Meet Elizabeth A. Sullivan - Success Coach and Wellness Mentor for Pre-Professional Ballet Dancers
"I built a coaching curriculum that included psychological skills building and nutrition, among other topics that I felt were needed to fully support a young, growing dancer today."
For this week’s edition of More Than Poms, we are featuring…
Elizabeth A. Sullivan
Success Coach and Wellness Mentor for Pre-Professional Ballet Dancers
1. Tell us about the life of Elizabeth! What is your background and how has that impacted you to get you where you are today?
When I was 8, I decided I wanted to dance, and that was the beginning of the next two decades of my life. I trained at pre-professional schools and dreamed of being a professional.
When I was 16, I moved away from home to pursue more intensive training at the North Carolina School of the Arts. I landed a company contract with the Cleveland Ballet after my senior year and later went on to dance with the Boston Ballet Company as well.
I had a happy and fulfilling career with Cleveland and Boston Ballet, dancing some of my dream roles. After 5 years, I retired and went to Dartmouth College, then moved to Italy to work in study abroad programs. Years later, I realized that I missed dance, so I pursued my master’s in Arts Administration at Columbia University to prepare me to re-enter the dance world as an executive director or school principle.
While getting my M.A., I wrote a thesis on dancer wellness programs in pre-professional ballet schools and found my passion: supporting young dancers on their journey through pre-professional training.
After my M.A., I sought out certifications in coaching on nutrition with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and on the science of motivation at Wellcoaches School of Coaching. That work, combined with my own experience of the field, pushed me to develop a wellness curriculum that has evolved into the coaching programs I offer now. And that is how I became a coach.I coach pre-professional dancers and their parents in my private coaching programs; I also give workshops to groups of dancers in ballet schools and I work with ballet teachers to develop best practices in how they train and motivate their dancers.
I absolutely love my work. There is nothing I would rather do!
2. What did you enjoy the most about dancing and what do you feel like was your biggest challenge growing up as a dancer? Now, being in the dance industry on the other side of things - how does that feel and what about what you do today gives you that same kind of fulfillment?
Dance was always a very social experience for me and I enjoyed that aspect of both training and my career. What I loved about dance itself was that it is an intensely hard thing to do and I liked to push my body in that way and see the results of my work and effort; it was satisfying.
My biggest challenge growing up as a dancer happened when I left home at 16 to pursue onsite training at UNCSA. I was homesick for a long time and I missed out on a lot of things, like living with my family and growing up with my siblings. Also, some of the teaching styles I encountered were unkind which made me go wobbly for a bit; it was an intense experience to go through away from home.
My experiences with those years of training and my career are what ultimately led me back to what I do today. As much as I loved dancing, I have to admit I prefer where I am today, on the other side of it; it's also a totally different stage of life for me. I work for myself now, have almost complete agency over my professional decisions, and make my own rules. It suits my personality better- ha!
I am just as fulfilled now as I was when I was dancing; it's different because I am not onstage in the spotlight or getting accolades for my work. As a coach, I am a "guide on the side," which is nothing like being a professional ballerina. However, I get the same rush of excitement watching my dancers deliver onstage and deep satisfaction when I help them out of a rough patch. When I hear that our work has made a difference in their experience, I am truly thrilled.
I also think of myself as a thought leader in changing things for the better in the industry, and that gives me a lot of satisfaction. I saw a lot of suffering among my peers in my training and career and felt helpless to do anything other than be a good friend. Now, I have a professional voice and a responsibility to work to support change; I embrace that responsibility. I'm happy to be one of the people with agency and the ability to keep dancers healthier, one dancer or ballet school at a time.
3. Tell us more about The Dancer's Toolkit and initial inspiration in becoming a success coach & wellness mentor for pre-professional dancers?
After graduate school, I knew I wanted to coach young dancers in training and support them in the ways I hadn't been supported. I wanted to help them understand what their bodies needed nutritionally and how their eating habits were related to strength, energy, and long-term things like bone health. I also wanted to teach them to train their minds; my few bad moments in dance were rooted in not knowing how to use my mind as an ally. So I built a coaching curriculum that included psychological skills building and nutrition, among other topics that I felt were needed to fully support a young, growing dancer today.
I had the opportunity to pilot the curriculum at a pre-pro ballet school here in NYC and that showed me what was working and what needed tweaking. Once I started coaching privately, I was able to gather more and more data on what exercises worked best when, and how to teach the skills; my coaching still informs my group work all of the time because I am learning what dancers need today versus ten or twenty years ago.
4. What does your day-to-day look like? What kind of impact have you seen when working with dancers?
My day-to-day involves a combination of administrative work and coaching. Administratively, I write my bi-monthly newsletter, post on social media, manage emails from current and potential clients, create content for talks, and correspond with ballet schools around the country to schedule workshops. I coach five days a week and about 25 dancers at a time, so most afternoons and evenings, I'm on the phone talking to my dancers.
Dancers I've worked with have reported experiencing lower levels of anxiety, healthier eating habits, a renewed sense of focus and direction, an improved skillset around managing difficult teachers and casting decisions... you name it! Dancers who have learned from me are happier, calmer, and feel they have the tools to manage their experience better in a very unpredictable field. They take responsibility for the things they control and this helps them stay engaged with what matters to them and to let the rest of it go.
5. If you could coach / give advice with all that you know now to the version of you growing up as a dancer, what would you tell yourself?
I would tell myself to go for it more, to be less concerned with what other people (teachers and peers) think of me, and to take more risks in the studio and onstage. I would tell myself to think of the studio as a laboratory and not to be afraid to fall right on my butt because then I would know where my limits were, rather than proceeding cautiously.
Perfection was drilled into me as a young dancer, but I am not a natural perfectionist - far from it. I have a high tolerance for risk and I wish I had tapped into that more as a performer; I think I would have had more fun and done bigger things.
6. If there is anyone interested in working with you, what would a typical session look like and what's the best way to reach out in scheduling a session?
It's very easy to find me and get started. My first session is free of charge as it's a get-to-know-you session to see if I'm a good fit to coach you. It's over the phone or Zoom, your choice, and is up to 45 minutes long; you share what you're finding challenging and what your needs are, and I tell you how we would work on those if we did a coaching program together.
My linktr.ee (https://linktr.ee/elizabethsullivan) has links to schedule a Discovery Session and to join my email list if you want to get to know me through my newsletters first. You can also find archives of my newsletters and blog posts on my website. easullivan.com
HUGE thank you to Elizabeth for taking the time out of her busy schedule to share with the MTP fam. I hope her story resonates with you in the most fulfilling way. It is so wonderful to see her thriving, pursuing a career that focuses on her passion of dance. It is especially wonderful seeing her help so many individuals within our dance community as we don’t have many advocates out there for specifically us. Major props to Elizabeth for everything she is doing and continues to do. She is a pioneer in our industry and continues to learn the evolution of our industry as dancers do the same - which I think is HUGE! Show your support and check out her websites in the links above.