Rebecca Lazier        Photo: Julie Lemberger

Some great quotes pulled from artist profiles on the blog……

Jennifer Salk:

I got my dream job at 40 in Seattle at the University of Washington and knew I had found home both geographically and in terms of my job. I continued to make a lot of dances, perform and work with wonderful dance artists, travel all over the world to make work and teach. I teach at a program with a ground breaking MFA program and a BA program. Our BAs often double and triple major so their lens is broad and they don’t live in a vacuum. I love my mentorship role and learn much from them everyday.

Rebecca Lazier:

I’m in my mid forties. I have been at Princeton for 10 years. My son is 11, my twins are 6. I had a New York season last June with six sold-out shows and excellent reviews. I think I’ll look back on this time and wonder how I managed it all. People ask me and I have no idea how to answer. I wake up, I drink coffee, I do the work. Scheduling is the hardest. A day can consist of getting the kids ready and off to school, going to rehearsal, commuting to Princeton for a faculty meeting, teaching a class, going home to make dinner and do homework, putting the kids to bed and likely sending a few more emails or working on a grant application.

Now instead of fighting to get every gig or grant, the phone rings a bit. I still struggle with making blind phone calls and self-promoting, but I have a sustainable process to choreograph every year. While I will likely never have full-time employment for my dancers as I had once hoped, I have work and will continue to choreograph. My appointment at Princeton affords me this stability both by providing a salary and through the opportunity to apply for research funding. In many ways I feel I am emerging as a choreographer as I have been a bit of an outlier, never the "hot" one. To get produced and receive grants you need people routing for you and talking about you, and it has taken me a long time to build those relationships. I feel I am just beginning.

Kate Weare:

I’m a few years into my 40s and everything has shifted again. I’m now mother to a vivacious two year-old girl. I make my work as avidly as ever, yet I do feel differently as an artist. My horizon line is farther away and I apprehend my work from a cooler, more knowing place than before. Some of this may be because I don’t perform in it as much as I used to or dance during the development process as much. Or perhaps my work is shifting in content as my life shifts, and I’m not yet aware of what that means. The thing that’s consistent is I’m still a maker-in-the-dark. My dances form in front of me so slowly that I can’t see how or why for ages. This unfolding keeps me hooked to movement in all its glorious ambiguity and pre-conscious power.

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