Task 3a - Current Networks

In this task we are asked to explore our professional networks. I attended the 3rd campus session back in March and this helped me give a bigger understand of all the networks that i use or have around me.

Working as a professional dancer i have various networks that i keep to make sure i’m constantly updated with the latest jobs and auditions and to make sure i am as some professionals would say “in the loop.”

One of my most important networks as a Dancer would be my agents. I have various agents that represent me for work and i am always keeping in contact with them to make sure i am being put forward for castings. Without my agents i would find it extremely hard to be able to find work. There is still work out there for dancers without agents however it is much harder and you are not invited to private castings etc.

I am a member of Facebook which i use as a personal network, however i also use this a professional network. I am friends with various Casting Directors and Agents which are able to sometimes provide information of the latest jobs in a simple status update. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to gain a job through Facebook.

Other useful networks on Facebook are friends from college and also Dancers that i have worked with in the past or met at castings. There have been times when one of these contacts has mentioned about an audition or contacted me because they thought i might be suitable.

I also use Facebook as a professional network when i am running my own dance school, but it is managed differently. I have a separate page under the name of my company and the parents/students can add us as friends to keep up to date with the latest news, photos and videos. This have proved to be extremely successful for my business as various parents/friends have shared our updates and photos to which their friends have seen and added us as a friend. 

I am a firm believer in the making sure you don’t cross personal with business and now make sure that any students and parents are only friends with our company’s page and not my personal page.

My biggest network for my dance school is the Parents. Of course they are a customers but they are a great network for my business. A lot of my clientele have been recommend by the parents of the dance school or through word of mouth as i operate my business in a small village and i believe this has helped our success a lot.

I plan to improve my networks for my business by extending relationships with local schools and communities. This will be achieved by expanding my customers and network of parents and also creating a new network with the head teachers of schools.

Below you will see a diagram that i drew at the 3rd Campus Session showing my networks around me. I created around the idea of a solar system or universe and all the plants were revolving around the sun which was myself. The closet networks to myself were the most important and least important were further away.

I soon realised that in the future this diagram will be changing rapidly and making changes. Some networks will change from being further and away and becoming closer, and perhaps some networks will be lost.

I’m already beginning to focus more of my time on my business and teaching, so already some of my networks which i created as a dancer will be less important to me than those that are relevant now. However, i will still keep these networks on my rader as i may want to revisit them again in the future.