We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Olena Dovgan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Olena below.

Alright, Olena thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

I am a dancer, choreographer, and teacher and I dedicated my life to dance since I was 5 years old. I prioritized dance above schooling and my personal life. My dream was always to become a successful and inspiring figure in the dance world. I’ve encountered plenty of obstacles in my life such as moving to the US and leaving my home country and having to start my career all over. I have a lot to say about moving to the US, but, my biggest obstacle was my knee injury. I was preparing to compete in the US national ballroom competition, but I got seriously injured. I tore my ACL, damaged the cartilage, and misaligned the bones of my right knee. I didn’t have insurance at that time and I remember having to pay a lot of money just to get an x-ray of my knee. It always seemed ridiculous to me that insurance is a requirement in the US to not become bankrupt in the case of an injury, but I also couldn’t afford insurance at the time. For that reason, I had to go back to Ukraine to get surgery since the healthcare is free there. At first, the doctor told me that I had torn my ACL and it would take me 6 months to recover and come back to dance. For me, that was already a huge mental setback as for a competitive dancer missing half of year of practice meant losing your results and ranking. After the 6 months, my ACL recovered, but I was still in pain. This was later diagnosed by my doctor as damage to the cartilage and misalignment of the knee joint. But they were unable to do anything about it. Besides my career as a performer, I couldn’t teach either. This meant that I had no income and wasn’t able to continue the one thing that I had focused on in my life. This resulted in me being bitter, feeling hatred at the situation and depressed about my prospects in life. At first I pitied myself, but at some point I told myself to stop and start to believe that I can still be successful and happy. I then underwent multiple other surgeries, during that time I had to teach sitting down hooked up to an ice machine. I also started a youtube channel about dance since I had time. And I started to work through my depression and found other things that I enjoy besides dance. Right now, I have full mobility of my knee and can choreograph, teach, and perform short shows, but I am now unable to compete because my knee still hurts when I dance full out for a long time. I am now grateful for the way my life turned out, it has showed me that there are other things in life that I love and enjoy besides dance and that my identity isn’t intrinsically linked to my ability to dance. After my injury I heavily considered getting an office job, but I am glad that I pushed through and was able to keep pursuing dance as a career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I danced as a kid and was in the competitive dance scene for a long time. My family didn’t have too much money to spend on expensive private dance lessons so I only attended the group classes. But even with the limited classes I was able to break out and compete on the same level as the highest ranked kids in my age group. I accomplished this by following everything that the teacher told not just me, but the other kids as well. I started to teach when I was 16. At that age, I was in a University for choreography, I taught dance, and trained for my own competitions. My specialty is Ballroom Dance, but I’ve now mastered many different styles of dance and choreograph fusions of those styles. I teach a wide variety of students now who have interests in different styles and levels of proficiency. I focus on the needs of the students that I have, but my requirement from my students is a passion to learn dance. What sets me apart from others is that I mix light and fun teaching with very detailed explanation. I have observed many other teachers quickly dance figures and leave students to figure out or copy them. I set out to give each student the how of dancing, so they are able to understand dance not just copy movements. Additionally, if a student doesn’t know what style they want to dance, I can tailor a style or mix of styles for them. I’m proud of many things in my career, but here are some that come immediately to mind in no special order. I’m proud of my Youtube channel – any person in the world can learn to dance through my videos and it brings me a lot of joy to help people with questions that they ask through the community. I’m proud of my competitive students for placing in the top 3 in the world. I’m proud to have won a national championship and to have been in the final of the world championship. I’m proud of my choreographies that won the outstanding choreography award. I’m proud of being able to bring attention to the war in Ukraine with one of my show choreographies. I’m proud of setting my teenage students on a healthy path through their formative years in their physical and mental health.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I’ve heard from many people that being a social media personality is an easy thing to do; you just post videos and if you get lucky, you’ll succeed. I’ve found that that is not true, you’re actually doing 10 jobs at a time. You’re your own screenwriter, producer, editor, director, videographer, sound/light engineer, advertiser, creator, etc., especially when you are starting out and don’t have the ability to hire someone to delegate to. If you want to pursue this career, like with many entrepreneurial enterprises, you need to be passionate and motivated. I’ve also found that the drive to get money is not enough – the majority of people who have succeeded in the social media space had to have a desire to help and inspire people with their chosen creative focus. Alternatively about dance specifically, I have had many people tell me that it’s not stable work and that it’s not lucrative. That you’d have to be irrational to pursue a dance career. I didn’t let these limiting beliefs interfere with my pursuits. It’s true that it’s not the most lucrative career especially in comparison with the average salaries of people in IT. But if you’re truly passionate about dance and have a clear goal in your mind you will find a strategy that will bring you success.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My biggest mission is to give people a sense of feeling that they can still accomplish their dance goals, even if they started late and don’t have a lot of experience. I like to give people confidence in themselves through dance, to help people connect body, emotion and feelings through their movements. On the competitive side, I like to show my students that they need balance in their lives – that it’s not just about obsessing over practicing – they need time for other hobbies, friends, family. Of course, I do believe that frequent practices are a must but not if it interferes with their lives to the extent where dance practice is the only thing in their lives. I tell them to be passionate, not obsessed. And I believe that if they have a balanced life, if one part isn’t working out they are able to recharge for success through the other parts – it shouldn’t be all-or-nothing. I also believe that I’m a good role model for my students by showing that although I dedicate a lot of time to dance, teaching and learning it doesn’t interfere with my family time, traveling, and other hobbies. I hope to inspire others to pursue a better version of themselves rather than trying to be better than someone else. I sometimes feel that I’m a motivational speaker and my mission is to give students skills on how to be happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dovgan.dance
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explorewithelena/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elenadovgan22
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olena-dovgan-78883316a/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/dovgandance

Image Credits
Valerie Lisuk Photography