Job No. 9 - Artistic Director

While browsing through the Guardian jobs (a truly wonderful website for those seeking a slightly out-of-the-ordinary job) I ran across this - Artistic Director for the International Dance Festival Ireland. Obviously, this was the sort of job that my current CV was perfectly tailored for, so I dived straight into an application letter...

I gleefully skipped (in a fashion not entirely dissimilar to Michael Flatley in Riverdance) past the job description's opening gambit - "You will have at least three years' experience in programming professional international contemporary dance - this is essential." - and instead concentrated on the fact that I have experience of working in formal organisational structures and have experience of dealing with the media. I also pointed out that, at the age of seven, I played the part of an orphan boy in an amateur production of Carmen at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. Quite why I chose to highlight this moment now escapes me...

The post requires a "sound and topical knowledge of the international contemporary dance scene" which I'm sure I have, since I've watched (purely accidentally, I must add, in my own defence) an episode of Graham Norton's Strictly Dance Fever. This, I think, is likely to impress the recruitment panel and stand me in very good stead...

I also promised in my covering letter that I would 'bring a fresh approach' and that, with my computer games background, would be able to 'bring the festival into the digital age'. I don't really know what I meant by this but I hope that it makes me sound impressive enough that they fail to notice I've not actually used the word 'dance' anywhere in either the letter or my CV...