Anna Sperber

Over the past three years, 100 working artists have shared their stories and career paths on this blog. Many NYC-based artists shared advice for dancers wanting to move to the city. During the summer, we will repost some of this advice from these past artist profiles. Click on any name below to read further about an artist.

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From Anna Sperber:

There are so many amazing people to meet, learn from, and work with. Reach out to connect with people who are making and involved in work that is exciting to you. There are a lot of ways to connect with people and become part of a community – seeing shows, taking classes, volunteering, interning. A few good places to start include: Movement Research, classclassclass, AUNTS, CATCH, BAX, and Gibney Dance Center.

From Brandon Cournay:

Immerse yourself in everything you possibly can, dance related or not. Take advantage of living in NYC! Take class, read reviews and magazines, see a ton of shows, go to the museums. Go see something you’re not even interested in. Decide if you like or dislike something, then try to figure out why. Remember dance is a community. Build relationships and laugh along the way.

From Kate Weare:

Chew it all up and then spit it all out again. New York, in all its marvelous intensity, can cut your teeth as an artist and help you to define and refine yourself. But ultimately you’re the one who shapes your life as an artist through your values, your actions, your relationships, your priorities. Where you live is just not the point. How you live is what matters.

From Leah Cox:

Make yourself matter. Maybe NYC is not the place where you will ultimately matter, but it might be the place where you learn how to matter (when you live) somewhere else. Let the city be your campus, and allow yourself to simultaneously be your own teacher and student on that campus, figuring out how it is that things matter to you, people matter to you, and you can matter to yourself in such an over-stimulating environment. Materialize and grow wise in NYC. And then take that wisdom elsewhere and energize the other parts of our country with your vibrant art and passionate intelligence. 

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