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"This book contains advice
from my personal experiences as well as job contacts
collected over my years of dancing professionally all
over the world. I wrote it to both inform and
inspire dancers, and it is an irreplaceable reference
whether you are just starting out or you are already
performing professionally. I prove through simple
business tactics that dancers don't learn in their
training, that it is not as difficult as it seems to
have a lasting and rewarding career. I promise
that if you read my book and use the information in it,
you will be successful."
"If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never, give up."
-Norman Vincent Peale
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Meet the
Author:
Cheryl
Obal is an accomplished Equity dancer, singer, actress, choreographer, and teacher, whose career, by the age of 27, had taken her to a total of 43 countries and 45 US States. Based out of New York, Cheryl grew up in Topton, Pennsylvania, a small town 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Cheryl began studying dance at a local studio when she was four, and by the age of twelve, she knew that she wanted to be a professional dancer. It was then that she branched out and started seeking more training and performance opportunities. At this young age, she got a job delivering newspapers and started her own house-cleaning business, so that she could pay for the many extra dance classes she wanted to take, which her family couldn't afford. The hard work paid off, and in high school she was one of 30 dancers from the entire State of Pennsylvania chosen to attend the prestigious full-scholarship summer program, Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. She also began performing in the pre-professional Lehigh Valley Ballet Company in Bethlehem, PA.
In addition, she attended intense summer training at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. After high school Cheryl attended Point Park College (now Point Park University) in Pittsburgh, on the Golden Key Society Academic Scholarship, where she obtained a B.A.(honors) in dance. During her college years, in the summertime, she also trained with the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York City.
Cheryl Obal’s professional career began in Pittsburgh where she performed with the Mary Miller Dance Company and Playhouse Dance Theatre. She then went on to perform in Japan in the "Hollywood Dance and Magic Show," and in many shows on cruise ships around the world, with Holland America and Radisson Seven Seas Cruise Lines. Cheryl has been seen in a wide variety of productions, from the Irish dance spectacular, “Spirit of the Dance,” to children’s shows like “Sesame Street Live” ( National Tour).
 One of her favorite jobs was performing in “Hello Dolly” (Musical Theatre West) in Los Angeles. Cheryl was recently seen on the New York Stage as Cynthia, one of the leading roles in "The Fairy Playz" (Chashama Theater, 42nd St.) She has also danced with New York modern dance company, The Amanda Turner Project, and she has performed with several New York corporate entertainment producers for many years. Cheryl's fondest memory of her early years in New York City was when she was in filming for a Japanese television show called Music-Enta, in the heart of Times Square. Television crews blocked the street, and crowds of people, who thought the performers were famous, gathered from all over to take pictures. Cheryl both danced in, and choreographed the program. She also danced in, as well as choreographed, a swing dance special on the MSG Channel in New York City.
Cheryl's choreography has also appeared in opera (Dr. Faustus, Princeton Theater) and cruise ships worldwide: she was a Choreographer and Director for PGT Entertainment in Merritt Island, FL for two years, single-handedly teaching all dancers and singers their choreography and installing the shows on the ships. Recently she served on the Faculty as Choreographer, Acting/Movement Teacher for the National Theater Workshop of the Handicapped in Belfast, Maine.
Through her experiences on ships, Cheryl discovered her love of traveling and her desire to live abroad. Enamored with the arts in Europe, and particular, Italy, Cheryl moved to Vicenza, Italy in February of 2004. Cheryl taught English, Pilates, and performed occasionally, while studying the Italian language and appreciating Italian arts and culture. She learned the Italian language very fast, and within six months was working as a translator and interpreter. Later, she moved to Rome and studied with the well-known Italian choreographer Marco Ierva at the famous IALS center, the Italian equivalent to Broadway Dance Center. Cheryl became an offical resident of Italy in August of 2005! Cheryl has left Italy briefly to perform and teach near Seoul, South Korea, in a very special government-sponsored program that uses dance, theater, and music to teach English to kids. Cheryl dances, sings, and acts in children's musical theater productions and teaches dance classes to the kids. She loves the Korean children and is thrilled to be experiencing another new culture!
Preface and Philosophy of the Dance Information Sourcebook:
 As I was getting ready to make the jump into the professional dance world, I was astounded that there was no comprehensive guide that explained HOW to become a professional dancer. How to achieve success in dance always seemed like a big secret that I had to just figure out on my own. Even though I had attended a prestigious college dance program, and the training and practical experiences there were excellent, no one taught us the business aspects of a dance career. In fact, no one ever sat down and taught us the logistics of having a career in dance, throughout my dance training. I ended up being successful, but all that I learned about a dance career were concepts I gleaned the hard way: by asking a lot of questions and by trial and error.
My vision for the Dance Information Sourcebook started four years ago when I decided to organize my personal “dance notebook.” This was a huge binder full of notes about dance as well as job contacts that I had collected from years of performing all over the US and the world. When I had finished organizing it, I looked at it and realized that it would be a great resource for young dancers; in fact I wished I’d had all that information when I started out! Then came the idea to publish it, to give other dancers both the resources and positive reinforcement they need. Professional dancers often have large amounts of free time while we are performing, because we will typically perform one or two shows at night, and then the rest of the day is free time. Since I always like to be busy doing something productive, I used my free time to start transferring my resources into a book!
The Book is an enormous resource for dancers at any stage of a professional dance career. It is useful if you are just starting out, or if you are already a professional dancer and you need extra resources. I guarantee that you will not find this much information about a dance career, in one book, anywhere else. You will find everything you’ll need to know to be successful. This information is from both my personal experience as well as the experience of other dancers, whose advice you will read in the form of first-hand interviews. There are interviews with over 20 professionals from different facets of the business, as well as with dancers who live and dance in each of the cities with large dance scenes in the US. The questions I asked during the interviews were mostly about the business aspects of a dance career, and the result is the logical and practical advice you have been looking for. For younger dancers aged 10-18 who haven’t started a professional career yet, the book contains a
 plethora of information on preparing yourself for your dance career.
It is my sincere hope that other young women and men who dream of becoming professional dancers will be inspired by reading my book, and that already established dancers will be re-inspired. My dance career has brought me so much happiness and allowed me to make so many friends. It has allowed me to travel around the world, perform, and be paid for it. I want other people to experience this happiness too, and I hope that this book helps you to achieve your goals. I am a firm believer in following your dreams. If you dream of becoming a dancer, you should go for it! Society needs artists, for they are the reflections of culture. Performing artists are very important in that they lift people’s spirits and provide an escape from this all too difficult life we all lead. It is my sincere hope that you will continue to go out there and express yourselves with dance. If there is anything you gain from this, I want it to be the understanding that it is not as hard as you think it is to make a living doing what you love to do…that you can achieve anything you try hard for…that you are worthy of doing this…. that dancing is important…that you need to get out there and DANCE!
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