How do I cope with how short a dancer's career is?

You can make dances that move people, that stay with them after the lights come up. And you carry a grief alongside the gift: a dancer's body has a season, and it is short. To love something so deeply and know it is passing is a real sorrow. Do not talk yourself out of feeling it. But the brevity is part of why it moves people. A dance exists fully only in the moment it is danced, and then it is gone, like a life. That is not a flaw in the art. It is the source of its power. You are not wasting yourself on something that fades. You are giving people something precious precisely because it cannot be kept. And your work does outlast your body. What you choreograph can live in other dancers long after you stop. Start passing it on now, while you are strong, teaching one person something only you know how to make. The season is short. What you plant in others is not.