Shandale Ricketts

The company I am working for is a dance theater company based in Downtown Brooklyn, Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet. It’s a fairly small not-for-profit company with under about 25 employees, that is a mix of teaching artists, administrative staff and artists apart of the company. I am currently being assigned to the marketing/graphic side of the company to help with Social Media posts and targeting a new audience.

The company has a Dance Theater which consists of company members doing Mr. Gaines signature choreography, a Young Artists program that kids that are in high school/college that show great artistry train with Mr. Gaines and other staff to prepare them for joining the company, a dance school called the Cultural Arts Program that trains kids as young as 3 years old, teaching them African, Modern, Ballet, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, and etc. They also have an Arts In Education program which consists of multiple teaching artists going into schools to teach school kids dance, drumming, mask making, art and other activities to give them something else other than regular school work during the school year!

The company was founded in 1994, Mr. Gaines has achieved high honors which include, but are not limited to winning the Palm Spring Dance Festival and showcased at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. 

My first week of job hunting, I was contemplating if I wanted to stay at my current job but I was still looking around for internships at other places. I wasn’t too sure about working in a new environment after working for the same person for about 5 years now. However, I wanted to see what opportunities were out there in the type of work I wanted to do. I was really interested in editorial design and wanted to see if I could land an internship based on that. It’s been awhile since I have searched for a job, but I looked at places I was familiar with that did do internships for college students. I searched on the COMD Internship Coordination Site as well and was even expressinging my struggles with my boss to see if he possibly knows anyone looking for an intern. While doing this I was also working Monday-Friday and sometimes Saturday and taking another class for my portfolio.