The MFA DE&I Council would like to see an industry where everyone can thrive, feel heard, supported, and safe to do their best work. Let’s meet the Changers who are sharing their own lived experiences to inspire us all to change for the better.
Hi there, I’m Clare the dancer… and investment team member, and pun addict, and nature trail lover, and arts & crafts enthusiast, and drag queen admirer, and book reader… and the list goes on.
Now if you had asked me to introduce myself a year ago, I would’ve stopped after the word dancer. I have my career change to the media industry to thank for recognising the additional traits, interests and skills I now allow to follow afterward.
Prior to entering the media industry last year with a role at PHD, I was a full-time professional dancer. I travelled for the better part of five years, visiting amazing locations such as Macau, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Before that, I moved from my family home in Brisbane, to Sydney, and studied for two years at a performing arts program, five days a week.
And before that, I spent my last three years of high school in a part-time dance program that had me dancing from 8am to lunch time, school from 1pm to 4:45pm and then I’d travel to my dance studio to take class until around 9pm every night.
I was Clare the dancer.
Full stop.
And I loved it. I loved it so much there was no need to be anything else and I’m grateful to that devoted dancer for opening doors that I never would’ve known existed otherwise.
Fast forward to 2023, day 1 at PHD.
I thought I was no longer Clare the dancer, I was Clare the Investment Coordinator.
Full stop.
But then I met my team and discovered the word “and”.
“…and I DJ on the weekend.”
“…and I have a swimming competition coming up soon.”
“....and I’m training for a triathlon.”
The list goes on and what I realised was this: You can be more than one thing, and those things don’t have to correlate nor boost one singular skill – and they certainly will not decrease another skill’s value.
As a performer, you are told not to have a “plan B” because it takes 100% of your focus and drive to succeed in the arts industry, so that’s exactly what I did.
I now know what a multidimensional Clare looks like. She looks like growth, increased confidence, and self-belief across more than one characteristic.
Involvement in the media industry looks different for everyone, and that is why it is an exciting place to work in. Everchanging landscapes rely on multidimensional teams. Multidimensional teams invite collaboration, they encourage varying perspectives.
This is a powerful, transformative outlook to project and I believe it would be of great value for leaders to share with their team. Not only with newcomers, but also to remind those who feel they may be stuck in the routine of everyday.
One idea could be workshops surrounding transferrable skills. For example, those with performance backgrounds my find themselves really leaning into presentations and creative brainstorms.
These extra skills are not useless or unrelated, they are just that – EXTRA!
If we can work together to highlight these EXTRA “AND” skills we all encompass, the sky is the limit.
There is room for more than one version of you – and there is value and power in every unique element that makes up those versions.
Clare Cannons is Investment Coordinator at PHD and all of the abo
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