We were lucky to catch up with Valerie Ingram recently and have shared our conversation below.
Valerie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
While it hasn’t always been easy to make a living through creative work, I will say that it has been the most rewarding endeavor to pursue. I would definitely say that I have been fortunate to make networking connections that have supported my work in multiple pathways, and that, along with my work ethic, has allowed me many opportunities with various different organizations. I’ve taught at dance studios, danced for dance companies, perfomed in musical theater producions, been a choreographer for competitive dance and musical theater productions, and am currently a high school performing arts educator in dance and drama. Though the amount of time put into planning, preparation and production is always unequal to the pay, I love the students, parents, and community for which I am willing to give the extra time and effort.
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.
Dancing runs in my blood and is part of my heritage. My grandmother and mother both grew up dancing and that is how I got my start at the early age of 5. I can remember my granmother teaching me ballroom dancing in the cellar of her Pennsylvania home with music playing on her record player. I consider myself fortunate that my parents could afford to have me participate in multiple activities, which included: theater dance classes, conventions, and competitions, ballroom dance lessons and competitions, and gymnastics lessons and competitions. These many experiences helped to mold me into the dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director that I have become. It’s ironic that I didn’t recognize my own talent growing up and didn’t realize that I could be a dancer let alone make a living doing what I loved. In actuality, when I graduated from high school my goal was to own my own dance costume company and I attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising for just that reason. I consider myself so fortunate that I attended and gained experience in costume construction as it has benefited me greatly to both construct and repair costumes for my students. However, the month that I graduated from FIDM I delivered my son, and it was he that was the catalyst to me realizing that I actually wanted to pursue a career in dance.
It wasn’t becoming a professional dancer that I actually desired, it was the opportunity to share my experiences with others, particularly those that didn’t have all the opportunities that I had growing up. In particular, I never felt as though my own high school, or my dance teachers for that matter, had prepared me for life after high school and what to do the rest of my life. So, I wanted to make sure that my own students never felt as though their own dance education fell short.
Over the course of my career, I have worked at dance studios throughout the San Diego area teaching in a multitude of dance styles and creating choreography for performance and competition. This is my 21st year working in the Sweetwater Union High School District teaching dance, and now drama, at Chula Vista High’s School For The Creative and Performing Arts. Amongst my classes, I direct two advanced dance ensembles, Dance Force (ballet, tap, and jazz forms), and MPulse (hip-hop dance). My joys include developing choreography for musical theater productions both at the school and in the district’s Summer Theater Institute, and the annual Homecoming that incorporates the entire dance department, and when possible, other SCPA programs.
Fortunately, many of my former students have given back to the program that helped shape their lives, and we collaborate in one way or another. This provides so many more opportunities for my current students to work with professionals in the field, or those continuing their education in dance, to develop and showcase their own work, as well as share their learning with others. I hope to continue this cycle of bringing in dance opportunities for students who then turn around and give back to their community.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
At the beginning of my journey as a performing arts educator, myself and my colleagues had been hired as professional artists, professionals in their field who would then take their knowledge to the students while still working in the field. But then, the district that hired us was going to turn around and fire us stating that the language that hired us was incorrect and it was illegal to have hired us in the first place. That was a real kick in the pants after having worked for the district and school site for well over 10 years, and for some of my colleagues much longer than that. Though I was working in the school system during the day, I was continuing to have one foot in the dance world by maintaining my role as a teacher in dance studios. I was thankful that I had a fall back after receiving that information in December prior to going into winter break and not knowing what the outcome would be. Upon returning from winter break, I found out that our principal and SCPA facilitator had gone to bat for us and figured out how to keep us on staff. For the remainder of the school year, six months of 2nd semester, I had to work alongside a long term sub, who was considered the teacher of record, in order to continue to work with my own students. In order to keep our positions as arts staff, I and my colleagues had to begin the process of earning a CTE (Career Technical Education) credential, in order to keep the positions that we were originally hired for. The irony of the situation was that I had just finished my post secondary education to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary English. I wanted to have a fall back plan just in case my body gave out on me and I couldn’t continue doing what I loved. So, I went right from completing that educational adventure and jumped right back into taking classes to maintain my position at the high school. Because the dance courses were now going to be written as CTE courses, I had to earn my CTE credential in order to stay at the school which I had come to learn had the greatest culture and traditions, and the place that I loved to go everyday.
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?
If you’ve never had any experiences with creative activities growing up, then you may not see the benefit of a life that included those experiences. People with an artistic background have a creative way of seeing the world, and in turn of reacting to that world. Rather than looking at life through only a logical lens, we have a variety of different experiences to draw from that help us to critically assess and problem solve the situations that we come across. One of the qualities that I am most grateful for learning organically through my involvement in dance lessons is collaboration. You learn to rely on others while also being accountable to someone other than yourself. You learn how to be both a leader and a supporter, and have the tools to decipher when you are needed to play either of those roles. You understand that being a leader doesn’t mean that you are the queen over all, nor that you are the most important person, rather you learn the most basic role of customer service and learn to listen to those around you. As a supporter, you learn all of the ins and outs of the behind the scenes work that goes into making things go off seamlessly. As a dancer, I worked closely with both my dance teacher and my dance classmates to ensure that productions went off without a hitch. I learned dance skills and techniques with the support of my teachers and peers, how to create choreography for others and myself, and how to work positively on a dance work to take it from it’s early stages to being performance and competition ready. It was through my creative journey that I learned passion and the importance of passing on the lessons I was lucky enough to have growing up to others who were not as fortunate. I can honestly say that most of the life lessons that I have learned that have prepared me for adulthood I learned through my involvement in dance.
Image Credits
Patricia Wheatley Paul Gallegos