Three weeks ago, I awoke at 5:30 am to start the first day of my internship at Dance Spirit Magazine in New York City. Why so early? Unfortunately, my internship only allows me to work three days a week, 7 hours a day, meaning I have to work for 14 weeks to fulfill the CELS requirement of 300 hours. Live in New York City for 14 weeks on $3000? Probably not going to happen…so I’m commuting from home in Delaware (yes, I am one of the four Conn students who lives in Delaware, so you can finally say that you know one of them.) The commute is a two hour train ride – hence the 5:30 am alarm.
Only having visited New York once in my life, I was a bit nervous trying to make my way around the big city (my internship is only 3 blocks from Penn Station, but you better believe that I looked at google maps about 50 times before coming here.) I had forgotten how bad it smells near Times Square, but the diversity and culture you see in New York is absolutely amazing (just a little bit different from Delaware and Connecticut.) I have not yet tried to use the subway system by myself…but when I go to visit Jazmine Hughes, the amazing editor of The College Voice, I guess I will have to.
The internship itself is an amazing opportunity. Anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in dance, but not necessarily performance, interning at Macfadden Performing Arts Media with either Dance Magazine, Pointe, or Dance Spirit would be a great choice. This internship is not like what you see in “The Devil Wears Prada” – you’re not running out for coffees or given impossible tasks that you have no idea what to do. The editors assign you research for various sections in the magazine or e-newsletters, and if they like what you’ve found, you often get to write the article!
I am currently working on a feature for the Dance Director’s Survival Guide that Dance Spirit and Dance Teacher produce annually – I have interviewed several dance team coaches, and I am now in the processing of editing editing editing. My article will span about 4 or 5 pages of the magazine! I have also been working on small 100-200 word blurbs for the September and October issues of Dance Spirit.
The first week, I attended a photoshoot for the cover of the September issue. Silly me didn’t realize there was an elevator in the building with the studio where we were shooting, so I was walking up and down the stairs in 90 degree weather, trying to find the Tea Cup Studio (it didn’t look anything like a place from Alice In Wonderland…I was very disappointed.) I nice man in the Kitchen Studio (who named these?) told me it was on the 6th floor, but then no one was answering my knock. So I wandered around the building a bit, finally figured out that there was an elevator, asked the man to take me to the sixth floor, and he opened the door with a flourish. Boy, did I feel stupid (and sweaty.) The photoshoot was a ton of fun, and our cover model was great! (Buy the September issue to see who it was, hehe.)
Tomorrow, check out the blog I wrote on the Rockette Summer Intensive, where I interviewed two girls who will be featured in an MSG Varsity series about their audition process and the experience. Or follow Dance Spirit on Twitter and watch me tweet about So You Think You Can Dance live on June 29th and August 10th!
