A career in dance, as with any professional sport and its physical demands, often comes with a timeline. In fact, most dance performance careers end by the age of 35.
“The dancer is clear from the beginning that we’re going to retire and have a second career at some point,” says Katherine Horrigan. Horrigan is the founder and CEO of The Dance Academy of Virginia, a business she opened after spending her early dance career touring with dance companies all over the world, including the renowned Alvin Ailey dance company, Ailey II. She believes that dancers are extremely well suited to step into entrepreneurship following their performance career.
“Even as we’re training, we’re developing additional interests and skills as we go,” she says. “You don’t know when it’s going to happen, but you know it’s going to happen one day.”
Mariana Sanchez, founder and executive director of Dance Matters NYC, agrees that dancers are well suited for entrepreneurship. “They are constantly taking risks, failing and getting back to it again and again,” she points out. “They know that the feeling of being uncomfortable won't last forever if they stick to the process. They’re able to adapt, take risks and know that every single failure is just an opportunity to learn and grow. (That mindset) has been essential in my journey as an entrepreneur.”
Horrigan has always loved the business side of dance. As the director of a dance academy, she grew her skills in management, leadership, program development and more. When she finally opened a studio of her own during the early days of the pandemic, she invested $10,000 of her own money, making a bet that people would return to dance studios in person. That bet paid off - she grew it to a seven figure company that first year. Now, Horrigan is expanding her company further, as she recently purchased a building that will serve as a space for dance education - a way to continue her mission of training the next generation of dancers, leaders, and entrepreneurs.
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“What it takes to achieve and maintain peak performance as a dancer are lessons that transfer into success in any career pursuit and particularly in the entrepreneurial journey," she says.
That journey looks a bit different for dancers Heather Lang and Purdie Baumann, former Broadway performers and Radio City Rockettes who at 42 and 44, respectively, feel like they’re finally reaching the prime of their dance careers. They continue to perform as they slowly transition into roles as creative directors and entrepreneurs.
“We are in our physical, emotional and psychological prime,” says Lang. “There is something about having so much experience, knowledge and history that I feel like I’m finally coming into my own. There’s still an offering in there even in an older body but it’s more sophisticated and nuanced. There’s an awareness and a level of confidence I have now that I didn’t have before.”
Lang most recently performed in Jagged Little Pill on Broadway in her late 30’s, only six months after a hip replacement. And she’s not done yet.
“Right now I have something left inside me physically that I want to give,” she says. “We have an important role in the space as dancers over 40. I still want to learn. I often announce that this will be my last time working as a performer. But I also know my body will tell me what it needs.”
The duo, who have been dancing together since their childhood days in Chicago, also spent many years modeling for high end fashion brands like Hermès and Norma Kamali to major retailers like H&M, White House Black Market and others.
“We would get hired as models because we were tall, but we were not models, we were dancers,” says Baumann. “Hermès thought they wanted models, but models are sometimes awkward and can’t quite make steps. We’ve filled in for so many models who were fired from jobs.”
Greta Gerwig famously only hired extras who were also classically trained dancers for her blockbuster hit film Barbie, noting that all the Barbies and Kens seen on the beach “hold themselves differently” with their doll-like postures.
“Models know how to pose for a photo, which is an amazing skill. But it’s a different skill,” Lang says. “We’re almost like a bridge from the fashion world to the dance world.”
Baumann and Lang’s newest collaboration is a celebration of that bridge. Together, they worked as creative directors and producers for the film Simulation, which was nominated for best art direction and best music at the London Fashion Film Festival and selected for the New York Shorts International Festival. The film is a celebration of dance, and of the human form in all shapes, sizes and all ages.
Lang points out that they could not have created this film in their early dance career. They needed the experience, the credibility and the industry connections they had built up over the years in order to create the film in the precise way they envisioned.
“When you’re young, you have all these ideas, but you don’t know how to execute them. You don’t have the trust,” she continues. “But once you’ve been through the traumas and the dramas, you know what to do. Purdie and I have done every job. We’ve played in the big leagues. We know who to call.”
One of those calls the duo made as they were putting the logistics for the film together, was to legendary fashion designer Norma Kamali. Kamali has always been supportive of dance as an art form. In fact, she invites dance professionals into her showroom twice a year to pick out samples.
“We love being the bridge between fashion and dance,” says Baumann. “Norma invites dancers into her 57th street studio and lets us pick out four free pieces every year. When she generously agreed to donate over 100 pieces for the film, those clothes elevated the story. They transformed the entire film.”
“Dancers work on fumes to get through what they need to do,” Kamali says. “They get the least amount of recognition, they get the least amount of support, it is a tireless endeavor and I love them so much. I love their discipline, I love everything about them. Twyla Tharp is one of my best friends and I’m very entrenched in their world. Any way I can support it, I will.”
Once Kamali saw the film, she was so blown away that the film is now being played continuously at her company’s headquarters, looped as it is projected onto a 38 x 10 foot high LED wall.
“It wasn’t just a choreographed dance,” Kamali says. “It had so many details worked out, from the location (One Hanson Place in Brooklyn), the casting, the styling, the hair and makeup. It didn’t have words but it had a plot that was very captivating.”
“Collaborations really manifest new ideas, new ways to think,” Kamali says. “Especially in dance and fashion and the creative world. I’m sure every one of the dancers in that film has done work in beautiful choreographed pieces. But the free spirit of something completely new probably offered a higher level of excitement than the best dance they’ve danced in their lifetime.”
Kamali is passionate about exploring how wellness and movement impact our longevity. In fact, she recently announced her own podcast, Invincible Threads, which she describes as a “captivating exploration of the dynamic intersection of fashion, creativity, technology, and the pursuit of longevity.”
“There’s a freedom that comes when you’re no longer managed by where you are physically, and that’s when you start looking at how you can manifest another interpretation of dance,” Kamali says. “That’s where creativity comes in.”
“It’s really emotional and beautiful,” Lang says of her and Baumann’s collaboration. “We do a literal dance, back and forth where I know what she needs and she knows what I need. All of a sudden we’re on this trajectory where we realize what this film wants to be. It became an experimental fashion film. It was an honor to our history in fashion, dance.”
There’s a famous Martha Graham quote, “A dancer dies twice — once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful.” But perhaps that first “death” isn’t a death at all. Perhaps the dancer’s first death is actually a renaissance.
“There is always something to work on. Dancers have a passion for continuous improvement,” says Horrigan. “We all have a growth mentality, which is a great tool to have in business. As an entrepreneur, you can’t give up. If you don’t know how to do something, you figure it out. We’re very resourceful.”
“It’s a transition,” Horrigan continues, “But it’s really a transformation.”
