Day in a life of a trainee dancer

Written by Anonymous, edited by a Lid staff

This entry is from a person in their late 20’s who lives just outside of Tokyo.

Morning

7:30am - I set my alarm for 7:30 but to be honest I don’t get out of bed until 7:45. I spend 15 minutes checking emails or re-watching last nights video from the dance class. I should get up at 7am realistically but I’m always too tired to get up that early. If I did wake up that early, I can take my time getting ready, prepare breakfast and do some chores such as laundry before I leave for work.

8:30 - I need to leave the house by 8:30 latest to get to work on time. My commute takes about an hour and fifteen minutes, which leaves me fifteen minutes to quickly eat something and prepare for my lessons. My job is in Tokyo, but on the outskirts and in the opposite direction to wear I live. On the way to work I listen to music or podcasts.

During the day

10:00 - My first lesson is normally at 10am unless my client cancels or the slot doesn’t get booked. I work at an English Language School. I normally have eight to nine lessons per day and finish at 7pm. Sometimes I stay longer if I need extra money or haven’t booked a lot of lessons. If I don’t have a lesson, I practice Japanese, check which lessons are canceled at the dance studio or catch up on news.

I'm the only person at my work place who dances so I often miss out on afterwork drinks. I don't mind though. As long as I do miss the important events I don't think it matters. Plus I would rather take dance lessons.

Evening

7pm - After work, I travel into central Tokyo to take my dance lesson. The studio that I go to has several branches around Tokyo, which is really convenient.

8pm - The lessons that I take last one and a half hours and I normally take two. I take beginners hip hop. Even though I had been dancing since I was sixteen, I realized my technique was poor. The lesson starts with a stretch, then muscle training, groove training then a routine. My Japanese is quite low and my teacher doesn’t speak English so we don’t really interact. I’m studying Japanese so that we can communicate and I can ask questions in the lesson.

11pm - It takes me between 45 minutes to an hour to get home. On my way I pick up dinner from a convince store or cheap chain restaurant.

1:30 am - At this time I’m in bed after eating, showering, checking messages and getting into bed.

Overall Thoughts

After spending majority of the day sitting down it feels good to get my body moving. When I first started lessons I really struggled but now it’s not so difficult.

I wonder if I can level up because my technique is really poor but I will keep on going to lessons and doing my best. I also want to improve my Japanese so that I can have more conversations and speak beyond just greetings and simple questions.