This unit has been a slight struggle as not only have I missed most of the real-time classes but I have gone through a major career change and my views on the industry have been changing at the same time. What started off as a project to think of more ways to attract audiences to ballet performances and achieve further funding for the ballet organisation, has rapidly steered away to another direction. Which direction this is, is still unclear though.

My previous job as a professional ballet dancer, categorised normally within high culture is quite different from what I do now as an instructor in the fitness industry which can be considered social culture.

In all honesty, I’ve always acknowledged that I lacked an entrepreneur mindset and have always been content with being a part of an established organisation. Throughout my ballet career my skills lay in following instructions to a T and providing the talent and skills as an artist to bring other people’s ideas to life. So the thought of starting from zero to create something absolutely new and unfamiliar out of thin air seems daunting. However, reading up on the difference of Innovation and Invention and diving further into the definitions of the prior has eased this thought slightly as I move forward.

Forming ideas…

I wrote my Unit 2 essay on the need for policy reformation for dancers within professional ballet organisations especially within Asia which I still feel strongly about. I’ve considered an idea of starting up an NGO supporting dancer rights, advocacy and protection but whether this will be a sustainable business idea is still questionable. The other idea was to establish a foundation or fund that offered financial support for dancers facing career transition. Financial support and general guidance while I navigated this sudden career change was completely lacking from the ballet company I belonged to here in Hong Kong, and this is known to be a common topic and issue in the United States which houses over 160 ballet companies of various sizes. However of both these ideas would need to rely on a lot of sponsoring and funding to keep going which makes me feel uneasy. In addition from a personal perspective, I have left the industry quite burned and betrayed, only very recently. At this stage, reaching out to the dancers (ex-colleagues) and/or staff currently at the company for research purpose and data collection may prove to be a little too much on my mental state. It’s a pity because it’s something I feel truly passionate about and want to advocate for. But with a deadline on the research and assignment, I do not feel ready to tackle the data collection part at this current time.

The other unrelated idea was to somehow combine my work right now as a pilates instructor and part time ballet teacher. While it is not an invention of something completely new, it is a different type of dance and fitness studio that could provide both ballet classes and pilates, which come hand in hand and complement each other. This would also be a more self-sustaining business concept. To make it an innovative idea though, I realise that there would may need to be something else, to truly differentiate it from other similar studios. Perhaps a location preference, different booking system or unique facilities provided within…