
Speaker
So you have to do it because you want to do it and because you find your own purpose behind it instead of waiting for the validation from the world or waiting for someone to give you a cookie.
00:35:10
Speaker
So i think there's a lot of that just hardcore determination that I've built through my dance career that has allowed me to stay with my business for the last 10 years or so.
00:35:25
Speaker
What's your vision for Bulletproof Ballerina? Do you have any big dreams or anything you're pursuing right now? i love doing like master classes.
00:35:37
Speaker
So I would like to try to travel more to studios and even companies to talk about some of these concepts that I think are very important to especially young dancers, but even professionals.
00:35:53
Speaker
I think we, a lot of us struggle with a lot of these mental demon things. I think a lot of us are still figuring out our bodies and how to make the most of our bodies instead of fighting against them.
00:36:07
Speaker
think confidence is a big thing. We all put on this confident swagger when we walk into the bar and, you know, we all pretend that we're confident in ourselves and in our dancing. But I think a lot of us are very insecure and are holding back and torturing ourselves because we don't feel good enough.
00:36:29
Speaker
So I think that there's a lot of things, simple things that you can do in terms of nurturing yourself and eating well, nourishing yourself versus looking at food as the enemy or as calories, but looking at it as something that can really nourish you in your life.
00:36:47
Speaker
Simple physical training things that can help you feel confident in your body, build injury resiliency and preserve your body for a long career. I'm also doing a summer detox, which is a great introduction to my nutrition philosophy. It's kind of like a ah two-week course that's led pretty much over WhatsApp. I give you daily steps and activities to do to go through this
00:37:19
Speaker
detox program, which is all about eliminating stress and toxins from your life and from your diet so that you can fuel yourself with stuff that heals your system and makes you feel good about your body and about your life.
00:37:33
Speaker
And that starts May 27th. So that is, I think, a it's a super popular program that helps people feel confidence in their bodies and kind of build their beauty from the inside out by nourishing with the right kinds of foods.
00:37:50
Speaker
And then I'm also starting this hunting happiness retreat, which is going to have a component of health and fitness and nutrition nourishment, but um it's also going to incorporate some fun.
00:38:04
Speaker
And I want to build a community of people that are hungry for life and just want to feel confident and happy. i have so much gratefulness.
00:38:16
Speaker
And I'm so happy in my life that I want to share that with people. So I love that. And I think you said in the beginning that you didn't have a vision, you didn't have goals.
00:38:28
Speaker
But in talking to you it feels like the opposite is true. You have so much vision, you have so much to share and so many beautiful things to say. So I'm curious, do you feel like that kind of happened? Yeah.
00:38:41
Speaker
just throughout the course of your career and through all the things that you learned? Yeah, I think, again, like my pain has been an incredible teacher. And i was brutal with myself for the first half of my career. And for most of my life, I was absolutely brutal and I wasted a lot of time and I'm trying to make up for that now.
00:39:07
Speaker
And I just, yeah, I'm so happy that I've found these, this way of living that is giving me confidence in myself. It's,
00:39:18
Speaker
allowing me to continue dancing. It's giving me more fulfillment in my dancing. It's something I want to share with everyone. And I think, you know, the ballet world in particular, we we seem to think that we have an expiration date. And we, as soon as we turn 30 years old, you know, well, got to start thinking about retirement.
00:39:38
Speaker
And i I don't think that that's a healthy mindset. I think as an artist, I think you only get better as you get older because you have so much more richness to add, so much more experience that you can add into your art.
00:39:54
Speaker
So i hope to kind of change that in the dance world and help people realize that you don't have to kill your body and be done by the time you turn 30. Like you can take different actions that preserves your body and allows you to keep getting better as you get older.
00:40:15
Speaker
And then the artistic part of you that only gets better with experience and life can make your art that much
Tanya's Life Beyond Dance
00:40:23
Speaker
richer. So I love hearing about people's passions outside of dance and the things you do. So I am curious to hear like, what do you like to do outside of dance?
00:40:33
Speaker
i love traveling. I feel like I learn so much about life when I get out of this country and I go explore other places and meet other people. i i love surfing and snowboarding. Those are two of my big passions.
00:40:50
Speaker
I'm not good at either of them, but I think that that's a healthy thing. You know, as dancers, we're, we're, we can get in this headspace of like, Oh, I have to be good at everything. I have to be the best or whatever. And having hobbies that I just do for fun and I don't try to be good at them.
00:41:08
Speaker
i think it's super healthy. I like hiking. I like being out in nature, anything and everything that I do, I try to just be present in it and, It makes it so enjoyable. So in my younger years, I was so obsessed with ballet and I thought I couldn't devote any attention to anything else in life or it would detract from my ballet.
00:41:29
Speaker
It's the opposite now. I feel like the more I live outside of ballet, the more I have to bring into my ballet. Okay, last question. What advice would you give to aspiring dancers who are pursuing their professional career?
00:41:42
Speaker
If you love dancing and you truly have a passion for it, you can certainly make a career out of it, period. I do think that you have to be open to different experiences and not have a narrow vision of what your career should look like.
00:41:59
Speaker
But I think so many dancers are fearful about how can I make a career for myself? Will I make it? Can I make it? All this stuff. And yeah, you can, like no matter what you can make it, if you're willing to work hard enough and if you're willing to be open to maybe different experiences that you didn't think your career would look like necessarily.
Final Thoughts and Resources
00:42:23
Speaker
um There's all kinds of opportunities out there. And some of the ones that you may not even know exist are going to be the ones that are the most fulfilling for you. So stay open.
00:42:34
Speaker
The second thing I would say that, especially if you're going into the freelancing realm of dance, It's really easy to turn this thing that is your passion and that fulfills you into something that destroys you.
00:42:49
Speaker
So you have to be very careful that you keep in mind that you're doing this thing that is very hard work. because you love it and not because you're trying to get something from it.
00:43:02
Speaker
I think when you turn your ballet into something that you need to get your self-worth from, it becomes very destructive and it stops becoming an art then.
00:43:15
Speaker
So you need to find ways of
00:43:21
Speaker
seeing dance as something that you are choosing to do because you love it and it fulfills you, not because you have to do it because you have to earn your worth from it. Tanya, if anyone listening would like to learn more about you or your business, where can we find you?
00:43:36
Speaker
You can go to bulletproofballerina.com or you can go to my Instagram, bulletproof underscore ballerina. and i have ah bunch of links in my bio there. You can get my fat loss game plan. I have some free downloads, how to love food and still have the body that you want.
00:43:58
Speaker
And you can sign up for some of my products there as well. Or just send me a DM and say hi and we can start a discussion. i just like meeting people and getting to know people and hope I can help anyone with what they need the best way I can. Amazing. Thank you so much for this. This was a great conversation. I really appreciate all of your wisdom.
00:44:21
Speaker
Thank you for having me. i appreciate it. Thank you for tuning into the Brainy Ballerina podcast. If you found this episode insightful, entertaining, or maybe a bit of both, I would so appreciate you taking a moment to leave a rating and hit subscribe.
00:44:36
Speaker
By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode. And you'll join our community of dancers passionate about building a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. Plus, your reigns help others discover the show too.
00:44:50
Speaker
I'll be back with a new episode next week. In the meantime, be sure to follow along on Instagram at The Brainy Ballerina for your daily dose of dance career guidance.