How Swapping Degrees Helped Rose Follow Her Passion for Performance Design

"Really listen to yourself and where you feel the most joy in what you’re doing."

This post is presented in partnership with NIDA.

Choosing what you want to study at uni is pretty damn hard but realising you’re no longer a fan of your course while you’re halfway through it is a whole other thing.

If you’ve already started studying a degree but you’re yearning for something more creative, it can be difficult to figure out what to do next and how to get started.

So, we spoke to former architecture student Rose Montgomery to find out about how she transitioned from studying architecture to a Design for Performance degree at NIDA, and what advice she has for other students.

As an undergraduate student, Rose was passionate about design, history, anthropology and storytelling, so she decided to start a course in architecture at the University of Technology in Sydney.

“I studied Interior and Spatial Design/Interior Architecture at UTS which kind of seemed to sum up all of the things that I was interested in since I was a little kid,” she tells Student Edge over the phone.

“All these kinds of things in architectural studies or spatial design seemed to tick all the boxes for me in that way because I didn’t have to commit to one thing; with architecture you can bring in all these different things.”

(Image: Supplied.)

While architecture was still a huge passion for Rose, she decided that what she loved the most about spatial design was the way in which it can tell a story.

“Towards the end of my studies in interior architecture and international studies I was still really enjoying it but found that I was still really drawn to storytelling through space,” she says.

“I felt my imagination kind of going beyond the real world and was always interested in telling a narrative through a building."

Rose discovered her enthusiasm for production design after working on some elective classes at UTS. She fell in love with projects that contained elements of dance performance, events and theatre.

After finding her passion, Rose chose to combine her architectural skills with production design by studying Design for Performance at NIDA.

“Once I was moving out of the architecture stuff and into the production design, it was just so natural; I just knew in my gut that it was the right thing to do,” she says.

“For the interview, I designed ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and I remember as I was making this set design for the interview, I just felt already at home with the practice of designing for a show.

“I didn’t really have a question in my mind about going anywhere else to be honest.”

(Image: Supplied.)

Sometimes figuring out what you want to study and pursue as a career can be difficult ‘cos you’re not sure what you’re interested in, but in Rose’s case, she had too many passions.

“For me it was almost that I was interested in too many things, so I never felt worried about what I was going to do but it was more just like committing to one thing,” she says.

If you’re stuck between a degree you like, and a dream career that you don’t want to miss out on, Rose’s advice is to follow your gut. Changing your course is always an option, no matter which stage of uni you’re in.

“I would say, listen to your gut instinct as the foremost thing. Really listen to yourself and where you feel the most joy in what you’re doing.

“There’s no problem with changing course ever. It would be a shame to feel like because you’ve already started something and gone in one direction that it’s going to stop you from ending up where you really want to be.”

If you’re interested in starting your creative university journey with NIDA, you can find out more about their design courses and other pathways to exciting creative careers on their website or at an open day.

Header Image: Supplied