PERSONAL BRANDING AND THE BALLET

I have often said that when you are looking for clues to your true personal brand, you should look at those activities and qualities that you express naturally. Expressing your true personal brand should be as easy as breathing. When a company is looking to discover what is core to its brand, it looks for universal descriptions that everyone agrees on. Those are the underpinnings of a brand, and a good brand manager will build and evolve his/her brand on those foundations when expanding the brand. When you just do something and don’t even think about how or why you do it, you are expressing your core brand, and you will find that, throughout your life, you will find new ways to express that which is at the heart of your brand as well.

Dance is core to Ruth Vesenka Lewis’ personal brand, but her expression of dance is ever-evolving. A life-long dancer, Ruth performed as a professional ballet dancer in the Hartford Ballet, Berkshire Ballet and American Repertory Ballet Company for a career spanning more than 14 years. Currently, she is a choreographer for CONNetic Dance, a professional contemporary dance company, and Ballet Theatre Company. And she is a teacher at Hartford’s Ballet Theatre Academy, Ballet Theatre Company’s school. In recent years, she has choreographed Christina’s World, 1B, Under Blue Cover, Used To Be, and Sisters , and she assists with choreography of the Ballet Theatre Company’s spring production as ballet master.

On November 11th, there will be a showing of a dance Ruth has choreographed, an event that is the direct outcome of Ruth “breathing” (or expressing her core personal brand). I recently had a chance to talk with Ruth about the expression and evolution of her personal brand. I asked her how she expressed herself and how she is actively managing her personal brand in order to turbo-charge her career.

For Ruth, dance is simply a part of her life; she thinks in dance. She is currently working on choreography for a dance called M Theory. It is based on the scientific “string theory,” which seeks to unite quantum mechanics with general relativity. One particular aspect of the string theory is called “M Theory,” which links many seemingly disparate theories into one. M Theory (the dance) joins different styles of dance (specifically ballet, jazz and modern dance) together into one.

Ruth strives in this dance event to show the highest-quality creative expression with dancers who are capable of working in all three dance disciplines. One of her goals with this piece is to prove to the Connecticut dance community that there is amazing talent locally—not just in New York City. That’s why she is pushing herself with challenging choreography and coaxing excellence from the professional dancers in the performance.

Some corporate skeptics might say, “So, how does this turbo-charge her career?” Those who ask this question are not seeing the bigger picture. By driving this creative project, she strengthens her personal brand, which can have tangible benefits down the road. Among others, some of the tangibles she can immediately see would be:

• More experience in choreography
• Growth from the creative challenge
• Increased skill in working with top talent
• Highest-level exposure within the professional dance community

In addition, she will be able to use the video that is taken November 11th to the dance nationwide to other companies to perform. “I know this is great. I know others will want this.” She has the confidence to move forward with this project and trust that it will yield tangible benefits to her career down the road.

Question: How are you breathing? Do you have the confidence to express your personal brand in your own unique way? You should! How are you just naturally expressing your personal brand, and how can you actively manage your personal brand more clearly, more brightly, more authentically?

By the way: if you’d like to attend the free showing of M Theory ballet performance on November 11 from 12:30-1 pm, the performace is being held at the Ballet Theatre Studios located at 20 Jefferson Avenue in West Hartford.