This month, we are going to hear from the women who have endured a cruel diagnoses and its malicious effects on the body and mind. Knowing the facts, risk factors and HOW-TOs does help in wrapping your head around difficult issues and decision-making. Sharing the stories of courage and winning character make us all strong. We unite under the one and only banner in the fight against breast cancer – Moving Forward With A Punch against this disease.

Today, I present to you a professional dancer with a huge business in her hands to lead. Yet the breast cancer diagnoses got interfered and made Noelle Andressen rethink her life, day by day, hour by hour. May her experience become your strength and inspiration to draw upon when you need it the most.

Breast Cancer October Relay

Illuminate. Encourage. Shine!
Campaña de Concientización Contra el Cáncer de Mama.
Alienta. Incentiva. Brilla!

My name is Noelle Rose Andressen, and I am a breast cancer survivor and “Thriver”. Professionally I make a living as a dancer-choreographer and Artistic Director of my company: Rubans Rouges Dance. Running my company business while undergoing treatment was extremely challenging and perhaps more so than others because my body is my “business.”

Dancing Is My Life

“My Body Is My Business.”
Noelle Rose Andressen, Professional Dancer Owner of Rubans Rouges Dance.

As a dancer, to have my tool being assaulted from within, I felt vulnerable and had to find my inner strength. I already had breast cancer previously, so I knew what I was in for with a recurring incident of breast cancer. My plan this time around, was to run my dance company, keep performing and choreographing, all while I was managing treatment and my life.

Here Are Some of the Practical Things I Did
And How I Overcame My Internal Battles

Take Care of Your Body

The first thing I did was decide that we had to cut back our projected dance engagements as a company, and I as a dancer, would do limited performances. I had an understudy for my roles in case I became too ill. Cutting back hours allowed me to get treatment and also stay relevant.

Journal

To help supplement the lost income and take it easy on my body, I wrote articles about dance and other subjects that I’m qualified for. I highly recommend this no matter what professions you are in. I also made an asset list to see how what I already had could earn income. Choreography was one of my assets. I dug up older choreography and had dancers learn it via Vimeo. They would get paid to perform at various festivals and I would earn a small choreographer/dance-creator fee. I learned to diversify.

Delegate

As my symptoms from treatment grew, I then had to realize and accept that I was going to need additional help and delegate to others if I wanted to keep the business going. Asking for help has always been very challenging for me because I’m one who doesn’t like to burden others. I had to humble myself and accept it. Often, I told myself, “I am not a burden. I have helped others with their trials; it was just my turn to accept the love from others.”

Learning To Live Life With A Different Breath of Air

Fortunately, I had friends, colleagues, and family who were glad to honor my needs. If I had the money I would’ve hired extra helping hands ,but at the time, it wasn’t feasible, so I had volunteers. I made a detailed list of what equated to various job positions and I broke each one down with their responsibilities.

I never realized how much work I did for my company so I made sure that these jobs were not too daunting or overwhelming for any one person.

Examples of Delegation

Administrators – They would come to my home for a couple hours a day and handle all emails, grant writing assistance, correspondence, and take dictation. This allowed me to have extra rest on a couch.

Break Managers – Scheduling mandatory breaks was a must. I tend towards work-a-holism; this was something in my nature that I had to change especially during treatment time. Your body needs everything it has to survive and fight the battle within. If I didn’t take my regularly scheduled breaks, a “break manager” would sit me down with a cup of herbal tea. That was their job, to ensure that I took my breaks and were my cheerleaders when I felt down. They would also help with nausea by massaging my feet or pressure points on my wrists (just like anti-sea-sick bands).

What really helped me was compartmentalizing my week days into specific task days that would harmonize with my treatment and side effects and symptoms from the treatment. Fridays I would always have more energy so that day was dedicated to creating new choreography or anything that had to do with movement. If I felt well enough to perform, Fridays and Saturdays would be set aside for that.

However, Mondays and Tuesdays were my biggest fatigue days, so I would reserve those days for administrative work or scouting for music on the internet.

The middle of the week I had more strength and energy, so I deemed those days as costume days. I’m also a seamstress and make most of our company’s costumes and repair any damaged ones. I had volunteers help after a performance with laundering them if I was too fatigued.

I Dance Anywhere There’s Room For Movement

During rehearsal, I had delegated to senior dancer to take over the teaching when I felt fatigued. They would be prepared beforehand to know what to teach and do in my stead. Again, this was hard for me since I love dancing, teaching and creating choreography. If I absolutely couldn’t make it to the studio for rehearsal, I would have one dancer run the rehearsals and teach accordingly so we wouldn’t fall behind. I would also use a camera at home and record the choreography I wanted my dancer(s) to learn and emailed the Vimeo link to them.

Sticky Notes

To help lift my spirits when I felt like a burden or just having a bad day, I posted heart-shaped sticky notes with positive messages or quotes written on them. I put these sticky notes on my “dance mirror” to remind and encourage myself that I was worth the help. As I choreographer, I do most of my work in front of the mirror, so this was the perfect place to get encouragement.

Hanging Out There Is The Most Important Art We Learn

Journaling became almost necessary for me as it not only served as a means to keep track of what got done and what didn’t, it allowed me to write about how I felt about what got done and what didn’t. It kept my stress level down, which is vital during treatment. This became a therapeutic form of emotional release and a great way to manage my business while resting. I could then take photos with my phone and email pages of to-do-lists to any of my friends or family to help with.

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Will Or Will Not – I Chose Will It

Something that is very important that helped me feel like I had more control was to do what many do not want to consider, the possibility of unfavorable outcomes. If I became incapacitated, I had to have all my affairs in order including wills, trusts, copyright, etc. Knowing that I had all the paperwork in alignment with my wishes and desires, allowed me not to worry about the “what if’s.”

I Just Can’t But DANCE

Noelle LOVES Her Job!

Prepare!

The best advice I can give is to prepare. Write a lot of lists with all the responsibilities you have and see how you can have others help you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and delegate.

The biggest thing I learned was: It’s okay to have bad days as long as you don’t beat yourself up for it.

Noelle Rose Andressen Having a Good Day!

Breast Cancer October Relay

Illuminate. Encourage. Shine!
Campaña de Concientización Contra el Cáncer de Mama.
Alienta. Incentiva. Brilla!

PIN for Your Support & Inspiration