• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

The creative force behind budding collective Black Sheep Productions, Natalie Maria Clark is a dancer, choreographer, director, producer, actor and poet. And that’s just her creative work. To earn her keep she also works at a store, cleans a yoga studio and models for life drawing classes.

In the latest 'NOT my day job' series on The Big Idea, highlighting creatives in New Zealand with multiple jobs, Natalie says she looks for work that provides an income, connects her to her body, in a creative environment.

“I want my money to be an enabler, not a restraint. It’s important to search for avenues through which your creative work can also be a source of income, and understand and remind yourself why you’ve chosen this lifestyle.”

Tell us a bit about your background.

I was born in Rotorua 24 years ago. I grew up in Cambridge in the Waikato, and have lived in Auckland since 2009 when I came here to study contemporary dance full time at Unitec. 

Tell us about your day job (how long you’ve been doing it and why)?

Like many creatives I do a myriad of things! I freelance in the arts as much as possible; I also currently work casually at Little Bird Organics in Ponsonby, and do an energy exchange with Yoga Tech in Parnell (cleaning in exchange for membership). Sometimes I earn my keep modelling nude for life drawing classes! I’ve been at Little Bird for just over a year, they are incredibly supportive and flexible around my creative work and it’s the main reason I’m there. 

Tell us about your creative work when you’re NOT doing your day job?

Since graduating I’ve independently created and co-created six full length shows. Last year I had my first professional commission making a shorter work on Footnote Dance NZ. Some of my favourite creative jobs have been choreographing the Stranger People music video for Doprah, which was nominated for Best Music video at the 2014 Vodafone Music Awards, and performing in outdoor performances in Aotea Square last year with former World of Wearable Arts artistic director Malia Johnston.

How do you manage juggling both?

It’s a constant balancing act - the old cliché rings true! Often it’s a case of asking yourself, “what do I need more right now: time, or money?” and prioritising paid or unpaid work accordingly. I’ve learned you can live incredibly simply if you need to. However, I want my money to be an enabler, not an restraint. It’s important to search for avenues through which your creative work can also be a source of income, and understand and remind yourself why you’ve chosen this lifestyle. I recall reading once, “being a starving artist only works if you are making art.” 

Tell us about your creative background.

I’ve always had a strong desire to create and to communicate. I began tap-dancing at age six and did jazz as a teenager, but when I began my degree in the strange and visceral world of contemporary I felt like I’d arrived home. I also love language and writing, I have a blog of over 800 poems and short stories and countless notebooks from the last 10 years. I think of myself not only as a dancer but as a creative person with many interests - last year I acted in a play for Young & Hungry Festival; and I’d love to engage more with the film and theatre communities.

What has inspired you? Who or what keeps you going?

People. I think we are incredibly complex and fascinating beings. The body itself inspires me - it is an incredibly powerful tool for communicating abstract ideas, emotion (I think of dance as a dramatic body language) and visceral sensation. The incredibly talented dancers I work with and those that inhabit the NZ dance community generally make my heart ache a little with admiration (and sometimes envy!). Sadly, I think our kin-aesthetic intellect is undervalued and not engaged with enough - and perhaps that’s why some people find dance difficult to understand. Current human mentality values analysing and picking things apart - but dance has to be absorbed and wash over you like music or sunshine. 

Would you like your creative work to be full-time (why/why not)?

Absolutely. And sometimes it is, for short spans of time, and that is always a wonderful haven. Whenever I’m having a meltdown and considering changing careers, I eventually remember it’s not actually creative work itself that is the problem, but the difficulty of getting by financially on it, and the subsequent exhaustion. There’s been a lot of talk around mental health in the arts recently and it certainly takes its toll. I think perpetuating the struggling, depressed artist archetype is dangerous and we need to value creativity more as a collective society and recognise its immense contribution to all facets of life from invention to advertising to leisure, and look after our artists so they can keep contributing their creative talents to the world!

What would help you achieve this?

Some of the choreographers and dancers I admire most and are in the mid-stages of their careers still have part times jobs. I think it’s a reality that becomes intertwined with your creative career. I feel I’m on the right track branching out into things like life modelling and doing things like being an extra and film work - work that provides an income, connects me to my body and puts me into creative environments, even if they are not dance. I haven’t been hugely interested in teaching which is often a primary source of income for creatives, but I feel that changing recently as I have a desire to share my knowledge and also to drive my income more towards solely creative environments. 

If you had the chance to start your creative career or path again, what would you do differently?

I would have travelled and gained some life experience before studying and not been so afraid of “running out of time” (ridiculous as I was 17 when I began my degree!), and known that such experience would inevitably feed into my creative practice and make it richer. But that’s just hindsight and aging, isn’t it! I have no regrets, and I recognise that whatever I have done prior to the present moment has informed the creative person I am now. 

What advice would you give to someone pursuing a similar creative career or pathway?

Fear less. Everything is good, because everything contributes to who you are. There are no wrong decisions - all things are valuable learning experience. Pursue fiercely what you are interested in, rather than what you think will bring you ‘success’. Success is joy. The arts and especially dance are far too much a labour of love as it is to spend time doing work and projects that don’t interest you, or where you are not valued. 

Tell us about your recent or upcoming creative projects.

My current baby is creating a new theatrical choreography, Everything Anyone Ever Wanted. It’s a show about the restlessness and overwhelment my generation experiences with the world, opening on June 21 at Q Theatre as part of their 2016 MATCHBOX season (the co-presentation programme that has previously presented fantastic shows such as Daffodils and All Your Wants And Needs Fulfilled Forever). I’m working with some incredible performers and musician Seth Frightening, as well as the design genius of Ruby Reihana-Wilson and Christopher Stratton. We’ve got a Pay What You Can Afford ticket scheme starting at $10. I want everyone to experience how evocative dance can be with such a fantastic team of collaborators on board. 

What’s your big idea for 2016?

Let’s mingle amongst and between creative communities much, much more! Let’s support art forms that aren’t our immediate circle, and collaborate with other artists to create something new and exciting. Let’s support each other, instead of competing. Let’s talk to the general public and our friends outside the arts sector about the arts in a generous and inclusive way. As Aristotle said, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And those parts are already great!

• Everything Anyone Ever Wanted , June 21– 25 at Q Theatre Loft