Belinda
/ 16. oktober 2009 16:00
Today is my last day at work as I am pregnant and will now go on maternity leave for a while! For the last six weeks, I have been a guest up in the marketing department. I have generally been looking like this...
Being up here on the other side of the organisation has been a complete eye-opener, as well as interesting and educational. I have always enjoyed to write, so this gave me a chance to write some texts for them, and through this have realised that I could imagine working in this field one day! I guess the combination of marketing and dance is quite a dynamic combination, and as a dancer it is fun to think from the other side about how you as a dancer would like to be marketed, or think it should be! I have worked for fourteen years as a dancer, and through the years you form your judgements and opinions about how dance is marketed and how the world sees dance. I have had a chance to work a bit on the website, write a few texts about the various performances we do, and I also wrote a few texts for the program of Black Silk. Now all I need to do is learn Swedish!
I have been surrounded by four other people in this department, who have made this a pleasure and such fun! We have two steady marketing department emplyees here - they are Annica and Liselotte. They have delegated the work between them, and it's really interesting to see how two people can share a job so smoothly. Interestingly enough, it is these two that are the life and soul of all of our premier parties, dancing and enjoying themselves tremendously! (maybe it's because they organise the parties!!!) This is Annica in her typical "I WORK HARD LOOK".
And Liselotte smiling away.......
Then there is Tanya, who has recently been employed at Skånes, and her speciality is integration and education of dance. Tanya has been working in England for many years, and and has such a wide knowledge of dance. Here she is looking really happy!
For five months, we have Sara working with us...
She has been studying media and cultural studies, and is now here for her practical. She has been so busy, and it is her that wrote a lot of the text for the program and made the small video clips found on our website.
I had no idea that the company advertised so much. There are lists and lists of people from different databases, and these people are contacted through email and post. Then are flyers in English, Danish and Swedish as well as posters and banners all over Malmö. This keeps them really busy, and I have actually been really shocked how much work they have, and how they actually manage to finish it all. They are also working on a few different productions at a time, so it's always swapping between different tasks, meetings, outings, school visits etc. One really has to be good at multi tasking and keeping on track!
Here is our wonderful marketing crew...
So, I can say that being in the office is really different to being a dancer in the studio. Somehow it is very satisfying to write a text, or complete a task and feel that it is done. It's also rewarding to read something that you have written, or something that you have fixed on the website. The satisfaction that I get from dance is such a different feeling, and it is so good to experience these different sides to me. It's a bit hard for me to sit all day on a chair, as I'm so used to being active, and can imagine it would be quite hard to work like this permanently. Although it's been good for me and very interesting, I have started missing being in the studio, rehearsing and training! It's very weird to be away from my dance colleagues - usually I see them for seven hours a day! I can say that I am definitely not done with dance yet, and cannot wait to get back in shape next year! Right now I feel like a different person, and as you can see I look like one too.......
So, it is time for me Ursula (my office name) to sign out for quite a while. I am not sure yet when I'll be back at Skånes, but I will be back! I will miss my dance colleagues, and now I will really miss my "new office" colleagues! It's been so nice to get to know them better, and I would get pregnant any day to have the chance to do this again :-) But, right now I am off to watch the performance of Black Silk, which I am really looking forward to..... seventeen of my colleagues showing their stuff in a fantastic show that everyone should come and see.
Until next year...... Belinda xxx