Dancer turns to welding to pay bills, and likes it

She’s temporarily
abandoned dancing for
her career in welding.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Alexandra Harrill’s life as a dancer is reminiscent of the 1983 movie “Flashdance,” in which the ballerina heroine turned to welding to help support herself while she pursued her dream of becoming a professional ballerina.

Harrill, 19, has wanted to be a dancer since she put on her first pair of ballet shoes when she was 8 years old. But she decided she needed another career that could pay the bills until she can make it as a performer.

“I need to be able to pay for myself, and get everything that I want by myself, so I needed to leave that [dance] behind just for a while,” Harrill said, explaining why she chose to temporarily abandon dancing for welding.

Harrill had worked as a restaurant server while pursuing her craft. She spent three years with the Exhale Dance Tribe contemporary dance company and taught at another studio but found it difficult to juggle dance and work.

When her mother suggested welding as a backup career, she wasn’t enthusiastic but soon decided to trade her pointe shoes for steel-toed welder boots and enrolled in a three-week welder training course.

“I ended up being really good at it,” Harrill said. “It was pretty exciting, and I caught on pretty quickly.”

She has been working third shift as a welder with a Fairfield company that does work for the Department of Defense and makes $16 an hour — more than she has ever made, Harrill said.

Though Harrill hasn’t seen the movie “Flashdance” and wasn’t even born when it came out, others have pointed out the similarity of the story to her life. The heroine in the movie was even named Alex.

What impresses her about welding is the job security that she believes it provides. Welders are in demand. There will be nearly 450,000 welding jobs available nationwide in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Less than 6 percent of welders are female, according to the American Welding Society, and Harrill estimates fewer than 10 of the 300 or so welders at her workplace are female.

Harrill hasn’t given up her plans to become a performer, but for now she is focusing on work and has cut back on dance training to devote more time to welding.

She hasn’t ruled college out of her future either, but like dance and welding, she wants to do it her own way and in her own time.