Aniramango
New Member
you should try at least to go higher, to test your limits and if you fail, just go back to AM
Go Pro or Stay Am?
- Thread starter azntwice
- Start date
snapdancer
Forum Master
Are you quite familiar with the rulebook and what it says about "just" going back to amateur status?
Aniramango
New Member
well, i heard that there were some precedents , maybe i used a wrong word saying "just"
Dancey
Member
I'll chime in since I recently made the switch to Pro 
I'd been thinking about teaching for a while, so I started taking my pro DVIDA exams as a way to feel it out. My hold-up was that I didn't have an Amateur or Pro partner, and I wanted to continue competing at a challenging level, so that meant sticking with Pro/Am and not teaching.
Then I was extremely fortunate to have a potential Pro partner pretty much fall into my lap. Right height/style/skill level/goals/location...etc. I still struggled with the switch mainly due to
- I didn't know if I'd actually like teaching, and once I started, going back to Pro/Am would be tricky. (Not that I'd *have* to teach to compete Pro...)
- I'm also on the older side, so a Pro competitive career will be short (5 years...maybe a few more if I'm lucky)
- I still have a bit of work to do to be 'ready'
The main things that convinced me to do it anyway:
- My full time office job will be something I can easily do for another 30 years. I'm keeping it for now and just teaching a couple days a week, but if I ever did decide to leave for a period of time, I could always go back. This is pretty much my *one chance* to compete Pro.
- I'm not ready, but I will get ready a lot faster with coaching and joint practice time that I don't have to pay for by the minute $$$. As long as I don't look like a fool, I'm more focused on my performance than my results. We're not going to the top, and that's okay.
- To compete Pro was really something I always wished I could do but didn't really think could happen. I thought of myself looking back on this decision. It is a risk and might not work out great, but I knew that if I didn't go for it I was going to regret it for the rest of my life.
So far so good... good luck FF!
I'd been thinking about teaching for a while, so I started taking my pro DVIDA exams as a way to feel it out. My hold-up was that I didn't have an Amateur or Pro partner, and I wanted to continue competing at a challenging level, so that meant sticking with Pro/Am and not teaching.
Then I was extremely fortunate to have a potential Pro partner pretty much fall into my lap. Right height/style/skill level/goals/location...etc. I still struggled with the switch mainly due to
- I didn't know if I'd actually like teaching, and once I started, going back to Pro/Am would be tricky. (Not that I'd *have* to teach to compete Pro...)
- I'm also on the older side, so a Pro competitive career will be short (5 years...maybe a few more if I'm lucky)
- I still have a bit of work to do to be 'ready'
The main things that convinced me to do it anyway:
- My full time office job will be something I can easily do for another 30 years. I'm keeping it for now and just teaching a couple days a week, but if I ever did decide to leave for a period of time, I could always go back. This is pretty much my *one chance* to compete Pro.
- I'm not ready, but I will get ready a lot faster with coaching and joint practice time that I don't have to pay for by the minute $$$. As long as I don't look like a fool, I'm more focused on my performance than my results. We're not going to the top, and that's okay.
- To compete Pro was really something I always wished I could do but didn't really think could happen. I thought of myself looking back on this decision. It is a risk and might not work out great, but I knew that if I didn't go for it I was going to regret it for the rest of my life.
So far so good... good luck FF!
classydancer
Member
A couple of times I've seen people write that a pro competitive career is short. I guess I'm not really understanding why this is or why people are saying it is.
There are no age categories at the professional level, unlike pro-am and amateur. Thus, one can only be competitive up to a certain age and, if you start dancing somewhat later in life, there's not a lot time between getting good enough for it to be reasonable to compete professionally and getting too old for it to be reasonable to be competing professionally.
FancyFeet
Forum Master
@Dancey Your thought process sounds a lot like mine. Pro-am is my "better than nothing" option. If a pro partner comes along, I'm doing it. My partner ads have all been updated to specify pro or am, which in and of itself was a HUGE decision, and a major shift from where my head was 12-18 months ago.
The current line of thinking is whether turning pro in the absence of a partner is something that I want to do. It's proving a harder question to answer
@classydancer piling on to what @RiseNFall said, it's because there are no age divisions in pro. Keeping up with those 20-somethings gets harder as time goes on, and the ability to handle the training load necessary to be competitive (typically on top of teaching) is tough on an older body. There's a reason that pros competing past 40 are extremely rare.
The current line of thinking is whether turning pro in the absence of a partner is something that I want to do. It's proving a harder question to answer
@classydancer piling on to what @RiseNFall said, it's because there are no age divisions in pro. Keeping up with those 20-somethings gets harder as time goes on, and the ability to handle the training load necessary to be competitive (typically on top of teaching) is tough on an older body. There's a reason that pros competing past 40 are extremely rare.