A Gem of a Soloist
Rebecca Brimhall, a soloist with Nevada Ballet Theatre, is a diamond in the making. She took a rough-cut vision of the future and clarified it with an education goal. Color her smart.
"My dad always gets on my case as to what is my back-up plan or Plan B. I would always say, 'Teaching ballet,' but then he would come back and say, 'Well what if you can't walk?' He has a good point. You can't really teach if you can't show people how to do the steps right."
How lucky for her to have ended up, at 14, in Las Vegas, Nevada in a company that offers its dancers a chance to get college credit for their professional technique classes and performing experience. In addition to applying professional experience, dancers must complete the University of Nevada Las Vegas's liberal arts core program that includes dance theory, dance history, choreography and pedagogy. The pay-off is a BFA degree.
"I was attracted to the program because, at the time, I was not really sure where I wanted to take my education. I always knew that I wanted to be involved in dance but I didn't know what I was going to do with it. When the program was presented to us, I thought that it was great for me because I was getting credit hours by going to work every day and doing what I would normally do. It just made sense."
"I am not sure exactly how many credit hours are needed for the bachelors, but I think it is somewhere around 20 to 25 credit hours of dance class only. This allows professional dancers to earn these credits by taking company class every day, which is required for their jobs, so that they do not have to go and take extra classes to achieve the credits after they have been dancing all day."
Looking ahead, Rebecca said, "My world will probably be turned upside down when I make the transition if I don't start preparing for it now. It will be a lot different to sit at a desk than to be on my feet dancing all day. It does scare me a lot to think that there is an end to this career that I have chosen when it has been such a big part of my life for so long. That's why I want to start getting ready for my next career now while I can still enjoy dancing, and then when I feel that it's my time to stop dancing, I will be able to make the transition a lot easier. I would rather do it now then wait till my dancing career is over and then wonder what I am going to do with myself."
Although Rebecca did not get last semester's registration materials in time and ended up taking some time off from school, the respite has allowed her to reevaluate her direction. She now plans to return to school and major in gemology. "Jewelry is a big part of my life. My dad has spoiled my mom, myself and my sisters a lot when it comes to things like that. It has always been an interest of mine and one day my dad asked, 'Well why don't you become a gemologist?' I had never really thought about it before so I checked it out and I found it to be extremely fascinating. I would like to get my G.G., Graduate Gemologist, and then I can go into just about any part of the field of jewelry with that."
"I could go into appraisal, retail, design, manufacture. There are so many different fields that I could get into. I really like the idea of retail and buying and selling. My ideal job would be to have people pay me to travel around the world and buy unique jewelry for them. It's a bit out there, but I think it would be so fun."
"Dancers are hard, determined workers that get the job done. We have a great work ethic and employers, I think, notice that about us more than anything else. We know how to take direction and listen to what we are being instructed on and we work well with different people. Dancers are very adaptable in my opinion."
That may be, but to adapt to a new career and to have those options to consider, the first step is the education. Rebecca, a focused and determined woman who moved up from student, to trainee, apprentice, then corps de ballet, is now a gem of a soloist in Nevada Ballet Theatre and is accustomed to hard work. She also, it seems, has multi-faceted, rock-solid ideas about her future.