sharing your dance life with your work life

L

lemonade

Member
Do you discuss your dancing with your work peers? I do not actually because the second I do they will want to see pics or something and with our email, it would go around. I wonder what everyone else does. Sometimes it feels like I am downplaying a large part of my life/interest but just don't want to really get questioned about it. As I mentioned before I am trying to start learning standard. In some ways, it seems like this might be easier to discuss as the dresses are not so revealing and the dance is more classical.
 
I don't generally talk about it, but they all know I dance. Have two pictures of me and former pro dancing (one picture in my avatar) hanging on wall of my office, so kind of hard to hide fact I dance.
 
Well, in one respect, dance life = work life (she says while posting from the studio desk.) In the other jobs--when I had a cube, I had a picture of me with my Rhythm pro up. People were mostly "OMG that's you? Really?" (Seriously, do I look THAT different when made up? Half the new people at the comp Saturday did double takes, even the ones who see me at least twice a week.) My supervisor and my boss at the zoo know I dance because I talk to the former about it and I send my time-off reqs to the latter. At the museums, people know because I talk about it. I don't see why it would be any different than any other topic of discussion. Heck, talk it up enough and I might get them to buy some lessons.
 
To be honest, its more likely that I bore people than anything else. I find it helps them see me as a more rounded person - and breaks the stereotype of the absent minded (which I am), fuddy-duddy (which I definitely am not) professorial type. Sometimes it also helps to put people at ease but most important is I LOVE to talk about it ;) [You know you are addicted....]
 
I share very little about my dancing at work, even when asked. In the past when I talked about my dancing at work, my superiors appeared threatened that my interests were so engaged elsewhere, and though my performance on the job was good, they questioned my dedication. Very weird. Even though every workplace is different, I definitely won't let it happen again.
 
The laws and rules that govern today's workplace pretty much demand that you leave your personality at home. There are people at work who know that I dance, but I don't discuss it. I don't have photos in the office (could be construed as sexual harassment), and I don't send links to videos or anything to people. There's one lady on site whom I knew through dancing before we both wound up on the same project, and occasionally I meet her for lunch and we talk dancing.
 
I discuss it. All the time with anyone and everyone. For me is IS my life, my passion. I have become a much more happier person in every respect of my life because of it. Honestly ... when people see my genuine enthusiasm they start to ask questions. I have no one who has made fun of me or did not think it was boring for me to discuss. Now people ask me about it. And not only ask but they get more in-depth, want to know about lessons, classes, shows, comps, etc ... I work for a financial advisor .. she wants to take lessons. I have told many of my clients about ballroom and some of them are getting into it. So ...... yeah EVERYONE knows. LOL I am thankful they are ALL so supportive.
 
I don't talk about it. If someone asks what I like to do, I just say that I like dancing and leave it at that. As I said in the other thread, "dancing" is a very broad term and can mean anything from occasional dance social to several lessons a week and competitions. I'm concerned that being on the latter end of the spectrum will make me appear unprofessional (and Me's post confirms that it's possible).

Now if someone googled my name (which I just did), a bunch of dance results come up and that tells right then and there that I compete, but I don't think anyone's that nosy. I am worried though, that if I do send my resume out somewhere and HR people there google me, all that dance-related internet info will hurt my position as a candidate.
 
I used to be fairly open about it. But in the last year, I have since become more private about it. Some good co-worker friends of mine know that I do ballroom dance. But my recent group at work (a whole new set of people) do not appear to know.

Remember the guy Link in the movie Shall We Dance? Shall I explain?
 
At my previous job, I kept it mostly secret that I was taking up ballroom. Partly I was a self-conscious beginner, partly it was easier to say, "I have to go do something; I'll be back later tonight," than to say, "I'm leaving to go a dance class." It was a dying company, the team relationships were strained, and I'd been burned before by letting folks know details of my non-work life ("that's not more important than work").

I switched to another company. I put dancing on my resume, in the one-line "interests" section at the bottom. In my group, one person had danced before, another was just getting started, and a third has parents who dance and said he may get curious to try it, down the road. There's a champ-level dancer in another part of the company. Someone else who had recently departed the company, had actually been one of my fellow competitors in silver standard at a large local college comp.

The other guy in my group who danced, made himself known as a guy in our group who danced -- not as a guy who delivered results. I let people know that I do it, but talk about work while I'm at work and make sure I deliver what's expected. The one approach is definitely not as good as the other.
 
Almost everyone at work knows about my hobby (passion) because I started to take lessons at the same time as one of my coworkers, and she talked about it a lot initially. Now that she's lost interested in it and that my interest is still going strong, I don't talk about it much. I try to keep it somewhat private. Still, I need to tell my boss that I need to take vacation days to go to a competition. Then, my boss tells other people about it because she thinks my dancing has brought on a lot of positives in my life and at work. So, I show my comp pics to a select group of people. Overall though, I try hard not to let other people realize how dedicated :rolleyes:I am because they don't understand and probably they'll think my hobby may negatively affect my work.
 
Thanks so much for the insight. I imagine it depends on what your work situation is. Mine is kind of conservative and I really have not said that I dance much, and I am thinking I will keep it that way for awhile:)
 
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