It's not like they found a cure for cancer

DanceMentor

DanceMentor

Administrator
I happened to run across a dancer that quite loved how great they danced, and how popular they were with students. Obviously, there are some great dancers that are extremely, have a fair level of humility, yet are champions and inspirations for many. But for some dancers the title of the thread is so apropos. Truly, it is not like they found a cure for cancer. :)
 
But sticking to the topic of this post, that statement is one that sticks to me pretty hard and something I struggle with. As someone who got her degree in the arts sometimes it hard to reconcile being proud of what you produce and wondering if you are really contributing anything meaningful to society and makes an impact. Where as there is no question for people in the sciences what they are doing is making an impact on the world, and usually for the better.

And their are some scientists who have a stick where the sun doesn't shine, and they feel like they are god's gift to humanity. Egos exist everywhere, but seem more tolerated in certain job paths due to what society appreciates as a contribution.

Sorry personal rant over.
 
The phrase "they aren't curing cancer" tends to be a phrase for people who have professions outside of what is normally viewed as productive in the eye of society when said people either have over blown egos. Which is what we are dicussing in terms of dancers
 
I have often thought about this concept as both a regular educator and as a dance instructor (now, sadly, a former life). I never saw my profession be any different be it teaching dancing or teaching in a traditional classroom -- helping an individual grow is helping an individual grow regardless of where the help takes place -- but I would often discuss with my colleagues and friends at the time whether we were making a true difference in the world or not. After all, and we would say this regularly, it was not at all as if we were curing cancer or even looking for a cure. We were merely teaching dance, and now I merely teach Language Arts... so what contributions are we really ever making?

I often opted to believe that everything is important but nothing matters. I think in regard to devoting one's life for a cure for cancer that isn't nearly as true, but I am speaking more on a philosophical level. In the grand scheme of things even if we do discover a cure for cancer and our Sun explodes and our Galaxy collides with another and becomes something new altogether, and humanity is reborn with no knowledge of things past, what is a cure for cancer in that grand design?

Do not misunderstand, I am not advocating for a halt to all research and scientific progress or what have you, not in the slightest. I would like to imagine, though, that is some scientist did find a cure for cancer he would not want him to be the one and only to take credit for such a discovery. It would not surprise me if when and if it is discovered it is revealed anonymously for the lack of desire of the assured hype that would follow.

I find it is true in dance and it is true in life: the key to happiness is balance (Luca Baricchi said that once and it resonated with me), and it is paramount to remain humble and remain hungry, to work as hard as you can as if there were someone working twice as hard to take it all away from you. The dancers, and people, who have nothing to prove to anyone will never let even the greatest of accomplishments or victories (over nature, over themselves, over others) go to their heads and detract them from the true intention of existence: helping and lifting up those around them.

When we remember that, when we strive to help and be helpful, even if it is in the smallest acts or words, we have a tremendous power... and while we may not cure cancer, we can change a life in was unknown or unimaginable to us, and then perhaps that person can and will in no small part thanks to us and that small act of kindness.

One can dream, right?
 
Seconded.

Everybody has a purpose to fulfill. But isn't it self defeating for dance instructors to think lesser of their life's work simply because their contributions to society may be less concrete than someone like a brain surgeon or scientist who would cure cancer? Are such people perhaps overcompensating by overly inflating their own egos? Sometimes, perhaps.

But I believe that confidence is part of the job qualification for dance instructors. They are not only selling themselves; but, they are also selling their sport: dancing. They are emissaries for their art. Therefore I am inclined to not judge dance teachers who are too full of themselves. They are simply pulling out all stops to make a living in a very competitve market at what they do best.
 
I think there are big differences between; 1) knowing the inherent value in what you do and being able to articulate it, 2) knowing that you are very good at it and being proud of that, and 3) inferring that, because of that skill, you are somehow a better person (not teacher) than those you teach or those who are just starting out in the same profession.

I think it is really important that people have a passion for what they do and why they do it, because it shows when it's "just a job"

Like teaching dance, when I was a fitness instructor (as opposed to when I was a hospice grief counselor) there where plenty of times when I was aware that others minimized what I did...but I knew that in my line of work I provided a critical service to people who needed to get physically, mentally and emotionally well. Through my class they had a safe and fun way to do that. So I never doubted the value that I provided to people who felt intimidated to walk into a gym and ashamed of themselves for having let themselves decline physically, or to grieving people who relied upon their relationships at the gym to stay afloat and their workouts to help them to sleep and stay well, or to new mommies desperately seeking respite from their kids for an hour and longing for a return to their pre-maternity level of fitness...etc...

I also knew that, after 10 years of listening and critiques, that I had grown into the best instructor in that building...I worked harder than others for longer....and I am proud of that.

But I never let it allow me to stop working on myself as a person or an instructor ...I offered whatever help I could to any member and any co-worker that had some need that I might be able to fill...and I never extended it from a haughty space.

I think it is when people lose humility and think that they have arrived as a person or an instructor, that they are likely in danger of receiving an unpleasant wake-up call to the contrary.
 
stash said:
There will never be a cure. There is no way to cure DNA from becoming damaged. The best we can hope for are better treatments and therapies. Speaking from someone who's fiancé is in he cancer research field.
Click to expand...

Not to mention "Which cancer?" There was a treatment that 'cured' (for lack of a better word) my cousin's stage III non-Hodgkins, my good friend's father had oat-cell carcinoma and they basically were on 'palliative care' from the diagnosis on.

And I get what you're saying. I think DanceMentor's original post was more along the lines of dancers who are, sure, great dancers, but act like they're the mystic recombination of Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, and Rudolf Nureyev. But there is also a major degree of snobbery (often from people who aren't actually scientists, doctors, etc. themselves, which suggests to me they're just lashing out because they realize their jobs are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, too) about people who are in the arts or in non-traditional career paths and "it's not like you cured cancer" is a put-down akin to "it's not like you're a rocket scientist." (Nope, but my friend who introduced me to my first studio is, and she's also not a snob about it...)
 
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