Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Turn and Face the Strain)

While perusing my daily blog reader I came across a post on 4dancers by Lucy Vurusic-Riner about her transition to a new job after 15 years in the same place.  Wow. I can relate to that.

 

After nine years, Tuesday was my last day at The Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls.  The job as the dance class assistant came out of the blue in 2003 about a month after I graduated from college.  I had never heard of the place, and if you had asked me then if I'd still be here nine years later I'd have called you a liar. My job changed and evolved and devolved over the years.  I went from taking four-year olds to the bathroom 7 hours a week to managing all performing arts programs and a studio theater.

 

Proudest moment: Arts Advocacy Week and our participation in the 2010 Why Dance Matters Campaign.  Here's a nice peak at some of the things we did:

 

 

 

But, as they say, all good things must come to an end.  It's hard to leave something that you know – something that you're good at – and dive into a new job where I once again find myself at the bottom of the totem pole.  But complacency isn't a trait I readily posses.  So I tip my hat to the place where I grew up (professionally speaking) and look ahead to what the next nine years might bring me.

 

Author: Lauren Warnecke

Lauren Warnecke is a freelance dance critic, contributing to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Magazine. She is senior editor of See Chicago Dance. Lauren covers dance across the Midwest and writes regularly for Dance Magazine and Pointe with additional bylines in Milwaukee Magazine, St. Louis Magazine and Dance Teacher. Forthcoming publications include essays on ballet training in Chicago (University of Illinois Press) and Shirley Mordine (University of Akron Press). In 2020, Lauren published an opinion piece on the impact of COVID-19 on the arts in the South African journal Agenda. Lauren holds degrees in dance and kinesiology and has presented research on dance training practices at the National Dance Education Organization and the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. She has co-facilitated critical dance writing intensives in Chicago and Durban, South Africa, and participated in writing residencies at the National Center for Choreography, Bates Dance Festival and JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience. Lauren teaches dance history and kinesiology for dancers, with part-time appointments at Loyola University Chicago and Illinois Wesleyan University.