Themes - PRESENTABLE

Although when looking at my literature this skill wasn't a large topic that came up, I wanted to blog about my experiences and others close around me. I feel a lot of people on BAPP will be able to relate to this skill. As a performer the way we present ourselves is just as important as our talent. It is the first thing someone will see in an audition. I believe that presentation of the way we dress and look links massively to professionalism. Would you hire somebody who turned up to a job interview in tracksuit bottoms, again this does depend on the job role but most likely not. Unfortunately in careers and everyday life we are a book judged by a cover.

Speaking of my own experience at college we were taught how to correctly do our hair and makeup and this transferred to my professional career as a dancer ensuring costumes were always well presented and I always turned up to work with clean and ironed uniform, a face of make up and I know I always looked presentable. It is in my nature and part of my daily routine to automatically wake up on a morning and look good. As vain as this sounds I wouldn't have achieved half of what I have without having a good appearance.

In interviews when respondents were asked to rank certain skills out of 10, presentation and image for all performers came at a strong 9 and 10, ranking the same level as the importance of their talent. Of Course before I even began the inquiry I knew that presentation would be classed as a transferable skill that would of course benefit in other careers. However not all careers need the focus on how we present ourselves at work so this skill again is career specific.

It is also strange how the way someone presents themselves can sometimes make it very apparent what they do and what status they have within a company. For example we always see managers wearing suits and beauticians always having a full face of make up.

Image could be an inquiry of its own so I am not going to think too hard into evaluating how it can be transferable across other careers but I like to consider it as a personal quality important to performers and a skill that performers get plenty of hands on experience on.