Dancemagazine presents the stories of three CTFD Clients on their September web supplement “Beyond Performance”; their career choices and life after taking their final bow: Richard Redlefsen, Jeff Satinoff and Damian Woetzel. Read it here.
Spotlight After Dance
 native of Huntsville, Alabama, Alyssa Dodson began dance at the age of 6. Although she enjoyed performing, Alyssa recalls the beginning of her excitment for dance at the age of 15 when she performed in her first contemporary piece, specifically choreographed for her and her partner. This was her initial experience with modern dance, an experience that later influenced her to enroll in the BFA program of Modern Dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts. After college Ms. Dodson moved to New York where she performed with The Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre, Pilobolus, Mark Morris Dance Group, Metropolitan Opera Ballet and finally the Martha Graham Company until it temporarily closed in 2000.
Even though Ms. Dodson decided to make her transition in 2000, she began researching for her “life after dance” with CTFD’s career-counselor Suzie Jary in 1995. With Suzie’s expertise, they discussed her new career interests and what skills Alyssa had developed as a dancer that would benefit her in her new profession. Alyssa did not discover her enthusiasm for Structural Integration until she was exposed to it as a client, using it to help her own ailments that came from being a dancer. On a personal note, Ms. Dodson further credits her Structural Integration training for allowing her to dance injury-free for three years before making her career transition from the Graham Company.
In 2000 when Ms. Dodson decided to retire from performing, she hit the ground running and with the help of a scholarship from CTFD, chose to enroll at The Guild of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado. At The Guild, she further developed her knowledge gained from modern dance and incorporated it with her Structural Integration training; a functional movement system that re-shapes people’s movements to better use their bodies in relation to gravity. Her teachings incorporate a hands-on system that enables people to move more efficiently using less energy.
Ms. Dodson’s clients range from computer programmers who are prone to carpel tunnel syndrome to performing artists and athletes who demand highly sophisticated movement skills that need to be efficient in order to perform their creative art or sport. Ms. Dodson’s combination of Structural Integration with her dance training has allowed her to be very progressive in her teachings. In addition to her private practice Alyssa has been on faculty at The Tanglewood Music Center for the past five years teaching opera singers, instrumentalists, and conductors how to refine their physical coordination and placement so their music making isn’t hindered by ineffective physical habits.
When Ms. Dodson decided to make her transition she also met with Marty Handelsman of Career Transition’s business group. Through his guidance, Ms. Dodson has built a successful private practice in New York and has recently bought a co-op apartment. Her advice to others, who are planning to make the career transition, is that one should not set out to find a career that will supply the same all-encompassing fulfillment as dance, but rather, one should search for a career that will fulfill some of their needs. To fulfill the remainder, dancers will discover other interests in life that may not be imaginable while dancing.
You can find more information about Alyssa Dodson and Structural Integration at www.alyssadodson.com.
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