dance with me … and me.
Do artistic directors feel threatened when their dancers work with other choreographers? Once we are accepted into a dance company, should we as dancers be completely loyal to that company by not pursuing any outside projects? Many dancers in DC work with multiple companies. Is that a conflict of interest?
In a city with not many of us to go around, and where there is such a range of rigor, how do you decide, as dancers, who to work with … How many companies to work with or projects to work on? What decisions to make that might boost your resume or give you more recognition or the opportunity to perform in a space you’ve dreamed about, or with other artists that you admire and want to learn from?
And as artistic directors, how do you deal with this reality? That it is a transient city. That sometimes dancers’ interests change. That, unless you run a professional company, how do you work around the dancer’s need to be involved in other things to fund and fuel the passion?
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Unless you have signed a non-compete agreement in your contract, there should be no reason not to dance with as many choreographers as you want as long as performances and rehearsals don’t conflict. I’m one of those people who dances or has danced with multiple companies at one time, and it is difficult to manage. Even though dancing for someone goes beyond the typical employer/employee relationship, you are still doing a job and as long as you are doing your job to the best of your abilities for everyone who is “employing” you it shouldn’t matter what your outside activities are (even if that’s dancing for somebody else). That job shouldn’t reach into your life to the point that it stops you from pursuing opportunities that could in the end benefit you. I am very dedicated to the work, and the choreographers I’ve been with over the past years in DC but in the end the career that I have to reckon myself with is my own.
Comment by Megan Morse Jans — September 25, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
i definitely agree…you have to take care of yourself, and that’s generally what any director is doing too. maybe b/c they feel they’re “in charge” and taking more risks, that they can demand more, but dancers just have to be assertive for their own needs.
ilana, i’d love to hear more about what kind of trouble your friend ran into with the artistic director.
Comment by Amanda Abrams — September 25, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
There’s an AD point of view, too. Say you’ve assembled a cracking team of dancers for a big show, maybe at the K Center which will run in the tens of thousands to mount. Two weeks out a key dancer gets an offer for a really cool performance at the 50 seat Joy of Motion for a piece he’s danced a lot before and dances it …. and gets badly injured.
As you can see the AD might be somewhat upset.
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