Mini Documentary about Jaruam Xavier's career path, a Brazilian dancer getting his MA in Iowa
Jaruam Xavier is a Brazilian dancer who had to reinvent his career and life journey. After more than 20 years of dancing professionally. Jaruam stumbled on the age obstacle. At the age of 30, Jaruam had to figure out what to do with his life for the second time. Just like athletes, at a certain age, it becomes unbearable to continue to work with your body. But dancers, different from famous sports players, don’t have the privilege of getting retired at 30 years old. And on top of that, Jaruam had never pursued a degree after high school. He didn’t have a formal dance higher education. Instead, he had more than 20 years of professional dancing experience. But that didn’t seem to matter in Brazil’s marketplace. Jaruam, faced hard times trying to survive taking dancing classes in Brazil. After he stopped dancing professionally for dancing companies, Jaruam started giving dancing classes. Which didn’t work too well for him because of his lack of a college degree. And, of course, when the pandemic came everything got even worse. However, after hearing that American Universities accept at least 10 years of experience as a “college degree.” Jaruam knew that was the perfect opportunity for him. So he could pursue his master’s degree without having to start from undergrad. Now, at 39 years old, Jaruam still works with dance. But now he is a teacher assistant at the University of Iowa, working on getting his master’s degree in dance. Jaruam also talks about how his mindset changed over time. He never thought about the age obstacle when he started dancing. He didn’t even think about the future and his goals as much. Now, Jaruam has a very clear goal: Get his master’s degree and apply to positions at Universities, because he wants to be a University dance professor.
