Northumbria University

Department of Arts

Masters Dissertation

How the Creative Economy is affecting creative

practitioners, in particular freelance dancers:

Freedom and constraints in Freelancing

By

Sophie Ammann

Student number: 13034954

27th August 2015

Word count: 17’235

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

award of:

MA Cultural Management

 

Declaration of Originality

I, Sophie Ammann, hereby declare that this dissertation is my own original work.

None of the material has been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma

at any university or other institute of tertiary education.

Information derived from the published and unpublished work of others has been

acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given in the bibliography.

  i

Abstract

Creativity is taking the world by storm in this new Creative Age, from urban

regeneration programmes to structural reorganisations of work models in which self-

employment is on the rise. It appears that imagination and independence are now

highly valued in a professional world that has become increasingly precarious and

struggles to provide stable and life-long employment. Portfolio-work is seen as an

acceptable way to an identity-enhancing career.

The professional environments of artists, in particular of freelance dancers, have had

to adapt to this shift: the precarity of their situation is manifold, ranging from physical,

through emotional, to financial. This dissertation explores the reasons for the

changes in the professional environment of freelance dancers, and how dance artists

themselves perceive their situation and profession, focusing on the situation in

Switzerland, with reference to the situations in France and Britain; through qualitative

and quantitative research, underpinned with appropriate literature, the author seeks

to illustrate how dance artists are coping with this new creative economy. The results

point to the conclusion that freelancing can offer much freedom, if dancers manage

to deal with the constraints.

 

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Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Jennifer Hinves, for her guidance and

support throughout this dissertation.

I would also like to thank Céline, Sonia and Séverine for their help in sharing my

surveys and providing me with precious information sources. A special thanks to

Sarah, Tamara and Mélanie – your continued support and advice were decisive for

the completion of this dissertation.

Thank you also to Carla and Melina – it was a great pleasure to discover your

thoughts about dance, which are still inspiring me today.

I would also like to thank all the survey participants who took the time to complete my

survey and opened themselves up to me. It was a privilege to read your thoughts,

one which I feel very much the richer for now.

A special mention to Erin and Rosanne – it was our adventure that inspired this work!

Thank you also to Arianne, for her precious wisdom and encouragement in this new

territory, and to Lachlan, Lucy, Anna and Aurélie, for their continued support

throughout my studies.

Finally, I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Marc and my parents for

their constant support and belief in me during my studies and life projects, and for

encouraging me to be the best I could be.

  iii

Table of contents

1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1

2 Literature review: Creative Practitioners in the Creative Economy ........................ 4

2.1 The value of knowledge, information and creativity in today’s economy and

society ............................................................................................................. 4

2.2 A definition of creativity .................................................................................... 6

2.3 Creative Industries in the context of a Creative Society and Economy ........... 7

2.4 The status of artists in the Creative Age and its influence on their

professional identity ....................................................................................... 13

2.5 Is Art real work? ............................................................................................. 14

2.6 The Instrumentalisation of the Arts ................................................................ 16

2.7 The paradoxal market of Art .......................................................................... 17

2.8 Artists and their professional identity ............................................................. 21

3 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 24

4 Dancers and their profession ............................................................................... 31

4.1 Demographics ............................................................................................... 31

4.2 Dancers’ professional identities: how dancers perceive and value their

profession and its environment ...................................................................... 35

4.3 Vocation and Values ...................................................................................... 37

4.3.1 Freelancing, a path to diverse experiences and sharing ......................... 41

4.3.2 The FREE in Freelancing ........................................................................ 42

4.4 The difficulties that have an impact on a dancer’s professional identity ........ 47

4.4.1 The multiple aspects of instability ............................................................ 47

4.4.2 Uncertainty in freelance dance careers ................................................... 50

4.4.3 The other side of the coin ........................................................................ 55

4.4.4 The power of the dancer-choreographer relationship on freelance

dancers’ professional identities .......................................................................... 57

4.5 Breaking through stigma – how freelancing can empower dancers instead

of hinder them ................................................................................................ 59

5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 65

6 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 68

7 Appendices ........................................................................................................... 78

7.1 An insight into a dancer’s life ......................................................................... 78

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7.1.1 The difference between classical and contemporary dance .................... 78

7.1.2 Dance education ...................................................................................... 80

7.1.3 Freelance dancers’ daily routine .............................................................. 81

7.1.4 The reinforcement of vocation through onstage experiences .................. 83

7.1.5 Injuries and physical precarity ................................................................. 84

7.1.6 Auditions .................................................................................................. 85

7.1.7 Fringe Festival Organisation .................................................................... 86

7.2 Survey questions (English) ............................................................................ 88

7.2.1 Professional dancer surveys ................................................................... 88

7.2.2 Student dancer surveys ........................................................................... 93

7.3 Thematic organisation of collected qualitative data ....................................... 97

7.3.1 Overview of themes ................................................................................. 97

7.3.2 Collected Data ......................................................................................... 99

7.4 Quantitative research results ....................................................................... 119

7.4.1 Professional dancer survey results ........................................................ 119

7.4.2 Student dancer survey results ............................................................... 130

7.5 Accompanying text ...................................................................................... 135

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Table of figures

Figure 4.1: Age of survey participants ....................................................................... 32

Figure 4.2: Countries of residence of survey participants .......................................... 33

Figure 4.3 Countries in which participants had been or currently were

professionally active ........................................................................................... 33

Figure 4.4 Years of professional activity in survey participants ................................. 34

Figure 4.5 Thematic Map of Freelance Dancers' Professional Identities .................. 37

Figure 4.6 Dance: a vocational profession ................................................................ 38

Figure 4.7 Reasons why participants dance .............................................................. 38

Figure 4.8 The importance of ‘calling’ in pursuing a professional dance career ........ 40

Figure 4.9 Dancers value the independence of freelancing ...................................... 42

Figure 4.10 Importance of financial remuneration in accepting a dance contract ..... 44

Figure 4.11 Percentage of responses for the question ‘If you don't work on the

creation of personal projects, would you be interested to do so?’ ...................... 45

Figure 4.12 Freelance dancers struggle with staying in shape .................................. 49

Figure 4.13 Ways in which freelance dancers stay in shape ..................................... 49

Figure 4.14 How dancers perceive the competitiveness during auditions ................. 51

Figure 4.15 Answers to the question ‘Generally, would you say you enjoy

auditions?’ .......................................................................................................... 52

Figure 4.16 Freelance dancing is a dual career ........................................................ 56

Figure 4.17 Dance students' answer shows openness towards freelance careers ... 62

Figure 7.1 The five positions of classical ballet ......................................................... 78

Figure 7.2 Movement material is often the result of a collaboration between

dancers and choreographer ............................................................................... 82

 

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List of abbreviations

AI: Disability Insurance (Assurance Invalidité)

AVDC: Association Vaudoise de Danse Contemporaine

CFC: Federal Certificate of Capacity (Certificat Fédéral de Capacité)

DCMS: Department for Culture, Media and Sport (UK)

DS: Danse Suisse

GT: Grounded Theory

HEI: Higher Education Institute

IOTPD: International Organisation for the Transition of Professional Dancers

IPA: Interpretative Phenomenological Approach

RDP: Reconversion des Danseurs Professionnels

RP: Rencontres Professionnelles de danses – Genève

TA: Thematic Analysis

UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

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1 Introduction

Creativity in all its forms is currently influencing our society, economy and culture.

Authors such as Leadbeater (2009), Florida (2002a) and Menger (2002) agree that

creativity is now a driving force in the current economy, shaping professional markets

and contributing to important shifts in our understanding of work. From an industrial

age, we have transitioned into an economy that values intangible goods, and in

which the Creative Industries are being celebrated for their power of culture-led

urban regeneration. This creative economy and the development of technologies

have contributed to a structural reorganisation of work models: self-employment is on

the rise, not least because entrepreneurial values are increasingly fostered by a

culture that extols the merits of independence and imagination.

Yet when creativity is mentioned, this usually brings to mind artistic activity. Creativity

is hailed as an economic motor, even though the arts are a notoriously precarious

market. Considering that creativity is now highly valued, generating entire societal

constructs based on concepts such as the Creative Class (Florida, 2002a), it is

perhaps surprising that arts and culture still fall victim to frequent budgetary cuts.

Creative practitioners and artists’ professional environments are defined by precarity:

underemployment and unemployment are among the consequences. New work

models are necessary to cope with the instability of the artistic sector, giving birth to

new professional identities. The creative economy has thus spawned a hyperflexible

work market according to Menger (2002), in which artists must now carve themselves

out a new position.

The author’s own experience as a freelance dancer was a determining factor in the

choice of the dissertation subject: indeed, this hyperflexible professional environment

is strongly felt by current independent dancers, sometimes leading to confusion as to

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what their professional identity entails. The rise of freelance work has generated a

myriad of new opportunities for dancers: now more than ever before it has become

possible for them to take control over their artistic vision and create their own

choreographic projects. It used to be that dancers’ careers mostly entailed work in a

dance company, in which dancers were employed on relatively stable contracts. The

situation of professional dancers has changed due to the creative economy,

especially for contemporary dancers: stable, full-year contracts are increasingly rare

for professional dancers, and freelancing has experienced an impressive surge since

the 1980’s. The new generation of professional dance artists now faces a job market

constructed on competitiveness and hyperflexibility; technical and artistic dance skills

alone aren’t the only abilities required from them. Freelance dancers now face the

challenge of embracing their entrepreneurial abilities and identities, alongside their

artistic ones.

This dissertation will argue how the rise of self-employment engendered by the

creative economy brings freelance dancers freedom as well as constraints. This

dissertation will examine the reasons for the shift in the workplace of dancers, before

exploring how freelance dancers themselves are currently experiencing the changes

in their profession, focusing on the situation in Switzerland, with reference to the

situations in France and Britain. Seeing as dance is an international profession,

several countries must be taken into account in order to paint a comprehensive

picture of the situation. The literature review in chapter 2 will deliver an overview of

the creative economy and its impact on our perception of work and professional

identities, focusing on the case of creative practitioners, artists and freelance

dancers. Literature on dance as a profession is rare: most of the literature treating

dance is concerned with its artistic and technical aspect, and not how dancers

themselves perceive their current professional environment characterised by

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precarity. This may be because dance, like many other artistic lines of work,

struggles to be perceived as a real profession, as the International Organisation for

the Transition of Professional Dancers (IOTPD, 1997) and Rolle and Moeschler

(2014) describe. Thus, qualitative and quantitative research, comprising surveys and

two interviews with freelance dancers, had to be undertaken in order to gather the

relevant information. The collected data was then analysed thematically in order to

discover how freelance dancers are experiencing the creative economy. The analysis

framework is detailed in the methodology section in chapter 3. Chapter 4 will present

and discuss the themes that emerged from the research: for example, bohemia is

common for freelance dance artists, who may then struggle with loneliness. The rise

of self-employment and portfolio-work offers them much freedom, which is

paradoxically accompanied by a multitude of constraints. The research also

produced evidence of how polyvalent freelance dancers must be in order to survive

professionally: freelance dancers are a good example of hybrid professional

identities, blending administrative and creative roles together. The conclusion will

then address how dancers can embrace these new skills they are developing in order

to achieve identity-enhancing professional careers.

 

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2 Literature review: Creative Practitioners in the Creative Economy

2.1 The value of knowledge, information and creativity in today’s economy and society

 Knowledge, information, creativity… these words are used to describe our current

society and economy in many places. The shift has been considerable from an

industrial economy that valued manufactured goods, to one that celebrates intangible

assets. It is now generally agreed upon that we live in an ‘information’ or ‘knowledge’

society, as described by numerous authors from around the world (in the UK:

Howkins, 2002, p. 117; in France: Menger, 2003, p. 5; in the USA: Florida, 2002a, p.

4; Arthur and Rousseau, 1996, p. 10; in Switzerland: Rolle and Moeschler, 2014, p.

26).

The rise of technology advanced the speedy ascension of information to the top of

the currency ladder, but also the decline of manufacturing (Hinves, 2012, p. 161),

and thus the transition from tangible commodities to intangible ones, as well as a

crisis of authority in the 1960’s as described by Boltanski and Chiapello (2005, p.

176), have contributed to shape this new economy. This chapter will explore different

theories regarding the information society and whether we are already transitioning

into another era, its impact on the Creative Industries as a whole, and more

importantly its effect on professional identities and environments, with a focus on

artists, particularly dancers. It will outline the current situation of professional dancers

in Switzerland, as well as taking the situations in France and the United Kingdom into

account.

Boltanski and Chiapello (2005, p. 169), as well as Arthur and Rousseau (1996, p.

10), share the opinion that whereas hierarchy and stability used to be the defining

factors in a person’s professional life in the industrial era, today’s information society

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empowers individuals rather than job titles.

Boltanski and Chiapello describe this new mind-set as a ‘Project-oriented Cité’ (2005,

p. 168), in which activity (as opposed to ‘work’), information-gathering, adaptability,

and trust-generation are more important career factors than strict hierarchies and

steady paychecks, which used to be the symbols of professional success in the

‘Industrial Cité’. Activity is the general standard by which one’s success, or

‘greatness’, is measured nowadays:

What is relevant is to be always pursuing some sort of activity, never to be without a project, without ideas, to be always looking forward to, and preparing for, something along with other persons whose encounter is the result of being always driven by the impulse of activity.

(Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005, p. 169)

As commendable as activity is, Boltanski and Chiapello point out that activity for the

sake of activity itself is not an attribute of ‘greatness’; rather, activity should always

strive to contribute to the common good – much like art.

Boltanski and Chiapello’s vision of our current society suggests a shift beyond pure

information: there is a personal aspect to their description of today’s values and

conditions for ‘greatness’.

In UNESCO’s declaration on the status of the artist, for example, importance is

placed on the ethical value of information:

Because today’s society is already an information society, it is the business of artists, looking towards the future, to chart the path of a new alliance linking ethics, technology and aesthetics.

(UNESCO, 1997, p. 2)

Howkins (2002, p. 117) seeks to differentiate between information and imagination:

‘Ideas and information are symbiotically intertwined. But when I say I have an idea I

am expressing a more personal view, and making a different claim, from when I say I

have some information’.

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According to Howkins (2002, p. 117), we are moving away from the information

society of the past 30-40 years. Imagination is now replacing technology as the

driving force: Howkins calls for new ideas that are personal, original, meaningful, and

useful. Creativity is the defining feature of today’s society, beyond information or

even knowledge: ‘Creative businesses, as a whole, are the driver of this nomadic

economy’ (Howkins, 2002, p. 121).

But what exactly is creativity?

2.2 A definition of creativity  First of all, creativity is different than innovation: according to Howkins (2002, p. 121),

it doesn’t necessarily follow any kind of logic – it isn’t ‘easy or routine’.

Bain describes the importance awarded to creativity ‘for its ability to challenge,

inspire and transform’ (Bain, 2005, p. 30). She quotes Lavie et al. (1993, cited in

Bain, 2005, p.30), who compare creativity to a state of near-divine inspiration, closely

related to the artistic realm and transcending the ordinary.

This joins UNESCO’s declaration concerning the status of the artist, in which artistic

creativity is especially highlighted: ‘artistic creativity constitutes a decisive factor for

the preservation of the identity of peoples and the promotion of a universal dialogue’

(1997, p. 1). In particular artistic creativity is a vital element of a society’s culture,

values, and moral fabric.

Florida (2002a, p.21) states that our culture has evolved around, and thanks to,

creativity, pervading numerous aspects of day-to-day life – a veritable ‘creative ethos’

has ingrained itself in peoples’ spirits. Florida describes creativity as ‘multifaceted

and multidimensional’ (2002a, p. 22), encompassing, but not limited to, technology

and modern business models. Creativity is a human quality, not a tangible good – but

it has contributed to the creation of tangible goods; in fact, Florida credits creativity as

the very source of ‘all good economic things’ (2002a, p.21). Florida describes

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creativity as a different way of thinking: in many ways, creativity contributes to the

shaping of our identity, by influencing our way of seeing and understanding the world.

Florida warns of confusing intelligence with creativity (2002a, p.31); rather, creativity

is the ability to make ‘combinations that are new and useful’. Whilst it can certainly

boost the economy according to Florida, it is in and of itself not usually driven by

financial motivations – creative people are fuelled by their passion and belief in a

certain idea (2002a, p. 34).

This suggests we have now entered a ‘Creative Age’ (Florida, 2002a, p.21), which

values creative individuals and their influence on society and the economy.

2.3 Creative Industries in the context of a Creative Society and Economy

Florida qualifies our current economy as a ‘Creative Economy’ (2002a, p. 44), in

which the Creative Industries are the fastest-growing sector: our economy is now

driven by entrepreneurship and technological advances, which have also contributed

to making self-employment a desirable option; even artistic endeavours ‘have

become industries unto themselves’ (2002a, p. 44). The Creative Industries are the

new it-sector, yet there is still debate concerning their scope and definition.

The UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) defines them as ‘those

industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which

have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation

of intellectual property’. These include: ‘advertising, architecture, the art and antiques

market, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software,

music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer services, television

and radio’ (DCMS, 2001, p. 5).

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Howkins (2005, p. 119) and Menger (2002, p.11) however see this definition as too

elastic and illogical to be readily adopted by the public; it simply accommodates

politicians’ agendas. Comunian, Faggian and Li (2010, p. 392) point out that

economists express scepticism concerning the role of the Creative Industries on the

economy, considering the difficulty of measuring the financial impact of intangible

assets. The definition of the DCMS poses another problem: the commodification of

culture has been denounced by many, including Adorno (1991, p. 100), for losing

sight of culture’s intrinsic values, and concentrating on the economic benefits.

According to Howkins, a better definition of Creative Industry would be ‘an industry

where brain work is preponderant and where the outcome is intellectual property’

(2005, p. 119). As such, dance is a part of the Creative Industries, as it ‘deals with

the generation of intellectual property through original choreography that is then

performed by dancers in live, filmed and broadcast contexts’, according to Burns

(2007, p.8).

Yet the Creative Industries generate much revenue and employment during these

times of economic struggle. The DCMS (2001, p. 10) stated that the Creative

Industries had generated around £112.5 billion in revenue in the UK, employing 1.3

million people, and accounting for over 5% of the UK’s GDP. Even worldwide, their

economic impact is considerable: Florida (2002a, p. 46) cites Howkins, who, in 1999,

estimated that the Creative Industries generated a total of $2,24 trillion dollars –

annually. It seems that the Creative Industries and culture-led regeneration are

regarded as the answer to this precarious economy.

According to Hinves, (2012, p. 163-164), the Creative Industries have thus gained a

new high-profile status ‘for a combination of economic, social and educational

  9

reasons. (…) The links between innovation and creativity, information and

knowledge, and business and culture were thus formalised’.

The rise of the Creative Age and the growth of the Creative Industries have also

engendered new work models and professional identities. Whereas governments in

Europe used to strive to provide stable full-time employment, Howkins regards this

conception of work as passé (2005, p. 120). Instead, Howkins refers to the

development of ‘market states’, in which individuals’ control over their work is greater,

definitions of professions are malleable, and careers are increasingly international.

Arthur and Rousseau (1996, p. 3) refer to these emerging careers as ‘boundaryless

careers’, as opposed to ‘bounded, or organisational careers’. They argue that new

understandings of work are essential in this dynamic economy, characterised by

precarity, flexibility and entrepreneurial values; previous expectations of lifelong

employment in linear and straight-forward careers have become obsolete in the

Creative Age. Boundaryless careers are defying the traditional work models of the

Industrial Age, with ideas of ‘networking, learning and enterprise as the illustrative

boundaryless-career phenomena’ (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996, p.4).

Enterprise is of special importance in these careers: it is the individual’s responsibility

to shape his or her career, by actively pursuing his or her fields of interest: ‘Personal

enterprise’ is ‘the path to the expression of deeply held identities and values’

(Freeman and Gilbert, 1988, cited in Arthur and Rousseau, 1996, p. 12).

Baker and Aldrich (1996, p. 136) also acknowledge the importance of professional

identities, and how these have had to change due to the globalisation of markets: it is

not necessarily individuals who have become ‘less stable as employees; instead

  10

employment has become more flexible’. They argue that increased flexibility in

contemporary employment can present a challenge for the construction of successful

professional identities. Work provides ‘an important context for the expression and

further development of both identity and knowledge’ (Baker and Aldrich, 1996, p.

132). In order to develop an ‘identity-enhancing career’, individuals must seek to

achieve goals that harmonise with their values, as well as their professional

environment; in boundaryless careers, characterised by uncertainty, this must be

done with multiple employers, throughout a succession of full-time or part-time jobs,

in so-called portfolio careers.

Leadbeater and Oakley vouch for the importance of cultural entrepreneurs in the

contemporary Creative Age, these ‘New Independents’ (2005, p. 299) who

successfully create boundaryless professional identities and are responsible for the

recent rise in self-employment, freelancing and micro-businesses. The creative

economy is complicating the categorisation of professions, which Leadbeater and

Oakley see as a great step forward in the acquisition and distribution of knowledge.

Self-employment gives these New Independents the possibility to express their

creativity in an autonomous way, and re-imagine their professional identity according

to their sense of self. The New Independents are somewhat different to the

boundaryless entrepreneurs Baker and Aldrich describe, in that they consciously

choose the path of independence. They are driven by anti-establishment and

individualistic values, and don’t view technology as a threat, but rather as a tool to

navigate the increasing economic precarity. They swap job security for portfolio

careers based on networking, learning, and short-term projects.

In his recent publication We-Think, Leadbeater (2009, p. xxi), further describes how

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Internet and technology are contributing to transform professional environments,

creating a new organisational model based on the sharing of ideas, in which small

businesses, ‘pebbles’, are leading the way instead of large organisations, or

‘boulders’.

Our freedom to be creative has ‘exploded’ thanks to accessible technology according

to Leadbeater (2009, p. 1), enabling people to express themselves and connect with

each other far more easily. The focus here is on relationships, not only information:

Relationships are vital to our well-being. The difference between a life that feels rich and full, and one that feels empty and hollow, often lies in the quality of our relationships: whether we feel significantly connected to others. Relationships and networks are the basic building blocks of society. (…) The twentieth century was dominated by big organisations that did things for us and to us as workers and as consumers. Could the twenty-first century be about organisations that work with us and allow us to do things by ourselves?

(Leadbeater, 2009, p. 242)

Florida agrees that our contemporary society seeks to actively and creatively

participate with its surroundings. He argues that the Creative Age is led by the

Creative Class; anyone whose work is determined by their use of creativity is a

member (Florida, 2002a, p. xxvii). This class is driven by a shared creative ethos, in

which creativity in all its forms is the common core binding different sectors together.

Florida cites Inglehart, explaining that our current society has shifted its values

framework from ‘survival’ to ‘self-expression’ (2002a, p.81): the Creative Class

pursues an experiential lifestyle, through which it reaffirms its creativity and thus its

identity.

The Creative Class is in many ways similar to the New Independents which

Leadbeater and Oakley (2005) described, trading ‘job security for autonomy’ (Florida,

2002a, p. 13). Similarly to Arthur and Rousseau (1996), Florida (2002a, pp. 6-13)

explains how long-term employment may be coming to an end, because the bonds

between employers and employees are diminishing.

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According to Florida (2002a, p. 17), technology alone isn’t responsible for these

changes: ‘rather they are a result of incremental shifts in human behaviour and social

organisation’. Society as a whole is becoming far more accepting of portfolio careers

and flexible, freelance work.

This has also led to an upsurge of bohemians, or ‘Supercreative Core’, comprised of

‘professional artists, writers and performers’ (Florida, 2002a, p. 46), whose numbers

have grown by more than 375% between 1950 and 1999.

Comunian, Faggian and Li (2010, p. 390) explore the Supercreative Core further,

which has been variously labelled as ‘bohemian’ or ‘neo-bohemian’. The reputation of

bohemians used to be one of ‘libertine lifestyle’, and rejection of ‘bourgeois middle-

class’ values, but now the understanding of bohemian lifestyle has somewhat

changed: according to Florida (2002b, p. 59), bohemian refers to creative individuals

whose profession is largely artistic. Comunian, Faggian and Li (2010, p. 395) argue

that many ‘bohemian graduates’ (highly educated individuals with degrees in artistic

subjects) are struggling to build careers in their chosen cultural field. Whilst creativity

is being celebrated for ‘fostering local development’, bohemian graduates earn on

average £4000 less per year than non-bohemian graduates, and this even in creative

occupations. There is now an ‘oversupply of artists’, with an increasing number of

young people willing to take the risk of adopting an artistic lifestyle, and accepting

low- or unpaid work in order to gain experience.

Considering the popularity of the Creative Industries as a whole, the conclusion that

most bohemians are not reaping the economic benefits engendered by their sector is

perhaps surprising.

Lloyd (2002, p. 526) argues that although the direct economic returns of the arts are

rather scarce, this doesn’t render them any less important: ‘rather, this importance is

complex and mediated’. Additionally, Lloyd (2002, p. 526) states that ‘there’s a big

  13

difference in being poor by choice’. According to him, bohemians voluntarily embrace

financial precarity as a necessary pre-condition to artistic freedom. Lloyd describes

how low income in artistic professions requires the majority of artists to supplement

their income with other work: polyactivity appears to be the new norm, with many

artists accepting common dead-end jobs because their ‘real identity comes from

activity outside this job’ (Zukin, cited in Lloyd, 2002, p. 526).

2.4 The status of artists in the Creative Age and its influence on their professional identity

Lloyd (2002), Florida (2002a), and the UNESCO (1997) all suggest that artistic

professions are important to our society and economy. Yet precarity often goes hand

in hand with artistic professions: self-employment is on the rise, and despite this

being a way for artists to embrace their autonomy, low salaries make it increasingly

hard for artists to pursue their chosen career.

Public subsidies to the arts have been under pressure since the late 1980’s. In the

UK, Hutchison (2015) reports that the DCMS budget was cut by 30% in 2010,

followed by another 5% in 2013; it is now facing yet another cut of up to 40% from

2015-2020.

In Switzerland, an article (RTS info, 2015) reports that the budget destined for culture

was threatened with cuts of 65,1 million CHF in March 2015, and 145,1 million CHF

in June 2015 for 2016-2020. Both budget cut proposals were rejected by the National

Council, but this sort of menace reveals a negative attitude towards arts and culture

in today’s economy, despite the importance of creativity.

Sami Kanaan (2014), Mayor of Geneva, deplores the disregard for culture, and

highlights the fundamental part the arts play in shaping our collective identity, social

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cohesion, and quality of life. Not only this, but in 2008 the cultural sector represented

4400 jobs in Geneva, 1,5% of the entire job market, with a job growth of 29,5% from

1995 to 2008 compared to the average 21,1% of the global job growth in Geneva.

Of the many art forms in the cultural sector, the dance sector in particular is fragile: a

report by the Rencontres Professionnelles de danses – Genève (RP) describes

dance as the poor relative in the performing arts family (RP, 2014, p. 7), the most

precarious art form in an already precarious market, and denounces insufficient

public funding for the creation and further transmission of dance. Budgets for arts

and culture continually have a Damocles sword hanging over their heads.

Bain in particular opposes the ‘glorification of the artist as Bohemian’ (2005, p. 29);

she concedes that whilst this status might confer autonomy, ‘it underplays the

socioeconomic loss that artists accrued’.

Despite the importance of professional artists in the socio-economic landscape

governed by creativity, they are in a precarious position: the UNESCO (1997, p.5)

denounced the increasingly difficult position artists find themselves in, battling with

unemployment and underemployment. Artists in the performing arts especially are

confronted with uncertainty, considering their careers are generally shorter than

average, particularly in dance. Added to this is the increasing internationalisation of

artistic careers, which renders dealings with social security and tax ever more

complicated.

The following section will explore several reasons for the precarity artists find

themselves in, and the repercussions this has on their professional identity.

2.5 Is Art real work?  ‘ “Get a job!” ‘ – Amanda Palmer, a punk cabaret performer, used to hear this call

frequently at the beginning of her career as a street performer; she met this insult

  15

with confusion and resentment:

Of all the insults hurled in my direction, GET A JOB hurt the most. It was an affront. I took it personally. I had a job. I was doing my job. I mean, sure. It was a weird job. And a job I’d created out of thin air with no permission from a higher authority. But I was working, and people were paying me. Didn’t that make it a job?

(Palmer, 2014, p. 55)

Whilst the New Independents are being celebrated the world over for their ability to

‘blur the demarcation line between work and non-work’ (Leadbeater and Oakley,

2005, p. 306), Bain (2005, p. 25) addresses the issue that ‘artistic labour is seldom

recognised as “real” work’.

Menger (2003, pp. 5-9) attempts to determine whether artistic labour can be seen as

work, or whether its conditions are too ‘exotic’. His conclusion is that artists, with their

adaptability, deep-rooted commitment, inherent creative drive and vocation

correspond to the new ideal of contemporary workers in the Creative Age.

Yet artistic labour still struggles to be accepted as a real job. Bain (2005, p. 37) asks

‘Do you have to hate your job to make money at it?’. She argues that the common

perception of work is one in which certain activities are undertaken in exchange for

monetary compensation, and this during regulated hours, away from home: work is

usually seen as unpleasant and ‘arduous’.

Artistic labour is often unregimented; this, coupled with misunderstanding of the skills

required for artistic work, can lead to people linking artistic labour with ‘the domain of

the personal, irrational, the irresponsible, the undisciplined, the chaotic’ (Anderson,

cited in Bain, 2005, p. 38).

In addition to this, arts and culture often rely on government funding: artists are seen

to exploit government support and ‘artwork [is] sometimes regarded as the

extravagant pastime of the elite borne aloft on the taxes of the ordinary’ (Bain, 2005,

  16

p. 38).

Despite this prejudice, artistic labour requires many skills, some of which were

highlighted by Leadbeater and Oakley (2005) when describing the New

Independents: artistic production ‘demands the ability to initiate projects, to make

crucial decisions, and to assume the necessary responsibility to carry them through

to completion without supervision’ (Bain, 2005, p. 39).

The IOTPD argues that dancers in particular are seen as ‘romantic figures by some

and as people who play rather than work by many others’ (Greben, cited in IOTPD,

1997, p. 18). It was only in 2009 that dance was officially recognised as a profession

in Switzerland: the Projet Danse, a study published in 2006 by the Swiss Arts Council

ProHelvetia detailing the current situation of professional dance in Switzerland, was

the beginning of a reorganisation of the Swiss dance scene; it culminated in the

official recognition of dance as a profession, through an educational decree that

introduced a new state-recognised syllabus in dance. This recent Federal recognition

of the career of dancers represents an important step forward for dance in

Switzerland, but it also points to a system that has delayed awarding dancers a

professional status until very recently.

2.6 The Instrumentalisation of the Arts  The current discourse surrounding the arts is one of instrumentalisation according to

Agnew (2012, p. 197) and Lacassagne (2012, p. 185): governments are focusing on

culture-led urban regeneration and the potential of the arts to attract creative

businesses and create jobs, instead of celebrating the ‘power of arts on human life,

on society and on individuals’ (Agnew, 2012, p. 197).

Agnew (2012, p. 204) describes how the instrumentalisation of the arts can have

negative effects on artists themselves: by forcing artists to rely on increasingly

  17

volatile markets, artists are pushed into entrepreneurship and precarity. Polyactivity

is frequent among artists, and sometimes even threatens to take over their artistic

identity. On top of this, artistic professions are increasingly freelance, thus requiring

artists to create art to high standards whilst effectively marketing themselves and

their work, and running their own business: their art. Agnew blames the over-

instrumentalisation of the arts for ‘ignoring the very real need for artists to make a

living from their work’ (2012, p. 203).

For dancers, the situation is no different: the IOTPD draws attention to the irony

dancers face:

…the image of the devoted artist prevents dancers from achieving the status of acknowledged professionals: if the dancer is concerned with material security, he or she is considered a lesser artist; yet without any economic standing, the dancer is worth nothing according to society’s standards of measure.

(IOTPD, 1997, p.37)

Agnew (2012, p. 207) calls for a balance between meaningful community

development and professional artistic experimentation.

2.7 The paradoxal market of Art  Prestige and precarity – two sides of the same coin when it comes to artists. Bain

cites Bourdieu when saying that artists ‘possess all the properties of the dominant

class minus one: money’ (Bourdieu, cited in Bain, 2005, p. 33).

Menger (2002, pp. 23-25) describes the singularity and paradoxes of the artistic

market, celebrating the conversion of creative work, driven by intrinsic rewards, into

financial value. Entrepreneurship is now almost an imperative for artists in a

capitalistic economy; yet they are largely driven by vocation and a sense of passion.

Conde (2009, p. 8) explains how artists represent ‘an ambivalent condition between

  18

centrality and fragility – a source of structural inconsistency in their status’: they are

often independent workers thanks to their high self-employment rate, yet generally

rely on decreasing public subsidies to support them and their labour. They possess

high qualifications and specialised skills, which are rarely reflected in their income.

Menger (2002, p. 62) explains how hyperflexible contracts are necessary in a

professional field where freelancing and rapid turn-overs are the norm. At any given

time, there must be an oversupply of artists for transitions to go as smoothly as

possible for producers. Producers can’t or won’t invest huge amounts of money into

their productions, which reinforces this need for contractual hyperflexibility: freelance

work is competitive perfection.

This paradoxal hyperflexible market has direct consequences on unemployment and

underemployment among many other issues: it imposes on individuals alternating

periods of work, compensated unemployment, uncompensated unemployment, job

searching, and polyactivity inside or outside the artistic sphere according to Menger

(2002, p. 63).

This is particularly evident in the professional environment of dancers. In Switzerland,

there are seven major institutional dance companies, which are publicly as well as

privately funded: the Basler Ballett, Konzert Theater Bern, Grand Théâtre de

Genève, Luzerner Theater, Theater St. Gallen, Opernhaus Zürich and the Béjart

Ballet Lausanne. These companies produce work that is generally more classical or

neo-classical, although some are extending towards a more contemporary dance

style (see Appendix 7.1.1).

They employ dancers on relatively stable full year contracts, which can be renewed

at the end of each performance season: for the 2014-2015 season, they employed a

total of 186 dancers.

  19

In comparison, according to Grasset (2008, p.11), there were approximately 163

independent dance companies in Switzerland in 2008. Independent professional

dance started in 1981 in Geneva, when three small-scale companies were awarded

public funding for projects. From then on, independent dance companies started

flourishing in Switzerland: in Geneva alone, the number went from 32 independent

companies in 2012 to 48 in 2014 according to the RP (2014a, p. 3, and 2014b). This

suggests an important increase in freelance dancers as these independent

companies employ dancers on short-term contracts for projects; although it is difficult

to give exact figures for the number of dancers in Switzerland as they are primarily

freelance and rarely members of unions (Baumgartner and Hostettler, 2014, p. 3),

Grasset (2008, p. 11) cites the association of professional dancers Danse Suisse

(DS), estimating that there are approximately 600 professional dancers active in

Switzerland, of which more than 73% are freelancers.

The growth of freelance dancers can be explained by a general transformation of the

Swiss work market: a report published in 2007 by the Federal Office of Culture

concerning the social security of cultural workers in Switzerland states that during the

past twenty years, Switzerland’s professional market has slowly evolved from full-

time and stable employment to an increasingly flexible work market as described by

Menger (2002) and Arthur and Rousseau (1996) previously. The cultural sector

especially has become hyperflexible, requiring its members to adapt to part-time jobs

and portfolio careers.

In the UK, the situation of professional dancers is similar: according to Burns (2007,

p. 11), there are approximately 700 dancers employed by 52 small to medium-sized

companies, whereas Equity counts 2500 of its members as dancers: considering that

not all dancers are a member of Equity, this number may be even higher, which

means that a significant proportion of professional dancers are self-employed.

  20

In France the rise of freelance dancers has grown dramatically: from approximately

1400 independent dancers in 1987, their numbers grew to more than 4300 in 2000

according to Rannou and Roharik (2006, p. 25), compared to 500 permanently

employed dancers in companies. This is largely due to the fact that funding for dance

in France was multiplied by eight between 1981 and 1997. Yet Sorignet (2010, p. 18)

argues that whilst increased funding for dance permitted more work opportunities, the

lengths of the contracts themselves decreased drastically, obliging dancers to

accumulate more contracts in order to receive the same amount of salary: whereas in

1987, the average length of contracts was approximately 28 days, in 2000 this

number dropped to less than 7 days. The IOTPD (1997, p. 35) and Grasset (2008,

p.13) also agree that full year contracts have become rare in independent dance

companies, Switzerland included, generally only available in major, state-subsidised

dance companies. In Switzerland, dancers’ salaries are usually the generally

accepted Swiss minimum of 4500 CHF per month, yet in reality, dancers don’t

receive this sum on a monthly basis according to the RP (2014a, p. 23). These fees

are punctual, often insufficient in bridging the inevitable hollow periods between

contracts.

This development of the professional dance market was also caused by the

establishment of particular unemployment benefit schemes in France (‘statut

d’intermittent’) and Switzerland, allowing flexible work contracts to become more of a

reality. The RP (2014, p. 26) explain how unemployment benefits received by

independent dancers sometimes even help to compensate for insufficient funding for

project creations, thus enabling longer rehearsal periods that aren’t officially

accounted for.

This shift towards a hyperflexible work market can also be beneficial for the dancers:

the large turn-over rate of companies is a contributing factor to the rise of freelance

  21

dancers. Shorter contracts help dancers to distance themselves from the instability of

their employers according to Rannou and Roharik (2006, p. 78).

Additionally, dancers’ low and intermittent income makes it difficult for them to pay

into social security systems such as Disability Insurance (AI): in Switzerland, the

amount perceived for the AI is proportional to the amount a person has contributed,

which makes this a very meagre sum for a profession that is so inherently physical

and in which injuries can wreak havoc.

All in all, dancers’ situations are precarious ones, in which financial returns are low,

and instability appears to be the new norm.

2.8 Artists and their professional identity

Before being hailed as the ‘Supercreative core’ (Florida, 2002a), artists and their

creative abilities were in turns idealised as belonging to a sacred profession, the

‘intellectual elite’, then romanticised as temperamental Bohemians. Bain (2005, p.

30) warns of the dangers of overly romanticising creative practice: this depreciates

the value of artists and ‘the similarities they might share with other occupational

groups, particularly in a post-Fordist era characterised by the “flexibilisation” of job

markets’.

Indeed, it has been suggested by numerous authors that today’s artists have much in

common with entrepreneurs: the term cultural entrepreneur is a new development of

the Creative Age and its culture-led regeneration (Hinves, 2012, p. 168). Encouraged

by their role at the forefront of the economy, an increasing number of artists have

embraced a new identity of ‘artist-cum-cultural-entrepreneur’ (Hinves, 2012, p. 174).

Artists and entrepreneurs do have certain skills and qualities in common: both are

risk-takers, think creatively, and blur the boundaries between work and non-work.

  22

Rolle and Moeschler (2014, p. 184) describe the new trend of cultural entrepreneurs

as potentially beneficial for artists. Their publication explores the professional

situation of actors in Switzerland; in this creative economy, actors are encouraged to

adopt an entrepreneurial stance regarding their career: embracing polyactivity can

lead to more artistic freedom and financial stability. Artists, Rolle and Moeschler

(2014, p. 61) say, should take advantage of this new creative ethos, which sees

artists and creative workers as the new ideal, by undertaking their own creative

projects. This also displays a pro-active stance that encourages prospective

employers to work with artists, and joins in with the collaborative creative

practitioners described by Leadbeater (2009), who actively explore their creativity

through collaborative relationships with others.

Artists are stepping into a ‘flexible, hybrid identity’ according to Hinves (2012, p. 175),

in which networking, enthusiasm, trust and entrepreneurialism can be the solution to

precarity and doubt. Whilst there is pressure on artists to ‘become more business-

like, rather than artistic’ (Agnew, 2012, p. 203), this entrepreneurial identity has

meaningful positive outcomes if enough time can be awarded to artistic labour.

Bennett (2009, p. 28) describes contemporary dance artists as hybrid, and current

dance careers as ‘protean’, explaining how the dance market is a ‘sector made up

almost entirely of dance artists for whom independent project-based work is the

norm, and the inclusion of non-performance roles is almost inevitable.’ Vocation,

social capital and an entrepreneurial attitude are imperative for a sustainable career

in dance. Bennett argues that administrative and production skills are now

fundamental to independent dance artists’ careers, which they must acquire ‘on the

run as they create new opportunities and craft both the present and the future in

response’ (2009, p. 28) alongside their creative occupation. According to Bennett’s

  23

findings, many dance artists value production skills as an interesting addition to their

artistic careers. This can also be artistically liberating, leading to new collaborations

and entrepreneurial endeavours. Lacassage (2012, p. 193) describes these hybrid

artists as follows: ‘Their rationale and modes of thinking are profoundly shaped by an

entrepreneurial spirit’.

Entrepreneurship has now become an indelible part of artistic identities. If undertaken

in a sensitive way, this new layer to artistic professions may well be an effective and

empowering solution to artists’ current professional situations defined by precarity.

 

  24

3 Methodology

Literature on dance as a profession has developed recently; most dance literature

focuses on the technical aspects of the art, not on the professional aspect itself.

Thus, this dissertation required primary data collection. In order to explore dancers’

professional environment in depth, the author opted for method triangulation as

suggested by White (2000, p. 67): qualitative and quantitative research methods

were used for the collection of data.

As dance is an artistic profession, and thus by nature subjective and heavily reliant

on individuals’ personal experience in their professional environment, qualitative

research methods were prioritised. This seemed like the most appropriate choice, as

the focus of this dissertation is dancers’ perception of their professional environment,

not the confirmation of any hypotheses. Willig (2013, p.22) argues that ‘the objective

of qualitative research is to describe, to understand, and sometimes also to explain,

but never to predict’.

The ontological framework of this dissertation is based on a critical realist approach,

between realism and relativism: it acknowledges a ‘real and knowable world, which

sits “behind” the subjective and socially-located knowledge a researcher can access’

(Braune and Clarke, 2006, p. 27); it is influenced by a person’s feelings and past

experiences as well as by its context. Seeing as this dissertation explores freelance

dancers’ professional identities and how they perceive these in a changing creative

economy affected by very real precarity, this seemed like the most suitable approach.

The epistemological framework of this research is contextual, bearing in mind that

the aim of the dissertation is to explore the evolution of freelance dance careers and

how dancers perceive the development of their professional environment.

  25

The qualitative aspect of the research was undertaken firstly through interviews:

White (2000, p. 29) and Saldaña (2011, p.32) suggest interviews as an excellent

qualitative research method that provides much detail. Saldaña (2011, p.32)

recommends interviews for their ability to present factual information about people’s

experiences as well as chronicle individuals’ personal perceptions and beliefs

regarding their experiences and environment; this method thus complied with the

theoretical framework of the dissertation.

As surveys including qualitative research would also be conducted, the number of

interviews decided on was two, as suggested by the dissertation supervisor. Both of

the interviewees chosen received their dance education and exercised their

profession in Switzerland, which was a critical factor during the selection of

participants. Both interviewees are female and had been freelancing for a couple of

years prior to the interview. Their names were altered in order to keep the

participants’ anonymity: Melina, a 26 year old freelance dancer, and Carla, a 23 year

old freelance dancer. The fact that both interviewees were similar (female and both in

their mid-twenties) poses a limitation to this dissertation, although the surveys

comprised a large number of male and female respondents of different age groups.

The author was previously acquainted with both of the interviewees, as such both of

them were contacted directly in order to set up face-to-face interviews at the

participants’ convenience. This poses another limitation to the research: perhaps

some of the answers were biased by the previous acquaintance with the author.

Despite this, it is also possible that the interviewees felt more at ease answering

certain questions, eliciting more personal responses.

Prior to conducting the interview, RE4 and RE5 forms were given to the participants

and signed by both parties. In order to gather a comprehensive and diverse set of

data, the interviews were conducted in a semi-structured way. White (2000, p.32)

  26

suggests this type of interview is best suited when the aim of the dissertation is to

‘understand the perspective of the interviewee and the personal meanings they

attach to different situations’. In order to gain as much insight into the topic as

possible, questions and topic prompts were devised after reading literature

concerning the profession of dancers. Additionally, the researcher’s own knowledge

and experience in dance influenced these. Both interviews incorporated similar

questions and prompts, but the discussion was allowed to follow the interviewee’s

train of thought. The topic prompts included questions about the dancer’s

professional journey, how they perceived their profession and its environment and

how much importance they gave to the vocational aspect of their career. The

interviews were recorded with a tape recorder, with permission of the interviewees,

and subsequently transcribed. The parts relevant to the dissertation topic were

translated from French into English by the author herself, fluent in both languages.

After analysis of the transcription, grammar and punctuation were corrected so as to

increase clarity for the reader.

The second research method was a survey, and incorporated qualitative and

quantitative questions. In order to get a better understanding of the population the

dissertation was exploring, the research process included two different surveys: one

for professional freelance dancers, and one for dance students close to entering the

professional dance world. Seeing as the research would target a great number of

French-speaking dancers because of the author’s location, both surveys were

translated into French and English; this ensured a higher response rate from

participants, who might have felt hindered by the language barrier. The surveys thus

had to be compiled so as to follow the same question order, and simplify subsequent

data analysis.

  27

The first section of the professional dancers’ survey included demographic questions

concerning their age, gender, and geographical location. The second section aimed

to find out more about their personal experience of freelance dancing. The third

section focused on the importance of vocation in dance as a profession, whilst the

fourth and last section concentrated on how dancers experience the audition

process.

Most of the 37 questions were closed to simplify the coding process, considering the

surveys were bilingual. Four questions weren’t compulsory because they wouldn’t

apply to all participants. Five questions were open-ended and thus optional, in order

to get as many answers as possible: given the busy schedule of dancers, it was

better to collect as much data as possible, instead of participants breaking off the

survey because it took too much time to complete. An optional section comprised of

Likert scales was also included to gauge degrees of agreement with 12 statements

concerning freelance dance careers.

The student survey was shorter and included 26 closed questions. The first section of

the student survey concentrated on demographic questions. The second section

focused on students’ career prospects and how they perceived their future

professional environment, whilst the third and last section focused on auditions. All of

the questions were compulsory, except the questions concerning auditions, seeing

as some students potentially wouldn’t have had any audition experience yet.

The surveys were created online using Google Docs in order to provide a clear and

functional platform for the participants.

Before being distributed to participants, the surveys underwent a test pilot with a

freelance dancer who had agreed to give feedback on the survey.

  28

The surveys were distributed online with an accompanying text presenting the

researcher and the focus of the research, as well as how the answers would be used.

The survey participants remained completely anonymous and were assured of the

confidentiality of their answers in the accompanying text as well.

In order to reach as many dancers as possible, the professional dancer surveys were

sent to several Swiss dance associations: The Association Vaudoise de Danse

Contemporaine (AVDC), the RP, the Reconversion des Danseurs Professionnels

(RDP), and GVA Dance Training, as well as a couple of independent Swiss dance

companies: Cie Ioannis Mandafounis and Cie Greffe.

The student surveys were sent to the junior companies the Marchepied and the

Ballet Junior de Genève, as well as the CFC Danse contemporaine, a state-

recognised syllabus in contemporary dance.

The AVDC replied after the survey deadline had passed, and the Marchepied and the

CFC Danse Contemporaine never replied. Thanks to the cooperation of the others,

the surveys were shared in newsletters or on social media. The author’s social

network itself comprised a great number of freelance dancers, thus the surveys were

shared on social media in order to attract a greater number of participants.

The online surveys were completed by 96 professional freelance dancers and 20

student dancers: this represents a satisfactory response rate for the professional

freelance dancers survey, considering that the entire population of professional

dancers in Switzerland, company dancers included, is approximately 600. As for the

student surveys, the author decided that the information collected from the student

surveys didn’t add enough different or relevant information concerning the

dissertation topic; on top of this, only 20 students participated, representing a

significantly lower number than the professional dancers. The results of the student

survey are as such only featured in the Appendices, except for one pie-chart (Figure

  29

4.17) presented in chapter 4.5. Thus, when an online survey is mentioned in chapter

4, this refers to the professional dancers’ survey.

The answers to the open-ended survey questions were translated from French into

English by the author herself. For some answers, grammar and spelling were

corrected in order to increase clarity.

Thematic analysis (TA) was chosen as the method for qualitative data analysis. As

the author had never before undertaken qualitative research of this scale, TA

seemed like the most appropriate method for the analysis of the collected data. This

method is suggested by White (2000, p.109) as a general but suitable way of

analysing most qualitative data, even though some researchers see it as an in-

between approach, less reliable and noteworthy than for example the Interpretative

Phenomenological Approach (IPA) or Grounded Theory (GT). However, Braun and

Clarke (2006 p. 174) argue that TA is more than merely a data analysis method: it

has ‘recently been recognized as a distinctive method with a clearly outlined set of

procedures for the social sciences’. They argue that TA is practiced by numerous

authors, mistakenly referred to as GT or Discourse Analysis. It is now a ‘recognized,

accepted and more widely discussed method’ (Braun and Clarke, 2006, p. 174). TA

is essentially ‘a method for identifying themes and patterns of meaning across a

dataset in relation to a research question’ (Braun and Clarke, 2006, p. 174). TA’s

weakness lies in the fact that it has limited interpretative power if not embedded

within a defined theoretical framework. The author thus established the framework

before starting with the TA. Experiential TA ‘focuses on the participants’ standpoint –

how they experience and make sense of the world’ according to Braun and Clarke

(2006, p. 174). Seeing as the dissertation is embedded in a contextualist

epistemological framework, experiential TA was the primary method of data analysis.

  30

It is thus very close to IPA, as described by Braun and Clarke (2006, p. 180), whose

‘overriding concern is with exploring people’s lived experiences and the meanings

people attach to those experiences’. Saldaña (2011, p. 8) likewise suggests that a

phenomenological approach to qualitative research is well suited when the

researcher wishes to explore how people experience certain situations.

The author followed Braun and Clarke’s approach to TA, which first required reading

and familiarisation with the entire set of collected data. Themes and topics emerged

through repeated reading, and were afterwards coded in order to clarify emerging

themes that would form the basis of the dissertation’s discussion, and produce a

thematic map. The answers to the survey questions remained completely

anonymous during the analysis: as such, no numbers were attributed to the survey

participants when quoting them.

Seeing as TA requires the researcher to uncover the themes featured in the

qualitative research data, it is a relatively personal analysis method. This poses a

limitation to the dissertation: any themes discovered through the TA thus carry with

them the probability of the author’s personal bias despite the efforts made to

eliminate it.

The themes that emerged from the TA of the research data were then compared with

previous literature and secondary data collected on the subject, forming the

discussion in chapter 4.

Using the software Excel, the quantitative data extracted from the surveys was

summarised in the form of graphs or pie-charts, depending on which method offered

the most clarity. These figures are presented in chapter 4, and are the author’s own.

 

  31

4 Dancers and their profession    The following chapter will explore how freelance dancers are experiencing this new

creative economy. As performing artists, they navigate their way across an inherently

paradoxal and hyperflexible market. The chapter will analyse the results gathered by

the quantitative and qualitative research. The themes that emerged from the thematic

analysis of the research provide the basis for examining freelance dancers’

professional environment and its impact on their professional identities: their vocation

and values, the difficulties they must overcome, and how the relationship between

choreographer and dancer can influence this. The chapter will then explore how

freelance dancers can overcome these difficulties created by their new professional

environment.

4.1 Demographics    The following section will first give an overview of dancers as a population, by taking

into account the quantitative research results collected thanks to the professional

dancers’ online survey, which was completed by 96 freelance dancers.

The results obtained thanks to the online survey paint a picture of a very young

population: 43,8% of respondents were between 20-25 years old, closely followed by

26-30 year olds with 39,6%.

  32

Figure 4.1: Age of survey participants

Rannou and Roharik (2006, p. 18) likewise describe dancers as a very young

population; this can be explained by the almost imposed brevity of their careers, a

result of the required physicality inherent to their jobs.

Additionally, the participants who responded to the survey were predominantly

female: 70% were women. Sorignet (2010, p. 79) confirms that dance is a highly

feminised profession, citing statistics revealing 74% women seeking dance jobs in

France in 1997, compared to 26% of men.

In terms of geographical location and nationality, the results obtained from the survey

illustrate how dance is an international profession. Most respondents were of French

nationality (35,4%), followed by Swiss nationals (15,6%). The countries of residence

varied greatly, as illustrated by the figure below:

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Under$20$years$old$

20425$years$old$

26430$years$old$

31435$years$old$

36440$years$old$

41445$years$old$

More$than$45$years$old$

  33

Figure 4.2: Countries of residence of survey participants

A majority of participants had exercised or was currently exercising their profession in

Switzerland (61,5%), closely followed by France with 52,1%.

Figure 4.3 Countries in which participants had been or currently were professionally active

Dancers are thus bohemian in the artistic sense described in chapter 2.3, as well as

in the sense of living a wandering lifestyle. Sorignet (2010, p. 44) also describes

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

Australia$

Belgium$

Bulgaria$

Denmark$

France$

Germany$

Greece$

Italy$

Luxembourg$

Netherlands$

Norway$

Portugal$

Spain$

Switzerland$

United$Kingdom$

United$States$

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

70.0%$

Switzerland$ France$ United$Kingdom$ Germany$ Italy$ Other$

  34

dance as an international profession, requiring dancers to move frequently for work.

In terms of years of experience as a professional dancer, response rates were

relatively equal across the different time spans up to 9 years – yet there was a

sudden drop after 9 years of experience: only 14,6% indicated they had been

dancing professionally for 10 years or more. This, along with the fact that the

population is a young one, points to brief careers, and could also be interpreted as

freelancing being a relatively new norm for dancers, which has emerged from the

new creative economy.

Figure 4.4 Years of professional activity in survey participants

The majority of respondents (93,8%) described themselves as contemporary

dancers, although the question allowed for multiple answers, seeing as dancers can

be proficient in several dance styles. Independent dance companies are mostly

contemporary, which can explain a majority of contemporary freelance dancers,

whereas classical dancers tend to be employed by major dance companies offering

more stable employment.

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

1)2$years$ 3)5$years$ 6)9$years$ 10$years$or$more$

  35

Concerning contract length, the majority of dancers (69,8%) indicated that the

average contract lasted 3 months or less; it is thus unsurprising that freelance

dancers have evolved into portfolio workers, and rely on polyactivity and

unemployment benefits to bridge the inevitable gaps between contracts.

The results listed above already paint a picture of freelance dancers, which closely

resembles the New Independents and Bohemians described earlier by Leadbeater

and Oakley (2005) and Florida (2002a and 2002b): a young and highly mobile

population, predominantly female, coping with increasingly precarious work

conditions.

4.2 Dancers’ professional identities: how dancers perceive and value their profession and its environment

   As discussed in chapter 2, dance artists are now faced with the task of creating a

new professional identity for themselves, one that is characterized by portfolio-work

and polyactivity. The following section will explore how dancers perceive the

difficulties of their profession, what they value about it despite the hardships, and

how this affects their professional identity.

Slay and Smith (2010, p. 87) define professional identity as the ‘constellation of

attributes, beliefs, and values people use to define themselves in specialized, skill-

and education-based occupations or vocations’. They also argue that professional

identity is tightly meshed with personal identity; this appears to be even more the

case in a highly vocational profession such as dance, in which the trade is

experienced on an extremely physical level. Dancers’ bodies are their instrument, but

they must also display artistry onstage, thus effectively blending physicality, emotion

  36

and mind into one profession: dancers’ professional identities are almost inseparable

from their personal ones, which provokes a seismic existential change when their

careers inevitably come to an end. A report by IOTPD published in 1997 states:

“I didn’t know who I was anymore, because I was no longer a dancer.” This feeling is familiar to most former dancers, but the quote is attributed to Monica Mason, former principal dancer and Assistant Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet, London.

(IOTPD, 1997, p. 54)

Keeping this in mind, this section will attempt to portray how freelance dancers

perceive their profession and their environment, by including personal themes that

have emerged through the thematic analysis of the gathered data.

The TA of the research data produced a thematic map surrounding dancers’

professional identities. The following figure represents a summary of the TA,

illustrating how the themes are interconnected. The themes in green refer to positive

features of freelance dance careers, whereas the themes in orange depict the

difficulties freelance dancers must overcome. Thus it is possible to see how a

positive aspect of a freelance career, for example Travel, is also connected to a

negative aspect, namely Bohemia and Loneliness.

The three themes in blues refer to aspects solely concerning the relationship

between choreographer and dancer.

All of these themes are explored in detail in this chapter, painting a picture of

freelance dancers’ professional environment and identities, and how they influence

each other.

  37

Figure 4.5 Thematic Map of Freelance Dancers' Professional Identities

4.3 Vocation and Values  Considering the precarious situation freelance dancers find themselves in, one might

Dancers’ professional identitiesVocation & Values Difficulties to

overcome

The ecstasy of the stage

Self-knowledge

The FREE infreelancing

Freedomof choice Independence

Self-expression/Creativity

EntrepreneurialSpirit

Struggle is beneficial

A life rich in differentexperiences

Knowledge

Encounters

Travel

A path to share knowledge,experiences, emotions

Auditions

InstabilityBohemia,Loneliness

Uncertainty

The Dream of a long-term contract lives on

The END is near!Professional Urgency

Unemployment/Underemployment

Difficulty of staying in shape

Self-motivation

Irregularity

Exhaustion (mental, emotional, phsyical)

Polyactivity

The fiery pits of administration

Creativity vs.Administration

Stress

Stigma

Are freelance dancers 2nd rate dancers?

Are freelance dancers lazy profiteers?

Rejection

Perseverance

Need to network

Auditions aren’t fair!

The power of the choreographer/dancer relationship

Artist vs.Subordinate

Self-expression isessential to artistic identity

Dehumanisationof dancers

Belief in choreographeris paramount

Precarity (Financial, Emotional, Physical)

  38

wonder what exactly motivates them to endure such a profession.

The most universal answer from the 96 survey participants seems to be: Vocation.

72% of participants described dancing as their calling:

Figure 4.6 Dance: a vocational profession

The participants were also asked to indicate which statements they agreed with in

answer to the question ‘Why do you dance?’: a large majority of respondents agreed

with the statement ‘Dancing gives me joy’; intangible rewards triumph over stability

and financial remuneration.

Figure 4.7 Reasons why participants dance

72%$7%$21%$

Would&you&describe&dancing&as&your&“calling”?&

Yes$ No$ Undecided$

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It$gives$meaning$to$my$life$

I$couldn't$imagine$myself$doing$anything$else$

I$just$fell$into$dancing$

I$dance$primarily$to$earn$money$

Dancing$is$my$passion$

Dance$is$the$easiest$way$for$me$to$express$myself$

Dancing$gives$me$joy$

I$enjoy$the$social$aspect$of$this$profession$

Dancing$is$just$my$job$

  39

Indeed, in response to the question ‘What made you decide to pursue a freelance

dance career?’, one response to the online survey was simply ‘Because of the

passion!!!’. During the interview with Melina*, the word passion arose as well:

It’s the chance of a lifetime! The simple fact of having a passion is amazing. Because there’s so many people out there who don’t know what they want to do with their life. And we know, we know what we love, we have a reason to live. (…) Maybe I’m not earning my living through dancing, but earning money is a necessity, and I have a job for that, but dance is my passion. So even if I’m not earning a lot of money with it for now, so be it, maybe that’ll come later.

(Interview Melina)

The opportunity to dance is viewed as a ‘chance’, compared to other people who

don’t have a passion: dancers are in some way ‘chosen ones’, whose job is set apart

from money-earning careers by the transcendental experience of their vocation.

Freelance dancers are driven by their passion to dance, which makes them

disregard, at least temporarily, any financial shortcomings or uncertainty regarding

the future. Perrault (1988, p. 182) agrees: ‘Artists are passionate beings willing to

sacrifice everything to live their passion’.

In fact, vocation is essential to dancers’ maintenance in a professional environment

fraught with precarity:

I always say that I’m struggling, that I can’t do it anymore, and people ask why I keep on going… Because I want to, that’s all. Because it makes me happy. And that’s why people who don’t really want it, who think “Yeah I’d like to dance”, but who then see the chaos that it is, they don’t continue, they can’t. You can’t be confronted with all this, all these introspections, and struggles, and financial problems, and rejections, all these horrible things, if you don’t really want it. If you don’t really want to be onstage, and work with people, share something with them, if you don’t have that desire, that vocation, then you can’t.

(Interview Carla)

The survey participants were asked to quantify how important they thought ‘calling’

was in pursuing a professional dance career on a scale from 1 (not important at all)

  40

to 5 (very important): 38,5% estimated calling at 4 (important), whilst 32,3% valued it

at 5.

Figure 4.8 The importance of ‘calling’ in pursuing a professional dance career

‘Calling’ is seen as a determining factor in dancers’ careers; the loss of a dancer’s

vocation signifies the imminent ending of his or her career.

Sorignet (2010, p. 19) agrees that dance as a profession must be understood in the

context of vocation, considering it a driving force in the development of a professional

identity.

Moments on stage are important reinforcements to this vocation: the intensity of the

emotions felt can be enough to project dancers into states of ecstasy, in which reality

and the extraordinary blend together (for more information, see Appendix 7.1.4).

Dance is an intense career, impacting dancers’ bodies as well as their psyche; yet

these emotions can occur in a career as a company dancer as well as in a freelance

dance career. Dancers are in some ways pushed into freelance dance careers by

their professional environment considering the scarcity of long-term employment; the

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Not$important:$1$ 2$ 3$ 4$ Very$important:$5$

  41

following section will explore if there are any elements of freelance careers that

dancers may prefer over a more or less stable company career.

4.3.1 Freelancing, a path to diverse experiences and sharing

The answer seems to partly lie in the variety such a lifestyle offers, and the

opportunity to share knowledge and experiences through a multitude of encounters.

When asked to describe two of the most enjoyable aspects of being a freelance

dancer, 30 out of the 47 participants who responded to this optional question listed

some form of variety: ‘The variety of encounters this profession allows, the great

artistic encounters that flow from it – The numerous travels on tour, which are one of

the best parts of this profession in my opinion’. This response highlights the

importance of encounters in this career: sharing experiences and knowledge in order

to develop one’s own artistry is paramount to freelance dancers. The bohemian

lifestyle is also seen as an asset, which alongside openness to new experiences,

shows curiosity to explore, essential to today’s creative society, and further illustrates

how the creative economy is influencing dancers.

Another participant responded: ‘1. You are able to work with a range of

choreographers on different projects. 2. You become more versatile as a

dancer/artist.’ Intrinsic rewards are at the forefront: freelance dancers value the

opportunity to further develop their craft, through meeting other artists. Their quality

of life is heightened thanks to their experiences – much like Florida’s Creative Class.

This is also evident in the following quote by Carla:

What it’s really about, is sharing something human with someone else. (…) And, maybe it sounds silly, but to be real with people. When I work with people, to not just be a subordinate, but to really work, and give something, and to feel that what you’ve given has an impact on the person in front of you. (…) It’s an exchange, it’s about sharing.

(Interview Carla)

  42

This quote adds another dimension to sharing: the dancers also have something to

give, and the strong desire to do so. They are independent in their quest for

knowledge and experiences, as well as in their mission of sharing what they’ve

learnt, feel and think. This reasoning closely resembles Leadbeater’s We-Think

(2009) philosophy and his emphasis on relationships: the sharing of knowledge and

experiences is what ultimately makes this creative economy such an exciting

environment to be a part of – this creative currency is what makes a freelance

dancer’s life rich.

4.3.2 The FREE in Freelancing    Another significant advantage in freelancing is the freedom it offers dancers: the

survey participants were asked how much they agreed with the statement ‘I freelance

because I enjoy the independence it gives me’, resulting in 53,1% agreeing with the

statement, and 20,8% strongly agreeing:

Figure 4.9 Dancers value the independence of freelancing

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Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

I"freelance"because"I"enjoy"the"independence"it"gives"me"

  43

33 out of the 47 participants who answered the optional question ‘Please briefly state

two of the most enjoyable aspects of being a freelance dancer’ mentioned freedom.

Freelancing gives dancers the possibility to be independent, and thus arrange their

schedule according to their own priorities. One of the participants responded:

The freedom of having times where you can do other things and organise your life like you want to, train however you wish. It’s a very pleasant balancing act, between the need to work, the desire to work, and the desire of doing other things.

(Survey Participant)

Freelancing is described as a ‘pleasant balancing act’ – although it is a struggle, it is

an enjoyable one. Dancers relish the opportunity to commit themselves to their own

vision of dance, whilst also being able to focus on other activities – a precious rarity,

considering the intense training and commitment required of them throughout their

education and career, as reported by the IOTPD (1997, p. 9).

Freelancing also gives them the opportunity to make their own artistic choices: ‘The

freedom of making your own choices about where you want to go and who you want

to work with’ was a response to the optional survey question regarding the positive

aspects of freelancing. This freedom to choose is extremely important in

understanding why dancers freelance: indeed, choreographers play a significant part

in how a dancer experiences work; this will be explained in detail in chapter 4.4.4.

You can choose as a freelancer, you’re allowed to choose as a freelancer. You don’t have the right to choose when you’re in a company. You don’t choose who will come and work on the next creation. But you can choose which audition you do: if you want to work with the person, you go audition for them. (…) On one side you’re sometimes out of work, sometimes it’s hard to find work, but you’re free. (…) If you don’t want to work on something you can say no, I don’t like this.

(Interview Carla)

It appears that freelancers are thus in a precarious, yet at the same time privileged

position of being able to choose work they find artistically stimulating, in comparison

to company dancers who may not always have the choice in who they work with

  44

next. When asked about the importance of financial remuneration in accepting a

contract for a dance project, the survey participants were presented with different

situations and allowed to pick several answers:

Figure 4.10 Importance of financial remuneration in accepting a dance contract

These results reveal a paradox: a majority of dancers would choose to refuse a

dance contract if they didn’t find it interesting, sacrificing financial rewards for artistic

integrity as described by Lloyd (2002) in chapter 2.3, yet many of them indicated that

they would accept the contract, either for financial reasons or to boost their CV. Carla

expressed similar views in her interview, stating lack of experience as the reason for

not allowing herself to refuse a contract with choreographers whose work she didn’t

enjoy:

I think I don’t have enough experience to say no yet. These are famous names, they have contacts everywhere, to refuse for nothing… I don’t know. It could still be interesting. (…) And at the same time I want to dance so much that I don’t think I could refuse a dance job, even if I didn’t like it… unless it wasn’t to a professional standard, if it felt like a school fair or something. That would be bad for my career…

(Interview Carla)

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Dancing$is$my$job,$not$only$a$passion.$If$I$get$offered$a$dance$contract$for$a$project$I$don't$enjoy,$I$will$take$it$because$dancing$is$how$I$earn$

money$

I'm$willing$to$earn$liEle$money$in$order$to$dance$professionally$because$dancing$is$my$passion$

Financial$remuneraGon$is$important,$but$I'd$rather$earn$money$doing$other$jobs$than$working$on$a$dance$project$I$don't$enjoy$

If$I$get$offered$a$contract$for$a$dance$project$I$don't$enjoy,$I$will$accept$it$for$the$valuable$experience$I$can$gain$from$it$and$to$boost$my$CV,$but$

not$because$of$the$financial$remuneraGon$

  45

The vocational drive to keep dancing, coupled with the financial precarity most

freelance dancers endure, make this freedom of choice difficult to seize – it is thus a

fragile a freedom, but one dancers value nonetheless. A less precarious and

competitive market would possibly reinforce this freedom, giving dancers more space

to manoeuvre their career according to their artistic vision.

The third facet of freedom that this independent lifestyle offers dancers is the

possibility to create their own work. As illustrated in chapter 2, the creative economy

and advances in technology have given people the power to be creative: it seems

that freelance dancers are now seizing this power, partially in response to job

scarcity that would otherwise have them depart from dance – something these artists

driven by vocation simply refuse; a survey participant chose to freelance because

quitting was unimaginable: ‘Otherwise I would have to quit, which I don’t consider to

be an option’.

61% of the survey participants indicated that they worked on their own dance

projects, whilst 43% of those who didn’t said they were interested in doing so:

Figure 4.11 Percentage of responses for the question ‘If you don't work on the creation of personal projects, would you be interested to do so?’

43%$

18%$

39%$

Yes$ No$ Not$Sure$

  46

It appears that a new mindset is beginning to emerge amidst freelance dancers,

which is mirrored in the growth of independent dance companies.

In his article ‘The struggle for the soul of British Dance’, Jennings (2015) describes

the new wave of contemporary dancers emerging from the creative economy as

follows:

Today, many conservatoire graduates would rather do their own thing than work for a big-name choreographer. As one puts it: “If I was a fine artist I wouldn’t want to do someone else’s painting, so why as a dancer would I want to do someone else’s dancing?”

(Jennings, 2015)

Creating their own work is a fulfilling way for dancers to realise their creative

potential, without relying on a contract in an over-saturated work market. The

collaborative aspect of creating a piece with fellow dancers is also highly

appreciated; again, Leadbeater’s We-Think (2009) ethos is present in freelance

dancers’ attitudes:

I love the feeling of making something together, of meshing our ideas without an authority figure watching over our shoulders. It's scary to have to make decisions but the work in the studio is exciting and satisfying, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

(Survey Participant)

Creating one’s own projects, or collaborating with other artists, is thus seen as

immensely fulfilling – a welcome alternative to quitting dance or even a steady

contract with a company. This type of creative work is also the pathway to something

deeper and more personal: a journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Just as

Howkins (2005, p. 117) values the personal aspect of ideas and imagination, so too

do freelance dancers, in the quest for a successful artistic and personal identity:

(…) It’s really liberating and empowering to know you can do what is really meaningful to you. It gives you the right to be honest with yourself and your thoughts.

(Survey Participant)

Sorignet (2010, p. 142) describes how essential it is for dancers to find answers to

  47

existential questions by translating profoundly interiorised desires and instincts into

movement. This type of physical introspection is all the more personal in their own

work.

Difficulties and struggle, inherent to their career, also provide a test of character;

once overcome, the triumph shapes their professional identity :

I’m so happy to be where I am today, and sometimes I cry because it’s so difficult, it’s exhausting, but at the same time I’m so thankful to have gone through this, because thanks to this I know myself, I know my worth.

(Interview Carla)

All in all, a majority of survey participants indicated being satisfied with their choice of

career: 49% agreed with the statement ‘I am happy with my choice to become a

freelance dancer’, whilst 16,7% strongly agreed. However, 26% expressed a neutral

opinion, and 8,3% were dissatisfied with their choice: for a career so heavily

constructed on vocation, this answer may seem surprising – the following section will

explore in greater detail the difficulties of this lifestyle, which can lead to the reticence

expressed above.

4.4 The difficulties that have an impact on a dancer’s professional identity

As discussed in chapter 2.5, artistic professions struggle to gain recognition as ‘real

jobs’. The themes that emerged from the TA of the research illustrate a reality that is

a far cry from an amusing hobby; although dance is a vocational career, giving

dancers joy, a freelance dancer’s life is rife with struggle. The following section will

describe the obstacles that freelance dancers face in the current creative economy,

and how they perceive them.

4.4.1 The multiple aspects of instability  The TA of the research results revealed that instability is one of the most prominent

  48

causes of dancers’ dissatisfaction with their chosen path. This instability manifests

itself in various ways.

First and foremost, it takes on the guise of precarity, and this on several levels:

financial, emotional and physical. As discussed in chapter 2, freelance dancers’

financial situations are precarious: they often have to rely on unemployment benefits

to bridge the unavoidable gaps between dance contracts, or supplement their income

through polyactivity; 24 of the 49 survey participants who answered the optional

question ‘Please describe two of the most difficult aspects of being a freelance

dancer’ specifically voiced concern over the financial instability inherent to this

profession: ‘No financial security whatsoever be this in the present or in the future.

The salary of certain projects is very slim, and doesn’t enable us to have a satisfying

retirement income’. Even when leaving the beaten track and creating their own

choreographic projects, financial precarity is persistent. When asked to describe the

process of creating their own dance project, 17 of the 27 responses highlighted the

financial difficulties of creation: ‘Getting funds and support is the hardest part’ and

‘Mainly the financial aspect is difficult!’ were a few of these answers. Additionally,

freelance dancers’ precarity is amplified by their reliance on their physical instrument,

and the self-doubt accompanying this career.

Rannou and Roharik (2006, pp. 236-237) argue that the physical precarity isn’t solely

due to the risk of injuries (for more information, see Appendix 7.1.5): the physical

requirements in professional dance are such that dancers must train regularly, daily,

to maintain their physical condition - yet access to good quality dance classes is

sometimes rare, or expensive, or both. When employed, a dancer’s day usually

begins with a warm-up class, before leading into rehearsals for the choreography

they are working on; the dancers are thus given the possibility to stay in shape.

When freelance dancers are between contracts, an unavoidable situation in today’s

  49

artistic market, they must still maintain their physical technique; in order to do so,

most dancers pay to take classes in dance schools or workshops – a costly

enterprise. Many freelance dancers struggle to stay in shape to obtain the next

contract and maintain themselves in their chosen professional field. 70,8% of the

survey participants expressed how difficult it was for them to stay in shape: many

resorted to other ways of training besides dancing, including yoga or going to the

gym.

Figure 4.12 Freelance dancers struggle with staying in shape

Figure 4.13 Ways in which freelance dancers stay in shape

71%$

16%$13%$

Dancers$finding$it$difficult$to$stay$in$shape$ Dancers$who$don't$find$it$difficult$to$stay$in$shape$

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  50

One of the survey participants expressed the difficulty of staying in shape as follows:

We alternate days and sometimes weeks without regular training, even though our body needs it. Sometimes, even the projects we’re working on don’t offer any classes in the morning. We have to warm up alone. And this is difficult sometimes, because by training alone, we only do what we like to do or know, and so we don’t improve anymore.

(Survey Participant)

This difficulty of staying in shape is also keenly felt by Melina, who teaches dance

classes and works in a non-artistic job in order to supplement her income:

So, in terms of taking dance classes, since um… since the month of February, no, March, since I’ve started teaching, well I can’t do those anymore. I really can’t. Sometimes I try to get in early before I teach and to warm up, and work for myself. (…) But it’s hard, it’s really hard.

(Interview Melina)

Melina is not alone in this situation: 50% of the survey participants revealed they had

to complement their income from dance with other work, whereas 32% declared that

this depended on the number of contracts they’d had in the past months; only 18%

earned enough from their artistic labour to not have to resort to polyactivity.

Polyactivity is proving to become a new norm for freelance dancers; whilst it can help

these artists maintain themselves in the industry by supplementing their artistic

income, it can also pose a threat to their professional identity. Rolle and Moeschler

(2014, p. 157) report how difficult it is for young Swiss actors to associate polyactivity

with their artistic craft. Rannou and Roharik (2006, pp. 246-247) as well as Sorignet

(2010, p. 111) argue that this is even more complicated for dancers, considering the

time and energy they must devote to their physical training.

4.4.2 Uncertainty in freelance dance careers

4.4.2.1 The burden of auditions  Emotionally, the freelance lifestyle can take its toll on dancers’ professional identities:

freelance dance contracts are short, obliging most dancers to audition frequently for

  51

new projects. Sorignet (2010, p. 68) describes the particularity of auditions: dancers

are in direct competition with one another, in the same room, at the same time,

comparing themselves to colleagues and often their own friends in the process. Most

of the time, hundreds of dancers apply for just one available contract. Competition is

fierce, and perceived as such by the dancers themselves: when asked how fierce

they felt auditions to be, 38,5% of the survey participants answered ‘Very fierce’.

Figure 4.14 How dancers perceive the competitiveness during auditions

Women in particular are affected more deeply by this competitiveness than their male

colleagues according to Sorignet (2010, p. 79): the predominance of women in this

profession places them in a more precarious position; they must face more

competitors than their male colleagues, and are as such generally held against a

higher technical standard.

The success rate of auditions is perceived as incredibly low: 69% of survey

participants were of the opinion that auditioning rarely results in obtaining a dance

contract, with only 5% affirming that auditions were an effective way of getting hired.

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  52

The audition process is physically and emotionally demanding for dancers, occurring

all the more frequently for freelance dancers. In response to the optional question

‘Please briefly state two of the most difficult aspects of being a freelance dancer’, 16

out of 49 responses described the frequent auditions as burdensome: ‘We are

always in the process of looking for the next job, even if at that time we have one’.

Only 13,5% of survey participants replied that they enjoyed auditions:

Figure 4.15 Answers to the question ‘Generally, would you say you enjoy auditions?’

Dancers learn early on that success in this profession may elude them: talent and

hard work alone aren’t a guarantee. Melina describes this issue:

I think dance is a very subjective field. (…) [Choreographers] will fall for a certain personality that can inspire them. (…) It’s not because you’re a great technical dancer that choreographers will like you. For me, that’s kind of the problem. (…) And that’s why, yeah, it’s by persevering, by asking and taking classes with companies you like, that’s how you make it. But you need to hang in there, it’s really difficult, at least for me that’s what’s difficult.

(Interview Melina)

The subjectivity of choreographers’ choices is a determining factor in dancers’

13%$

43%$

44%$

Yes$ No$ It$depends$

  53

careers. As such, auditions may sometimes appear unfair, arbitrarily determining

dancers’ fates, according to Sorignet (2010, p. 97). Carla echoes the feeling that

auditions aren’t always based on dancer’s merit: ‘First of all, there’s a lot of string-

pulling during auditions. People know each other beforehand usually’. She highlights

the importance of cultivating the right network: ‘In the end it’s all about the network

you create. You need to create a connection with them and maybe someday you’ll

work with them, but you need to create that connection’. 96% of survey participants

agreed with this opinion, stating that networking was important to get a job in the

dance world, whilst 4% were undecided - none of the participants responded

negatively. Sorignet (2010, pp. 70-71) and Rannou and Roharik (2006, p. 233)

explain how networking among freelance dancers is paramount for dancers’ survival

in the professional sphere. As described in chapter 2.3, Leadbeater and Oakley

(2005), Baker and Aldrich (1996) as well as Florida (2002a) emphasize the

importance of network and social capital in the current creative economy; the dance

world is no different.

Persevering and networking are essential, yet can be exhausting for dancers,

physically as well as morally. The constant rejection can take its toll on dancers and

their professional identity: ‘When, you do 10 auditions, and the 10 answers are no,

you have to be strong, stay focused and be focused on your goals. This is the most

difficult part as a freelance dancer’ was an answer from a survey participant. Along

with feelings of self-doubt comes the fear of not finding another contract, and seeing

one’s career fade away.

4.4.2.2 The End is near!  11 out of the 49 survey respondents to the optional question concerning the

difficulties of a freelance dancer’s career expressed fear of the impending end of their

career: ‘The trust that it is continuing, that I am good enough’ or ‘Being insecure all

  54

the time about whether you are going to manage to find new projects or not’ were a

couple of such answers. As discussed previously, the new creative economy has

generated a hyperflexible and hypercompetitive work market, in which employment

opportunities in dance don’t match the oversupply of artists; underemployment and

unemployment, coupled with precarity and the brevity of dance careers, all contribute

to generating a feeling of ‘professional urgency’, described by Rannou and Roharik

(2006, p. 17), and echoed in the answers of the survey participants. The study by

Rannou and Roharik confirmed that a dancer’s maintenance in the job market is

indeed fragile: after 13 years on the job market, only 25% of dancers had remained

at the end of their study, which gathered data concerning French professional dance

artists between 1987 and 2000. This ‘professional urgency’ is acutely felt by dancers,

as this response to the survey illustrates: ‘Stress of having jobs, the search of new

projects can be stressful’. Carla expressed concern over how much longer she would

be able to work with a choreographer whom she felt had contributed greatly to her

artistic development: ‘I need more time with him, but I don’t know if I’ll get that time,

because I don’t know how things will go’. The urge to improve as an artist is constant,

as is the desire to evolve on stage, yet dancers are extremely conscious of the

ephemerality of their chosen career, especially in the current professional

environment. Inevitable gaps between contracts are thus all the more difficult to bear

for this young population. The following answers by survey participants illustrate their

frustration with the situation: ‘hollow periods without contracts that can be morally

very trying’ and ‘hollow periods that are too long’.

A freelance career is inherently unstable, yet the case of dancers is particular: the

instability reaches further than their bank accounts – it has a direct impact on their

bodies and their professional identity, placing them under the strain of professional

urgency.

  55

4.4.3 The other side of the coin

4.4.3.1 Bohemia and the path to Loneliness  One positive aspect of freelancing that was commonly cited by the research

participants was variety, in the form of travels and different encounters as well as

experiences. Yet when asked to describe two of the most difficult aspects of a career

in freelance dancing, many participants lamented the instability and loneliness

accompanying the profession. The bohemia that seemed so appealing to Florida

(2002a), and which enables freelance dancers to live an experiential life, is also the

source of much anguish. 11 out of the 49 survey participants who answered the

optional question about the difficulties of freelancing admitted that maintaining

relationships or friendships due to the mobility required of them was complicated:

‘You go where the work is. Keeping a private life, friends, family, loved ones… is

hard’ and ‘You change people and friends all the time, it’s hard to build stronger

relations with people’ were among these answers. Freelance dancers sacrifice a

stable home for their vocation. Mobility is a given for dancers, although Sorignet

(2010, p. 233) argues that a lassitude of Bohemia settles in after a while.

4.4.3.2 The fiery pits of administration

The possibility of making one’s own choices artistically was also relished by survey

participants, yet this freedom comes with responsibility. Administration is an

increasing feature in freelance dancers’ careers: 81% of survey participants agreed

that freelance dancers had ‘dual careers’, referring to the issue of combining the

profession’s creative side with its administrative side. For some dancers,

administration represents a new burden to carry: ‘It is very cumbersome in terms of

organising work time and all the necessary administrative work’ was one of the 10

out of 49 answers specifically mentioning administration in response to the optional

question about the difficult aspects of a freelance career. 53,1% of survey

  56

participants agreed that they sometimes felt like their own manager, whilst 39,6%

strongly agreed with this statement:

Figure 4.16 Freelance dancing is a dual career

When asked to describe the process of creating their own projects, almost all of the

survey participants expressed how difficult it was to combine creativity with

administration:

Time consuming. 70% is administration. Maybe 20% of my resources and capacity are available for the creative part. I love that part!

(Survey Participant)

I feel like sometimes what I finally do on stage is really not the biggest part of my work. This is why I only do 10 performances/year and I go on production contracts to complete my income. So much work... but it is priceless to be free.

(Survey Participant)

Freelance dancers sometimes dream of a ‘division of labour’ (Lacassagne, 2012, p.

187) in which artistic and administrative identities are separated. Melina describes

her vision of having a long-term contract with a dance company as follows:

There’s still this part of me that thinks it would be great, you wouldn’t

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#feel#like#I'm#my#own#manager#as#well#as#a#dancer"#

  57

have a care in the world other than dancing, you’d just be paid to rehearse all day and perform onstage, going on tour… it’s a luxury!

(Interview Melina)

The dream of being able to wholly devote oneself to dance still prevails among many

dancers: creativity is almost opposed to administration.

Yet some see it as an opportunity to gain more knowledge; one of the survey

participants answered ‘Positive: to be one’s own boss and make one’s own choices

artistically and administratively, when it comes to communication and broadcasting’

when asked to describe the process of creating one’s own project. Carla also

expressed enthusiasm when describing the administrative work her freelance dance

career required, summing it up with ‘When you know how to do a lot of things, you

can create whatever you want’.

The career of a freelance dancer is dual in more ways than one: aspects such as

independence and travels, mentioned as positive traits of a freelance career, entailed

difficulties as well; the coin is always double-sided.

4.4.4 The power of the dancer-choreographer relationship on freelance dancers’ professional identities

 It is also worth mentioning that dancers’ work environment is heavily influenced by

the choreographers they work for; as Sorignet (2010, pp. 20-21) describes,

choreographers leave a lasting imprint on dancers’ bodies, by influencing their way of

moving. The more dancers work for a certain choreographer, the more difficult it

becomes for them to stay versatile – yet dancers must remain versatile, even though

their portfolio career may sometimes entail several contracts with the same

employer: it’s a special scenario of portfolio career, which happens frequently in the

dance world according to Rannou and Roharik (2006, p. 22) because of the scarcity

of full year dance contracts in the current creative economy.

  58

The author attempted to discover if there were any differences regarding the

relationship between choreographer and dancer when it came to full-year contracts.

Whilst 60% of survey participants said there was no difference in the relationship

between choreographer and dancer according to the length of contract, Carla

expressed a slightly different opinion when comparing working as a freelance dancer

to working for a repertoire company:

Carla: The pieces are often smaller, there aren’t any pieces for 15 people when you’re working freelance. It’s often pieces for only 4-5 people, it’s duos or solos, stuff like that. And that’s it for me, that’s when you learn, being with a choreographer who is really there to take you somewhere. Whereas in repertoire companies, the choreographer is there because the company commissioned a piece, you work with him or her for 3 weeks, sure, but if you’re not cast, there’s cast drama, etc… The author: You don’t find that in projects? Carla: No, if they hire you it’s because they want to work with you. So you don’t have those issues anymore, they hire you for who you are.

(Interview Carla)

According to Carla, the exchange between dancer and choreographer during short

term contracts is perhaps more artistically fulfilling than what is possible in a

repertoire company: in project-work, budgets are smaller, so less dancers are hired,

perhaps making it easier for dancers and choreographers to connect on a more

human level. In answer to the optional question ‘When do you identify as an artist, or

on the contrary as a subordinate? Does the choreographer's behaviour towards you

have any impact on this?’, 25 out of the 30 survey participants who answered agreed

that the choreographer has an enormous impact on whether a dancer feels like an

artist, or a subordinate:

A choreographer can treat you as an employee, as a body that he/she needs in order to make his/her work, or they can treat you as a creative entity, with a mind, a vision, your own valuable perspective on whatever subject you are collaborating on. (…) And that attitude changes the work environment in the studio immensely.

(Survey Participant)

  59

(…) When the choreographer completely stifles the personality of the dancer, and the dancer becomes a performing machine.

(Survey Participant)

Some of the survey participants thus denounced the dehumanisation of dancers at

the hands of choreographers. The opportunity for dancers to express their own

creativity is essential to their self-perception as artists: this fully joins the Creative

Ethos described by Florida (2002a) and Leadbeater (2009). Many dancers now

expect and require the possibility to express their own ideas in their careers.

Rannou and Roharik (2006 p. 134) equally voice their concern over the perception

that dancers are mere tools, whose artistic and human sides are separated. Yet

freelance dancers have freedom of choice, as explained in chapter 4.3.2: ‘I choose

which choreographers I work with, so I usually feel fulfilled in my position as artist. I

find I have a lot of room to manoeuvre and decide in this’ was the answer of one

survey participant.

Whilst dancers’ positions have become increasingly precarious with the rise of

freelancing in the creative economy, their new-found independence also empowers

them to shape their career according to their artistic vision and sense of self. Dancers

are free to choose to work with choreographers who will reinforce their artistic

identity, rather than suffocate it – a luxury that dancers in full year contracts are

perhaps not always afforded.

4.5 Breaking through stigma – how freelancing can empower dancers instead of hinder them

 

There is no doubt that the creative economy has influenced dance as a profession

and redefined how dancers experience their trade. The rise of independent dancers,

  60

the decrease in contract lengths, and the new creative ethos have impacted on

dancers’ professional environment, offering freedom whilst increasing precarity. As

one survey participant expressed: ‘The freedom is only relative!’. 77% of survey

participants view their freelance career as liberating and constraining at the same

time; the strain of devoting precious time and energy to administrative tasks,

additionally to the professional urgency described earlier, may explain the struggle

with this new professional environment dancers find themselves in. Additionally, 16

of the 34 answers to the optional question ‘What made you decide to pursue a

freelance dance career?’ implied that the independent lifestyle wasn’t a conscious

decision, but rather simply the effect of a hyperflexible work market.

Furthermore, dancers sometimes perceive stigma surrounding their independent

lifestyle. Several survey participants addressed the issue of respect when asked

about the difficulties of freelance dancing: ‘Money and respect’ and ‘The perception

some people sometimes have of independent artists, I’m thinking for example of this

“profiteering and lazy image” that independent artists drag along with them’ were two

of these answers. Carla also described the fear many dance students have when

graduating from a professional training course without a contract in perspective:

(…) it’s always kind of the end of the world when you leave (…) school. They say “Oh I don’t have a contract”… They imagine that there’s nothing left, that there’s only death after or something. And no, that’s not the case. It’s not easy, what happens after, but if you manage to overcome it then you’re king of the world. (…) You’re serene, you know you can count on yourself. And that’s really good, to know yourself.

(Interview Carla)

This is representative of a new attitude adopted by dancers: whilst there is still

apprehension about embarking on a freelance dance career branded by precarity,

freelance dancers are increasingly displaying entrepreneurial skills. Chapter 2

explored how the Creative Industries have developed a new generation of

  61

Independents – freelance dancers are a part of this group. The creative practitioners

as described by Leadbeater and Oakley (2005), Howkins (2005), and Florida (2002a)

are being hailed as the new ideal workforce – and many freelance dancers now

seem prepared to take on the challenges of their new professional environment,

administrative tasks included. Far from being ‘profiteering and lazy’, these

independent artists are dealing with a new professional environment that is calling on

them to demonstrate their entrepreneurial side. Whilst 16 survey participants

indicated that their independent lifestyle was a consequence of their professional

environment rather than a choice, 16 others consciously chose to freelance,

sometimes even abandoning a steady contract for it:

After having experienced the large professional structures, principally as a classical and neo-classical dancer, I felt imprisoned, “obligated to…”, like a factory worker. I decided to seek more freedom, more risks, trying out my abilities left and right in order to have different and varied experiences at my own rhythm, and principally to experiment in the contemporary field.

(Survey Participant)

To achieve specific goals and to take advantage of my own artistic freedom.

(Survey Participant)

Dancers are willing to cope with a freelance career fraught with difficulties; this

demonstrates their commitment to their work and their risk-taking nature, two

qualities hailed by Leadbeater and Oakley (2005) in chapter 2.

Burns (2007, pp. 5-33) describes how many Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are

now offering a more diverse curriculum than what used to be taught twenty years

ago: they’ve recognised the new demands of the creative economy, consequently

urging their dance students to develop their entrepreneurial side. Instead of only

preparing students for a traditional career in a dance company, contemporary dance

HEI’s are now aiming to open their students up to a broad range of careers in dance;

  62

Jennings (2015) quotes Janet Smith in his article:

‘ “We can’t turn the clock back to a time when we were fantastic for some students and others failed,” says Janet Smith, principal of NSCD in Leeds. “We have to ask: to what extent can we open up their full potential, and joining a traditional dance company is not necessarily the way.” ’

Additionally, the majority of participants of the student survey indicated that they were

open to a freelance career:

Figure 4.17 Dance students' answer shows openness towards freelance careers

The professional dance sphere is now increasingly composed of pebble-like

structures, as described by Leadbeater (2009) in chapter 2. Jennings (2015)

compares the smaller-scale dance enterprises in the UK to the indie music scene, in

which ‘almost all conservatoire graduates will have to start from scratch, assembling

creative projects with like-minded colleagues’.

This is exactly what Melina has done: instead of giving up on dancing because of

lack of contracts, Melina is pursuing her freelance dance career on her own terms:

And now, after many, many auditions, which really tired me out, because… yeah, I kind of gave up on them because… actually I don’t know how to say it, it’s not giving up, it’s just… in dance, it’s

80%$

5%$15%$

Are$you$considering$a$freelance$dance$career?$

Yes$ No$ Not$sure$

  63

about leaving the pre-made structures behind. I tell myself, yeah well everyone is going to auditions, everyone wants to be in a company, but surely there’s something else out there to do yourself.

(Interview Melina)

This ‘something else’ turned out to be an independent dance collective based in

Switzerland: together, Carla and Melina founded an association reuniting emerging

dance artists. The aim is to give young dancers the information and advice necessary

to start their own creative projects, as well as providing precious performance

opportunities by collaborating with a broad network of dance artists. Thus, the

possibility of performing a triple bill at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe emerged:

together with five other dance artists, the author was part of the organisation of this

project. The realisation of this enterprise required numerous organisational tasks and

skills including, but not limited to, marketing and press relations: everything from the

venue hire to the promotion of the show was undertaken by the dance artists

themselves. The organisation for the production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

spanned over several months, from December to August 2015, culminating in nine

performances from the 7th to the 15th August 2015.

Seeing as the budget was extremely limited, the dancers undertook all the

administrative work, as well as the creative aspect of choreographing and dancing

the show itself, for almost no salary at all – making the project a curious blend of

financial disinterest and entrepreneurial ambitions, one of many similar enterprises

now comprising the professional dance sphere (for more information on this project,

see Appendix 7.1.7).

Dancers everywhere are now faced with the challenge of embracing a new

professional environment: a decidedly precarious, hyperflexible work market,

requiring passionate artists to invent new ways to fulfil their creative ambitions.

  64

Dancers are fast learning to adapt to the obligations of a freelance career:

administration has become an essential part of dance careers, whilst low wages are

turning polyactivity into a necessity for most dance artists. Dancers acknowledge

these difficulties, yet the freedom and the variety of experiences a freelance career

offers are motivation enough for dancers to not only continue in this profession, but

also pave the way for new career paths in dance. Dancers are now compelled to be

creative not only in their dance, but also in the construction of their career.

 

  65

5 Conclusion  The creative economy has had many repercussions on our society and culture.

Creativity is now the standard by which success is measured: a new generation of

Independents is embracing technology and entrepreneurial values as described by

Leadbeater and Oakley (2005). Our current professional landscape is comprised of

microbusinesses and portfolio careers: Florida (2002a) and Arthur and Rousseau

(1996) even argue that lifelong careers in single organisations are slowly dwindling

away.

This is also reflected in artistic careers, which are inherently creative. Artists too are

now increasingly self-employed, or freelance, working for and collaborating with

multiple people and organisations.

Yet even in this economy so intrinsically defined by creativity, artistic labour struggles

to be perceived as real work (Agnew, 2012; IOTPD, 1997). The reviewed literature

on the artists’ workplace and dance, coupled with the information gathered through

the research, collectively paint a comprehensive picture of freelance dancers’

professional environment: a climate defined by precarity.

Freelance dancers contend with financial precarity, a result of low income, short

contracts, and a hyperflexible and hypercompetitive market. Lulls in employment are

inevitable, as evidenced by the research results and Menger (2002). Yet these gaps

in employment present a significant challenge for freelance dancers’ professional

identities: their careers are short compared to other professions, because of the

important physical requirements. On top of this, as an artistic profession it is heavily

driven by vocation: these two factors converge to create a sense of professional

urgency strongly felt by dancers. The hyperflexible market and oversupply of dancers

also make it increasingly difficult for graduates to enter the professional market

explains Sorignet (2010, p. 70). The new generation of contemporary freelance

  66

dancers is now pushed into new professional identities by the professional

environment. As the research has shown, many dancers value the independence

and artistic freedom that freelance careers offer: they are now increasingly creating

their own work and forming their own ‘businesses’ as described by Jennings (2015).

Their artistic identities are closely linked to the space that is given to them for

creative self-expression, as illustrated by the research results concerning the

relationship between choreographers and dancers. Many dancers now expect to

have creative input in the choreographies they participate in, and are embracing their

entrepreneurial side by embarking on their own projects; yet this must be done with

care so as not to threaten their artistic identity; indeed, it is difficult for dancers to

marry the physical requirements of their profession with the administrative aspect of

a freelance career, as evidenced in chapter 4.

The RP (2014) identified some key improvement areas so as to facilitate dancers’

working conditions in Switzerland: first of all, the budgets allocated to the creation of

independent dance projects should be increased to include the hire of appropriate

administrative representation. Not only would this enable dance artists to invest more

time and energy into the creation of their own work, but it would also ensure that the

funded creations have a broader cultural impact and longer life. Secondly, for

‘technically light’ dance projects requiring little administrative work, punctual and

flexible financial help should be established so as to facilitate access to funding and

lessen the burden of financial precarity for emerging dance artists.

As it is, freelance dancers everywhere now face the challenge of adopting an

entrepreneurial attitude and finding ways to combine it with their artistic identity.

Burns describes the situation as follows:

The most important entrepreneurial and professional skills required of the dancer are that they are highly skilled technicians, intelligent, creative, reflective artists able to work confidently and imaginatively with others able to transform ideas into the medium of movement as

  67

well as replicate, learn and interpret given vocabulary, and that they are confident advocates for the art form.

(Burns, 2007, p. 18)

HEIs offering professional dance training are now incorporating a broader view of

dance as a profession into their curriculum. Bennett (2009, p. 33) calls for a

redefinition of success in dance careers by offering dance students a more holistic

understanding of their profession, including portfolio careers and polyactivity.

Freelance dancers now necessitate a multitude of skills as shown by the research

results. Bennett argues that instead of ‘dispelling students’ dreams and aspirations,

perhaps this way we can add to them and make them all the more achievable’ (2009,

p.34). The IOTPD expresses the issue as follows:

Where dancers are now required to be most creative is in their own lives – to make a major paradigm shift in the way they view themselves, their working world, roles and responsibilities. By taking charge of knowing and developing themselves in multifaceted and satisfying ways, dancers will be able to stay available to their art, to the performing weeks they can contract for, and to have a life enriched beyond the minimal existence of the unemployment check.

IOTPD, 1997, p.65

Freelance dancers have the skills to shape their own successful professional identity,

instead of being defined by an economy of precarity. This is a challenge, yet one that

an increasing number of freelance dancers is taking on with bravado: the rise of

freelance dancers needn’t only be a symptom of a hyperflexible and precarious

market – freelance dancers are now consciously embarking on their own creative

journeys by combining entrepreneurialism and artistic imagination, and embodying

their personal artistic vision through collaborative projects with like-minded

individuals.

       

  68

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7 Appendices  

7.1 An insight into a dancer’s life

7.1.1 The difference between classical and contemporary dance  Dance encompasses a large spectrum of different styles, such as Hip-Hop, Jazz,

Ballroom, Folk and Breakdance. Amongst these, Classical and Contemporary Dance

are the most prominent in professional dance structures in Switzerland, according to

Baumgartner and Hostettler (2014, p. 44). Classical and contemporary dance are

vastly different styles, each with its own movement vocabulary and history.

Classical dance saw its origins in Italy and France at the beginning of the

Renaissance according to Liechtenhan (1983, p. 32). In 1661, Louis XIV founded the

Académie Royale de la Danse, which marked the beginning of professional dance.

Classical dance subsequently evolved into a highly specialised art form, with strictly

codified movement vocabulary. Volynsky (2008, p. 132) describes classical dance as

an ‘exaltation’ in which the dancer’s body is defined by the vertical line linking earth

and sky, triumphing over gravity itself. Baumgartner and Hostettler (2014, p. 44)

highlight the importance of ‘turnout’ in Classical dance, which refers to the outward-

facing position of dancers’ hips, legs and feet, and on which the five positions of

classical ballet are based.

Figure 7.1 The five positions of classical ballet (Zacharias, 1993, p.10)

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Classical dance has evolved greatly since its beginnings; in most classical

companies nowadays, the programme presented is a mix of classical and neo-

classical work. Classical companies are mostly state-subsidised, presenting a

selection of dance pieces or ‘repertoire’ created by different choreographers

throughout their performing season (usually August to June). They usually have strict

hierarchies, which ranks dancers according corps de ballet (or artists), coryphées (or

first artists), soloists, and, at the top, principal dancers. Baumgartner and Hostettler

(2014, p. 44) describe how it is usually a ballet master who gives the company

dancers a warm-up class six days a week, before moving on to rehearsals in which

he or she either assists the choreographer during the creation of a piece, or teaches

the dancers existing repertoire. Company dancers employed by such structures

usually have full year contracts that are renewable at the end of every season, thus

providing a relatively stable income.

Contemporary dance however appeared at the end of the 19th century according to

Sorignet (2010, pp. 12-17), in Europe and the USA, as a rejection of the classical

dance codes imposed on dancers for centuries. Sorignet describes how instead of

focusing on dancers’ physical virtuosities, more attention is given to dancers’ inner

life in contemporary dance. Dancers’ bodies don’t necessarily have to correspond to

a specific mould: there is more room for individuality. Baumgartner and Hostettler

(2014, p. 45) explain how contemporary dance seeks to use gravity as a driving force

for movement instead of trying to overcome it like in classical dance.

Since the 1980’s many different contemporary styles have evolved: there isn’t one

true contemporary technique, but rather each choreographer creates his or her own

movement vocabulary, explain Baumgartner and Hostettler (2014, p. 45).

Improvisation is central to current contemporary dance creations, in which dancers

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are generally given different guidelines to follow, which influence their way of moving.

7.1.2 Dance education  Dancers, especially classical ballet dancers, generally start their professional training

extremely early. The IOTPD (1997, p. 25) describes how dancers usually decide

between the ages of ten and fifteen whether they will commit to dance as a career

choice. This is because the physical requirements of classical ballet are strict,

necessitating early training, when the ligaments and joints are still forming, to mould

the body into the classical physical ideal. Many contemporary freelance dancers

started out as classical dancers, such as Carla and Melina. Both started their dance

training at a young age, following gruelling schedules:

I started dance when I was 4 years old. We had adjustable timetables so we could leave school earlier, so from when I was 11, I finished school around 3.30 pm or something like that. And um… after, I did my Year 11 with an adjustable timetable as well, in a college. Still with the conservatory of Annecy, and then I went to the US for a year, at the Virginia School of the Arts. And there, I did my junior year, in a high school. I was in a dance school at the same time, we would dance the whole afternoon, from midday to 8pm, I used to dance around 25 hours a week, I was 16. And at the same time, I would study through distance learning with the CNED, for my Year 12 with a focus on science.

(Interview Carla)

I started when I was 8 years old, with ballet, in a tiny school next to my house (…). I did pass the audition for the Janine Stanlowa School, when I was 14, so I was in Year 10. But for that, I had to take the train from Picardie into Paris every morning, to go to school. It would take me an hour in public transport every morning, plus 20 minutes on foot from my place to the station, at 6 in the morning. I’d get to school at 8. I studied at school every morning, then I’d dance all afternoon, and that was in the middle of my teenage crisis, when I was 14. So I’d skip classes a lot at school… It was a “Music” school you know, with adjustable timetables, and I was the only dancer. So it really wasn’t working out for me, I was really, really tired all the time, at 14, taking the train…

(Interview Melina)

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In contemporary dance, dancers can start their training later: the body doesn’t need

to conform to such strict rules as in classical dance, enabling later starts. Men

especially can afford later entries into professional training describes Sorignet (2010,

p. 41), as they face less competition seeing as the dance market is highly feminised.

Female dancers are held to higher technical standards during auditions for vocational

dance courses than men, which implies earlier training. Vocational dance training

requires long hours in the dance studio from the young students, sometimes at the

expense of academic education explains the IOTPD (1997, p. 30). Whereas physical

training used to be the main focus of dance education, the IOTPD (1997, p. 26) and

Burns (2007, pp. 19-31) both describe how dance education institutions are changing

nowadays to incorporate a broader view of dance careers into their curriculum:

business and entrepreneurial skills, vital for freelance dancers, are now integrated in

the taught programme. This is especially true in education institutions focusing on

contemporary dance, whose students are more likely to evolve in freelance careers

than their classical colleagues.

7.1.3 Freelance dancers’ daily routine  A freelance dancers’ daily routine is highly irregular, as expressed by Melina in her

interview, as well as several survey participants:

Sometimes you can be lost, don’t know where to go, how many times you have to train per day, and it is also expensive. You have to learn it and organize your life to stay in shape for the many auditions you will have to do during this period.

(Survey Participant)

No daily/weekly structure; Finances changing all the time.

(Survey Participant)

Some weeks/months are way too busy (= no social life), other weeks/months can be too quiet (= time for social life but lack of money)

(Survey Participant)

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When freelance dancers have a contract and are working, their day closely

resembles that of a company dancer: the morning generally comprises a warm-up to

condition body and mind for the upcoming rehearsals of the day. Baumgartner and

Hostettler (2014, p. 47) explain how this can either be a classical ballet class or a

contemporary class, generally lasting an hour to an hour and a half, depending on

the requirements of the subsequent rehearsals. During rehearsals, the

choreographer either works on existing choreography with the dancers to prepare for

an upcoming performance, teaches the dancers new movement phrases or creates

new choreography in collaboration with the dancers, by asking them to propose ideas

which are then incorporated into the movement material. A majority of survey

participants indicated that both the dancers and the choreographer were responsible

for creating the movement during choreographic creations:

Figure 7.2 Movement material is often the result of a collaboration between dancers and choreographer

The working week of a dancer is usually irregular, sometimes including weekends

and evenings according to Baumgartner and Hostettler (2014, p. 47).

However, when a freelance dancer is out of work, they must continue training and

7%#25%#

68%#

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piece#with#a#choreographer?#

The#choreographer# The#dancers# It's#a#mix#of#both#

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find other ways to supplement their income, as described earlier. Carla highlights the

importance of a proactive stance and the irregularity of a freelance dancer’s

schedule:

As a freelance dancer, when you have work it’s all well and good, but if you don’t, you have to create your work for yourself. You have to go take classes, go to the gym. (…) And everything depends, there’s weeks where you do less. And as a freelance dancer you do a lot of things at once. For example, we just created [an association], we just signed the statutes, and opened a bank account. But it’s a lot of administrative work. You need to call this person and another, to know how to register with social security, etc. (…) Replying to e-mails, wondering how I’ll be paid for a performance, things like this take time. (…) You are your own company. It’s up to you to manage things alone, you need to step up to it.

(Interview Carla)

Freelance dancers juggle many activities at once, what with polyactivity, the

necessity of staying in shape, and the new entrepreneurial attitude which encourages

many dancers to start their own projects, thus requiring a multitude of administrative

tasks. It follows then that freelance dancers’ schedules are highly irregular.

 

7.1.4 The reinforcement of vocation through onstage experiences

As described earlier, moments onstage serve as reinforcements to dancers’ vocation;

the data gathered through the interviews illustrated this phenomenon. When

describing a physically and mentally challenging piece, Carla explained the effects of

the stage as follows:

In the studio it was always really complicated, but on stage you kind of enter this separate dimension. It’s silly to say, but there’s this sort of divine thing on stage, like you have nothing to lose anyway. And you really strip naked emotionally. You know these people will look at you, they might judge you, but there’s no one right there 2 cm away correcting you: “No your arms not like this, no I don’t believe what you’re doing”. On stage, you just live the moment and that’s it, there’s nothing left to do. You let go and you’re completely part of what’s happening. You live another moment, time stops for a bit… you’re in a completely different reality, you’re somewhere else.

(Interview Carla)

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The stage represents another dimension for dancers, a fleeting space where they

can truly let go and simply share this experience of near-divine fulfilment with one

another and the audience. It’s a vulnerable situation, but perhaps this simply adds to

the thrill of it all – the risk of exposing oneself so viscerally, yet so willingly, in front of

other people. Sorignet (2010, p. 188) also describes the stage as an ideal world,

opposed to the real world in which profane life runs its course. As expressed by Carla

above, Sorignet similarly describes the stage as a place where dancers can surpass

themselves – where the impossible becomes possible.

Melina echoes a feeling of total abandon and life lived unto its utmost edge in her

experience of the stage: ‘For me, it’s about feeling as alive as possible, it’s a quest

for that feeling. You give everything you have, you have nothing to lose – it’s now or

never!’.

7.1.5 Injuries and physical precarity  Injuries are commonplace in a dancer’s professional environment, an ever-present

hazard threatening to curtail dancers’ careers in one swift motion. Pain is generally

ignored by dancers according to Sorignet (2010, p. 236): it is seen by dancers as an

obstacle to overcome, rather than the body sending an alarm signal, making serious,

career-damaging injuries all the more frequent. Rannou and Roharik (2006, pp. 129-

130) compare dancers to athletes, with the rigorous training they put their bodies

through and their dedicated commitment to dance. It is nonetheless important to

distinguish that dancers evolve in a universe of artistic expression, whilst athletes

evolve in a competitive universe. Although dancers use their body as their tool, it is

more a medium of self-expression: 58,3% of the dancers participating in the survey

indicated that dancing was the easiest way for them to express themselves. This

feeling is echoed by Carla: ‘I prefer expressing myself through dance, because that’s

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simply where I’m most at ease. I’ve learnt to express myself through my body’. It is

therefore understandably devastating when an injury stops a dancer’s career in its

steps: not only do they face losing their livelihood, which they’ve spent years training

for, but they also lose their preferred means of expression.

 

7.1.6 Auditions  Auditions generally last a day or two: dancers are usually first given a warm-up class

in which the employers will assess their technical skills, usually followed by several

audition rounds of repertoire, in which dancers learn extracts from choreographies by

the choreographer or the company they are auditioning for; sometimes dancers are

asked to improvise according to guidelines set by the audition panel. After each

round, there is a cut during which dancers are eliminated from the audition.

Seeing as dance is such an international profession, auditions may take place

anywhere, attracting hundreds of applicants. Dancers must pay for their own travel

and accommodation expenses, with no certainty of a successful outcome.

‘And even beyond that, you need to learn how to audition’. Auditioning is a skill unto

itself, which dancers must develop in order to stand out amidst the tough competition.

You need to know the little things that will make them look at you at the right moment. You need to choose your moment, not think “I have to be amazing the entire time in case they look at me”. You can be rubbish during your entire audition, and they won’t look at you, and then you decide, “Now you’re going to look at me!”, and you’ll stun them and they’ll keep you for the next round. It’ll last ten seconds, but they’ll keep me. It can really last 3 seconds, and you can spend the entire audition in the back, but when you know it’s your strong point, you give everything, you go to the front and you say “This is me”.

(Interview Carla)

With the hypercompetitive market freelance dancers find themselves in, the skill of

knowing how to stand out during an audition is essential.

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7.1.7 Fringe Festival Organisation  The independent dance collective created by Carla and Melina enabled the

realisation of a contemporary dance production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The

organisation of a contemporary dance show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival proved

to be a monumental project for a new independent dance collective: as such, tasks

had to be spread out amongst the six dance artists involved in the project, of which

the author was a member of.

The author was principally responsible for Press Relations and Marketing: the press

release of the show had to be sent out to numerous journalists and Fringe

publications in order to attract reviewers, as well as promoters and programmers,

and this on several occasions. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook

were also used in order to create a ‘buzz’ around the event and increase its visibility.

The author also attended the Fringe Festival’s Meet the Media event, during which

the show had to be pitched to numerous journalists.

A crowdfunding campaign was set up as funding from the Swiss Arts Council as well

as different philanthropic foundations was denied on the grounds of the collective not

being well-known enough. The crowdfunding campaign was successful and enabled

the artists to cover the entirety of the costs of the event as well as pay a salary to the

participants.

The promotional artwork was designed by a dancer’s family member, whilst friends of

the participants designed the lighting plan or photographed material for promotional

purposes. Social media played an essential part in finding accommodation, as well

as hiring a videographer for the performance. A photographer was found thanks to an

advertisement placed on the student forum of Edinburgh College of the Arts.

One of the participants attended solely as a choreographer, not as a dancer: she was

therefore also responsible for guiding the technician of the show through the various

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lighting cues, and took on the role of music technician herself.

During the Fringe, the distribution of flyers was an essential part in promoting the

show. In order to attract the attention of passers-by, some of the dance artists

danced in the street, mainly improvising to live music after getting to know street

musicians, whilst the others distributed flyers and pitched the show to potential

audience members. The Virgin Media Street Events also proved to be a successful

promotion tactic: the presentation of short extracts of the three different pieces of the

show on a stage in the middle of the Royal Mile was essential in making the triple bill

known to the audience.

All in all, the Fringe Festival proved to be a successful enterprise for the dance artists

who took part in the event, culminating in a four-star review by BroadwayBaby’s

Oliver Newson (2015), which described it as ‘an accomplished work by an audacious

collective that transitions from petite manifestations of love to joyous exclamations of

carefree - if qualified - abandon, with perceptible intelligence’.

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7.2 Survey questions (English)

7.2.1 Professional dancer surveys

Freelance dancers’ careers and professional environment The purpose of this research is to gather information about the careers and professional environment of freelance dancers. A dancer’s career is no smooth path: competition, economic precarity, lack of jobs, all this and more pushes more and more professional dancers onto the path of a freelance career. How does a freelance dancer experience these challenges? What does a freelance dancer’s career look like? This research will attempt to discover how freelance dancers perceive their work environment. Questions marked with a (*) are required. What is your age?*

• Under 20 years old • 20-25 years old • 26-30 years old • 31-35 years old • 36-40 years old • 41-45 years old • More than 45 years old

What is your gender?*

• Female • Male • Other

What is your nationality?* (List of countries) What is your country of residence?* (List of countries) In which country/ies do you exercise or have your exercised your profession in the past?* (Please tick all the boxes that apply to you.)

o Switzerland o France o United Kingdom o Germany o Italy o Other

How many years have you been dancing professionally?* (Not including training or junior companies)

• 1-2 years • 3-5 years • 6-9 years • 10 years or more

What kind of dancer are you?* (Please tick all the boxes that apply to you.)

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o Classical o Contemporary o Other

How many dance contracts have you had in the past year?*

• None • 1-2 • 3-4 • 5 or more

How long do the dance contracts last on average?

• 3 months or less • 4-6 months • 7-9 months • 10 months or more

Please only answer this question if you've ever worked in France. If you work/have worked in France, do you benefit from the "statut d'intermittent"?

• Yes • No • I used to but not anymore

A career in freelance dancing The following section contains a series of affirmations, which could describe how a freelance dancer feels about his/her professional activity. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each of these affirmations. There is no right or wrong answer. Strongly

Disagree Disagree Neither

agree nor disagree

Agree Strongly Agree

My work is regular.

I feel like I'm my own manager as well as a dancer.

Administration is a big part of my job.

I enjoy creating my own projects.

Being a freelance dancer can be a rewarding career.

I freelance because I feel like I have no choice.

I freelance

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because I enjoy the independence it gives me. I freelance because I want to choose the city I live in.

I would advise dance students to consider freelance dancing as a viable career alternative to having a steady contract in a company.

Dancers' career options have changed a lot in the past years.

I would rather have a steady contract with a company.

I am happy with my choice to be a freelance dancer.

Do you work on your own dance projects?*

• Yes • No

If yes, please describe the process of creating your own dance projects. How is it enjoyable, how is it difficult? (Optional) If not, would you like to work on your own dance projects?

• Yes • No • Not sure

Do you find freelance dancing to be a liberating career, or on the contrary constraining?*

• Liberating • Constraining • A bit of both

Do you feel the choreographer/dancer relationship is better when the contracts are short-term or long-term?*

• The relationship is better when the contract is long-term. • The relationship is better when the contract is short-term.

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• There is no difference according to the type of contract. When do you identify as an artist, or on the contrary as a subordinate? Does the choreographer's behaviour towards you have any impact on this? (Optional) In your experience, who creates most of the movement when working on the creation of a piece with a choreographer?*

• The choreographer • The dancers • It’s a mix of both

When you're out of work, how do you stay in shape for dancing?* (Please tick any boxes that apply to you.)

o Dance classes/workshops o Going to the gym o Working out at home o Pilates or Yoga o Other

Is it sometimes difficult to stay in shape?*

• Yes • No • Undecided

Is the income you perceive from your dance activity sufficient to sustain you, or do you need to complement it with other sources of income?*

• My income from dancing is sufficient to sustain me financially. • I have to complement my income from dance with other sources of income. • It depends on how many dance contracts I've had in the past months.

What is the importance of the financial remuneration in choosing your job? (Please check any boxes that apply to you.)

o Dancing is my job, not only a passion. If I get offered a dance contract for a project I don't enjoy, I will take it because dancing is how I earn money.

o I'm willing to earn little money in order to dance professionally because dancing is my passion.

o Financial remuneration is important, but I'd rather earn money doing other jobs than working on a dance project I don't enjoy

o If I get offered a contract for a dance project I don't enjoy, I will accept it for the valuable experience I can gain from it and to boost my CV, but not because of the financial remuneration.

Please briefly state two of the most enjoyable aspects of being a freelance dancer. (Optional) Please briefly state two of the most difficult aspects of being a freelance dancer. (Optional) Do you agree with the description of freelance dancing as a "dual" career?* (The term "dual" career refers to the issue of combining the creative side of this profession with its more administrative side.)

o Yes o No o Undecided

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The dancer's calling Why do you dance?* (Please tick any boxes that apply to you.)

o It gives meaning to my life. o I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. o I just fell into dancing. o I dance primarily to earn money. o Dancing is my passion. o Dance is the easiest way for me to express myself. o Dancing gives me joy. o I enjoy the social aspect of this profession. o Dancing is just my job.

What made you decide to pursue a freelance dance career? (Optional) Have you had steady, long-term (6 months or more) contracts with a dance company previously?*

• Yes • No

Which type of dance contract would you rather have during your career?*

• Freelance project-based contracts in several dance companies. • Steady, long-term contract as a dance company member. • A mix of both freelance contracts and steady longer-term company contracts.

Would you describe dancing as your “calling”?* (The term "calling" refers to the vocational aspect of this career.)

• Yes • No • Undecided

On a scale from 1 to 5, how important is “calling” in pursuing a professional dance career in your opinion?* 1 2 3 4 5 Not important at all Very Important

When did you feel you could truly describe yourself as a professional dancer?*

o When I first entered a professional dance school. o After I obtained my diploma certifying that I'm a professional dancer. o After I obtained my first dance job. o After I started working on my own dance projects. o After I was working as a professional dancer for a while. o After I obtained a long-term contract with a professional dance company. o I still don't truly feel like a professional dancer.

Auditions This following section will attempt to gain insight on how dancers experience the process of auditioning. Generally, would you say you enjoy auditions?*

• Yes • No

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• It depends In your experience, would you say it's easy or difficult to get a dance contract through auditioning?*

• Auditioning is an easy and efficient way of obtaining a dance contract. • Auditioning rarely results in obtaining a dance contract. • Undecided

On a scale from 1 to 5, how fierce would you rate competition at auditions?* 1 2 3 4 5 Not at all fierce Very fierce

How many auditions have you done in the past year?*

• None • 1-2 • 3-5 • 6-10 • 11-15 • 16 or more

How many times has an audition resulted in a contract for you?*

• None • 1-2 • 3-4 • 5-6 or more

Do you consider networking to be important to get a job in the dance world?*

• Yes • No • Undecided

7.2.2 Student dancer surveys Dance students’ career prospects A dancer’s career is no smooth path: competition, economic precarity, lack of jobs, all this and more pushes more and more professional dancers onto the path of a freelance career. How do young dancers about to start their career experience these challenges? This research will attempt to discover how young dancers perceive their work environment and provide the basis for my dissertation. What is your age?

• 15-18 • 19-21 • 22-24 • 25-26

What is your gender?

• Female • Male • Other

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What is your nationality? (List of countries) What is your country of residence? (List of countries) Are you currently in a professional dance school?

• Yes • No

If yes, how many years have you trained professionally for?

• 1-2 • 3-4 • 5-6 • 7-8 • 9-10 • 11 or more

What kind of dancer are you?

• Classical • Contemporary • Other

Career perspectives Is your main ambition to get a long-term contract with a dance company?

• (As opposed to being a freelance dancer) • Yes • No • I'd be equally happy with either option.

Would you describe dancing as your calling?

• (The term "calling" refers to the vocational aspect of this career.) • Yes • No • Not sure

On a scale from 1 to 5, how difficult do you think a dancer's career is? 1 2 3 4 5 Very easy Very difficult

Do you talk to professional dancers about their experiences in this industry?

• Yes • No

Do you get the feeling that it's getting increasingly difficult for young dancers to start their careers?

• Yes • No • Not sure

Are you considering a freelance dance career?

• Yes

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• No • Not sure

Is working on your own projects something that would interest you?

• Yes • No • Maybe

Does your school supply information on how to organise your finances as a dancer after you've graduated? (This can be through workshops as well)

• Yes • No

Do you know which organisations to contact if you're in need of advice and/or information concerning your dance career?

• Yes • No

On a scale from 1 to 5, how prepared do you feel to enter the professional world after graduating? 1 2 3 4 5 Very easy Very difficult

Why do you dance? (Please tick any boxes that apply to you)

o Dancing gives meaning to my life. o I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. o I just fell into dancing. o I want to dance primarily to earn money. o Dancing is my passion. o Dancing is the easiest way for me to express myself. o Dancing gives me joy. o I enjoy the social aspect of the dance world. o Dancing is just something I study.

Auditions Have you already auditioned for a company?

• No • Yes

Auditions (continued) Would you say auditioning for a company is a similar experience to auditioning for professional dance training?

• Yes • No • Not sure

How many auditions have you done in the past year?

• None • 1-2 • 3-5

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• 6-10 • 11-15 • 16 or more

How many times has an audition resulted in a contract for you?

• None • 1-2 • 3-4 • 5-6 or more

What type of contract do you audition for the most?

• Short-term, project-based contract • Long-term company contract • Both, equally

Do you enjoy auditions?

• Yes • No • Undecided

How fierce would you rate competition at auditions?

• Not at all fierce • Very fierce

Do you think networking is important for a dancer's career?

• Yes • No • Not sure

 

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7.3 Thematic organisation of collected qualitative data

7.3.1 Overview of themes  

Vocation and Values

Main theme Sub-theme Definition Example

Freelancing a path to diverse experiences and sharing

Sharing, diverse encounters

Diverse encounters as an important feature of artistic sharing and growth

‘What’s important is to really work with someone, to learn, to be nourished, to move forward in your dance.’

Diverse experiences

The possibilities a freelance careers offers, for example travel and change of routine

‘… having the chance to work with (and meet) a lot of different dancers/choreographers and to be able to perform at lots of different places/settings’

The FREE in freelancing

Independence The possibility to shape one’s own career path

‘Freelance dancers are free to plan their lives.’

Freedom of choice

The possibility of choosing who to work with or not

‘The freedom of making your own choices about where you want to go and who you want to work with.’

Room for self-expression

The possibility to create one’s own projects and artistic self-expression

‘The strength of the creativity, the possibility of expressing what we really wish. Experience rich in human meetings.’

Entrepreneurship

How entrepreneurial skills are increasingly valued and practised by freelance dancers

‘In dance, it’s about leaving the pre-made structures behind.’

Vocation

Vocation is essential to a dancers’ maintenance in the profession

‘It really comes from me, it’s really my vocation, I’m conscious of it now.’

Self-knowledge The experiences in freelancing contribute to self-knowledge

‘You learn, you see yourself… you see things that you didn’t think about yourself.’

Difficulties that have an impact on dancers’ professional identities

Main theme Sub-theme Definition Example

Precarity Financial

Low income and underemployment leading to financial

‘Financial insecurity. Irregularity of projects, hollow periods that are

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precarity too long.’

Difficulty of staying in shape

The instability of freelance lifestyle makes it complicated for dancers to train

‘Training when you have no contracts. Sometimes you can be lost, don t know where to go, how many times you have to train per day, and it is also expensive.’

Polyactivity

The threat of polyactivity

Polyactivity threatens to take over the artistic side

‘So, in terms of taking dance classes, since um… since the month of February, no, March, since I’ve started teaching, well I can’t do those anymore.’

Multiple jobs

Multiple jobs including administrator, choreographer, producer, technician…

‘And as a freelance dancer you do a lot of things at once.’

Uncertainty in freelance dance careers

Auditions The burden of auditions

‘We are always in the process of looking for the next job, even if at that time we have one.’

The End is Near!

Professional urgency and the fear of not finding another contract

‘The trust that it is continuing, that i am good enough.’

The other side of the coin

Bohemia How bohemia leads to loneliness

‘You change people and friends all the time, it's hard to build stronger relationships with people.’

The fiery pits of administration

Creativity is sometimes opposed to administration, which is seen in a negative light.

‘It is very cumbersome in terms of organising work time and all the necessary administrative work.’

Stigma The prejudice some freelance dancers face regarding their career.

‘The perception some people sometimes have of independent artists, I’m thinking for example of this “profiteering and lazy” image that independent artists drag along with them.’

Exhaustion The exhaustion such an unsustainable lifestyle engenders

‘The exhaustion. We are constantly asked to surpass our own physical and mental limits.’

Injustice The perceived injustice of the dance world

‘On one side it forces you to say “Life sucks”, you don’t always get what you want, even if you do everything perfectly.’

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Power of the dancer-choreographer relationship on freelance dancers’ professional identity

Main theme Sub-theme Definition Example

Collaboration influences the Artist vs. Subordinate feeling

Collaboration is vital for dancers to feel like artists

‘I identify as an artist when I am being appreciated and even more when I am able to work together with the choreographer.’

Dehumanisation of dancers

Being treated like a tool leads to dancers feeling like subordinates

‘When the choreographer completely stifles the personality of the dancer, and the dancer becomes a performing machine’

The choreographer has no power

The choreographer has no impact on dancers’ identification as artist or subordinate

‘I identify as an artist, a choreographers behaviour has no impact on this.’

Difference between companies and freelance project-work

The relationship between choreographer and dancer is different in freelance, project-based work and repertoire companies offering full year contracts.

‘You’re not only a subordinate, as a freelancer.’

7.3.2 Collected Data  The following sections will present an extract of the collected research data,

classified according to the different themes that emerged from the TA. Not all of the

research data is featured: this merely provides an overview of the collected material.

 

Vocation and Values

Main theme Freelancing a path to diverse experiences and sharing

Sub-theme Sharing, diverse encounters

Survey Participants

The fact that you are always working with different people, so you meet different personalities, ways of moving so you learn new stuff each time you enter a new project. The fact that you travel a lot and you can live in different places according to the project you choose to do.

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1. You are able to work with a range of choreographers on different projects. 2. You become more versatile as a dancer/artist.

Working with so many different interesting people. Being alive and able to live (as well outside dance) and not only do steps every day and losing the passion for dance.

The variety of encounters this profession allows, the great artistic encounters that flow from it – The numerous travels on tour, which are one of the best parts of this profession in my opinion.

A lot of different encounters, and thus a lot of different textures, a richness, in the physical language. Freedom to create one’s own projects.

Carla

What’s important is to really work with someone, to learn, to be nourished, to move forward in your dance. For me, otherwise, you stagnate a bit. --- Even if it hurts, letting other people touch this part of you, feel with you. And at the same time, for us as dancers, when we’re onstage, I dance for myself, but I feel like it’s not just for me, I also do it for others. --- I’m learning so much all the time, like when I’m working with William*. It opened a door for me, I’m dancing differently now. It helped me evolve compared to when I left [school]. --- What it’s really about, is sharing something human with someone else. I really think that’s what it’s about. And, maybe it sounds silly, but to be real with people, when I work with people to not just be a subordinate, but to really work, and give something, and to feel that what you’ve given has an impact on the person in front of you. It also gives me something, but I also want to give something. It’s an exchange, it’s about sharing. For me, that’s the most important aspect.

Melina

-

Sub-theme Diverse experiences

Survey Participants Traveling and getting to know new people from different backgrounds, working with different choreographers in different forms makes it new every time like arriving to a new school and letting the work change and give me new knowledge.

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The variety: having the chance to work with (and meet) a lot of different dancers/choreographers and to be able to perform at lots of different places/settings. - a feeling of freedom; no week is the same/never boring.

1. Diversity of experience. Opportunities to do many different workshops, travel, work with different choreographers on different projects, etc. 2. The intensity of the work. When you are doing a project as a freelancer you are DOING THE PROJECT. You are not part of a company, that happens to be doing the work of a certain choreographer. As a freelancer you immerse yourself in different universes constantly in a way that I imagine is different than if you had a long-term contract with a company (but this is just a theory since I've never had the other experience).

The confrontation/liberty/responsibility to have to constantly re-avulate what I want and what I dont want. I dont get to couch slouch and look back that the last 5 years have been something I haven’t consciously picked. The huge diversity of being able to change style and surrounding frequently and thus explore several sides of myself. and get challenged in diverse ways.

Carla It’s a shame, they would offer me a one year contract, minimum, that I could renew, a contract as a company dancer, and I’ve gotten to the point of asking myself if I even want that type of contract. Won’t I get bored? But in terms of awareness of the current dance world, of everything that’s happening now… because yes, companies are a part of it, but for me it’s the freelance world, with its projects and chreographers and everything, for me that’s the real dance world, that’s where things are really happening.

Melina -

Main theme The FREE in freelancing

Sub-theme Independence

Survey Participants

Easier to focus on specific development of areas of performance/practice I am interested in. Freedom to travel and take time out in order to re discover passion and interest

You have freedom to do whatever you want if you can sustain yourself financially. (going on holidays or workshop etc etc)

Freelance dancers are free to plan their lives. They are able to focus on aspects they enjoy at times (technical issues, researches etc).

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The possibility and choice of having several experiences and doing several projects in a short time. The diversity and the freedom. The freedom of having times where you can do other things and organise your life like you want to, train however you wish. It’s a very pleasant balancing act, between the need to work, the desire to work, and the desire of doing other things.

I identify as an artist because I am my own boss, or work less than 3 months for someone else. However, I would probably feel like a subordinate if I would have a steady contract.

Carla -

Melina -

Sub-theme Freedom of choice

Survey Participants

One has a choice and control over ones life that usually as dancers we don't have. One can arrange their own life/ year schedule and be able to learn or do something different as well if wanted.

Choosing the direction you want to take, choreographically and personally.

The freedom of making your own choices about where you want to go and who you want to work with. Regular changes that help avoid a routine.

We have the freedom to accept or decline every contract, and the power to build ourselves as artists. We meet many more artists because of the number of different contracts.

(…) there are different kinds of works that demand different kinds of involvement. And you pick the kind of work that you feel comfortable with. I consider myself an artist and work and search for people that treat and challenge me in that way. There are many people I wouldnt work with.

(…) I choose which choreographers I work with, so I usually feel fulfilled in my position as artist. I find I have a lot of room to manoeuvre and decide in this.

Carla You can choose as a freelancer, you’re allowed to choose as a freelancer. You don’t have the right to choose when you’re in a company. You don’t choose who will come and work on the next creation. But you can choose which audition you do, if you want to work with the person you go audition for them. Another thing that’s good in project-work, is that projects usually last one or two months. If you don’t like it, well it won’t last very long, you’re not forced to repeat the piece, to go on tour. You’re free. There’s this good thing, on one side you’re sometimes out of work, sometimes it’s hard to find work, but you’re free. As a freelancer you’re free to do what you want. If you don’t want to work on something you can say no, I don’t like this. In a repertoire company you’re free, but only at the end of the

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year, of your contract. You can’t have everything. Even though it would be work… I think I don’t have enough experience to say no yet. These are famous names, they have contacts everywhere, to refuse for nothing… I don’t know. It could still be interesting. (…) And at the same time I want to dance so much that I don’t think I could refuse a dance job, even if I didn’t like it… unless it wasn’t to a professional standard, like a school fair or something. That would be bad for my career, it wouldn’t give me anything and I’d be losing my time.

Melina -

Sub-theme Room for self-expression

Survey Participants

"my own dance projects" at the moment are not actually my own, they are collaborative efforts that I enjoy immensely, but I cannot take full credit or responsibility for them. I love the feeling of making something together, of meshing our ideas without an authority figure watching over our shoulders. It's scary to have to make decisions but the work in the studio is exciting and satisfying, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It is difficult to know what to do next, to work well as a group and find which direction we want to take things in without letting the energy stagnate, but when we are on a roll it is simply the best. It's just the beginning of my project so I haven't got so many things to describe but it’s really liberating and empowering to know you can do what is really meaningful to you. It gives you the right to be honest with yourself and your thoughts. Switching from dance to maker is difficult. Getting support, time frame, residencies. But once you pass this line, it becomes easier. And it's highly enjoyable. A good balance I must say between dancing for someone's project and making your own agenda. I identify as an artist more when I am the choreographer or do my own work than when I’m working for a choreographer ALTOUGH that totally depends how the choreographer treats his dancers

Carla -

Melina

When I choreograph, and there’s people in front me and the ideas are just flowing in, for me it’s really simple. It comes naturally, I don’t have to worry. I really just enjoy it, seeing people evolving in the way that I want them to go, where I want them to go. It’s the creativity, the fact that it’s infinite. You can take movement so far, it can express so much. It’s extraordinary what you can say through your body.

Main theme Entrepreneurship

Survey participants -

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Carla If we don’t want this stress anymore and everything, we can very well reinvent ourselves. Even though in the “normal” world, I mean non-artistic, you need diplomas to be this or that… but we need to start trusting ourselves, because with everything we do, we’re very capable. Because even without diplomas, we could go for it just by being gutsy, like a lot of people do, and we need to be part of these people, even if we find it hard. In any case, certain dancers, and I belong to them, we think “Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know how to do this”. And actually, yes, you can plan a budget, do administrative work, register with social security. If we can learn all this by ourselves, imagine what we could do if people actually explained these things to us! So yes, and it opens doors for you like “Oh, I like designing lights”, it really helps you to open yourself up to a lot of different jobs (…) When you know how to do a lot of things, you can create whatever you want.

Melina

And now, after many, many auditions, which really tired me out, because… yeah, I kind of gave up on them because… actually I don’t know how to say it, it’s not giving up, it’s just… in dance, it’s about leaving the pre-made structures behind. I tell myself, yeah well everyone is going to auditions, everyone wants to be in a company, but surely there’s something else out there to do yourself. --- I find it a real shame to… to stop sometimes, because you can’t find a job right away. There’s something to do, even if it’s just for a while, even if it’s just for a project, even if it’s just… for me, it’s good to… to be able to tell yourself “Ok, I can continue with this, I can put what I’ve learnt to professional use, even if it’s not in a company or through a contract I got by auditioning”. --- I think that as a dancer, the qualities we have are perfectionism, which I mentioned before, and this side of us that likes to work, this work ethic. Actually, yeah. Not giving up, going to the end of things and doing them well. This professional conscience that becomes natural, because we do what we love. I think as dancers, we couldn’t work anywhere else, or do something else, without this same professional conscience. --- … asking yourself the question “What do I do with my passion?”. It’s not because there aren’t any pre-existing structures that suit me that I can’t create one! And putting things into perspective again, yes, maybe I’m not earning my living through dancing, but earning money is a necessity, and I have a job for that, but dance is my passion. So even if I’m not earning money with it for now, so be it, maybe that’ll come later.

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Main theme Vocation

Survey participants -

Carla

Now, for the moment, I’m not ready to stop because I want to dance, but not because I feel like I haven’t accomplished enough. It really comes from me, it’s really my vocation, I’m conscious of it now. I always say that I’m struggling, that I can’t do it anymore, and people ask why I keep on going… Because I want to, that’s all. Because it makes me happy. And that’s why people who don’t really want it, who think “Yeah I’d like to dance”, but who then see the chaos that it is, they don’t continue, they can’t. You can’t be confronted with all this, all these introspections, and struggles, and financial problems, and rejections, all these horrible things, if you don’t really want it. If you don’t really want to be onstage, and work with people, share something with them, if you don’t have that desire, that vocation, then you can’t.

Melina I wanted to do a lot of things, but I thought to myself “Right now, what I really want to wake up for every morning, is dance”. --- … to be able to live thanks to your passion, that’s an extraordinary thing! It’s the chance of a lifetime! The simple fact of having a passion is amazing. Because there’s so many people out there who don’t know what they want to do with their life. And we know, we know what we love, we have a reason to live.

Main theme Self-knowledge

Survey participants -

Carla When you’re only dancing, you’re the nice little lamb that dances and that’s it. You don’t really have the time to reflect on what dance is, life, is it all really worth the struggle. --- We experience moments that are so strong, you just want to go back. It’s bound to happen. You learn, you see yourself… you see things that you didn’t think about yourself. --- But these two years have been really beneficial for me. They’ve helped me evolve like crazy. I’m so happy to be where I’m at today, and sometimes I cry because it’s so difficult, it’s exhausting, but at the same time I’m so thankful to have gone through this, because thanks to this I know

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myself, I know my worth.

Melina -

Difficulties that have an impact on dancers’ professional identities

Main theme Precarity

Sub-theme Financial Precarity (+ Underemployment, unemployment)

Survey Participants

Stress of having jobs, the search of new projects can be stressful. Finances, money seams to be issue all the time, calculating every month as there is no monthly income.

Money is difficult sometimes and having to audition all the time.

As a freelancer you are constantly looking for work and the income is very insecure. This causes stress.

Financial aspect, hard at the end of the month. No contracts for few months

Lack of money, lack of stability, and thus difficulty of combining this profession with family life for example.

Financial insecurity. Irregularity of projects, hollow periods that are too long.

For my part, very long periods without work, and so without income, meaning a rush to auditions. Not knowing what tomorrow will bring, not being able to plan for the future.

Mainly the financial aspect is difficult!

Carla When I left [school] I didn’t have a contract, I had nothing,

the only thing was that I was working with William* but it wasn’t paid, only expenses. But now the positive thing is for one, I won’t work on something I don’t like if it’s not paid. (…) there’s only one exception, because I still do so, for Tom*, I’m paid for the performances but not all the rehearsals, but I believe in him, I believe in his work and what he does. And that’s very different than what happened in Berne, because I didn’t know them, I wasn’t paid, and after 2-3 days of rehearsal I didn’t believe in what we were doing.

Melina -

Sub-theme Difficulty of staying in shape Survey Participants

1. Self-motivation, during periods where I don't have much to do it can be hard to find a focus to channel my energy into, and I end up feeling rather dispersed. 2. Lack of

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certainty. It can be hard to plan your life when you don't know what will happen next most of the time -- from wanting to visit home, to wanting to take a workshop or audition for a new project, etc... Training when you have no contracts. Sometimes you can be lost, don t know where to go, how many times you have to train per day, and it is also expensive. You have to learn how and organize your life to stay in shape for the many auditions you will have to do during this period. Stay in a positive attitude. When you do 10 auditions, and the 10 answers are no, you have to be strong, stay focused and be focused on your goals. This is the most difficult part as a freelance dancer

The work is intermittent and the pay low. You aren't pushed as hard technically as in a good full-time company.

(…) We alternate days and sometimes weeks without regular training, even though our body needs it. Sometimes, even the projects we’re working on don’t offer any classes in the morning. We have to warm up alone. And this is difficult sometimes, because by training alone, we only do what we like to do or know, and so we don’t improve anymore.

Carla As a freelance dancer when you have work it’s all well and

good, but if you don’t, you have to create your work for yourself. You have to go take classes, go to the gym, I also go to the gym, or you tell yourself it’s the time to go take classes with dance companies.

Melina

What’s good now is that this [dance company] is offering daily classes in the morning, so that’s really good, but apart from that there’s not any real activity for people leaving [school in Geneva], and who are freelance, who only have contracts from time to time, or no contracts a all.

Main theme Polyactivity

Sub-theme The threat of polyactivity

Survey Participants -

Carla -

Melina

Because I’m working at [a café] as well, the shifts change all the time. I work at [a café] 3 days a week. And on those days, well that’s the only thing. Because even if it’s just 3pm-11pm, you’d think I’m able to take a class in the morning, but no, I can’t. Every day has its’ theme, either it’s [the café], or teaching, even if it starts at 5pm, it’s the same. I have to prepare my classes in advance every time, I go in early to remember what I want to do, how I’ll organise it. So that’s the days I teach dance. And now with [my association], there’s so much to do, so the rest of my time is [the association]. So, in terms of taking dance classes, since um… since the month of February, no, March, since I’ve started teaching, well I can’t do those anymore. I really can’t. Sometimes I try to get in early before I teach and to

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warm up and work for myself. And so when I’m teaching I try and use that time to work as well, with the adult classes I also really try and do the class for myself. But it’s hard, it’s really hard.

Sub-theme Multiple jobs

Survey Participants My own circus routine (not dance unfortunately). It is nice to play with what you want, nearly when you want. However it is lot of work: making my costumes, music, buying tools (for me it can be a Chinese pole for example), attending security/law seminars, finding photographers and video to do the communication, doing invoice... I feel sometimes like if finally what I do on stage is really not the biggest part of my work. This is why I only do 10 performances/year and I go on production contracts to complete my income. So much work...but it is priceless to be free

Carla And as a freelance dancer you do a lot of things at once. For example, we just created [an association], we just signed the statutes, and opened a bank account. But it’s a lot of administrative work. You need to call this person and another, to know how to register with social security, etc… For example now with [our association], and replying to e-mails, wondering how I’ll be paid for a performance, things like this take time. When you’re working for someone an administrator usually takes care of this stuff and you only dance, whereas now it’s you, you are your own company. It’s up to you to manage things alone, you need to step up to it. --- You do all the jobs in the world. My mother is an accountant, so I told her “Well you’re going to have to help me because I’ll have to do the accounting for this.”. Soon I’ll be an accountant, an administrator, a producer, a dancer, a choreographer, a technician, a lighting and sound designer… You do so much, IT, you’re always on your computer doing stuff… But at least it helps us to be very… I mean, when it comes to after, when we don’t want to be dancers anymore.. It’s very tiring actually, to always set yourself new deadlines, to always tell yourself “I need to do this before this date”, there’s no boss telling you “you need to hand this in by this date”, it’s us telling ourselves “I need to go take class”, etc.

Melina -

Main theme Uncertainty in freelance dance careers

Sub-theme Auditions

Survey Participants

We don't have steady income. We are always in the process of looking for the next job, even if at that time we have one.

  109

To be open for new chances and a bit of luck to be liked by choreographer and get the job

Always auditioning to get a job. A little bit of stress because of income gaps

No work for gaps of time, stress of always looking for new jobs.

Carla

I didn’t used to know how to audition. I naively thought that it was enough to show who you are during auditions. No, that’s not what auditions are about. First of all, there’s a lot of string-pulling during auditions. People know each other beforehand usually. And even beyond that, you need to learn how to audition. Yes, I think everything is about your network anyway. Auditions can work, but only from time to time. Like for example, with that other company I auditioned for… they told me “Thank you, please come take classes”. In the end it’s all about the network you create. You need to create a connection with them and maybe someday you’ll work with them, but you need to create that connection. It’s not in one audition… well yes, that can work for some people, but that’s 5% of the time… 95% of the time, you need to take workshops, meet people, audition 2-3 times for the same company, see the people, follow them, their work, take classes with them…

Melina

I think dance is a very subjective field. That means, choreographers who audition dancers, we can all put ourselves in their shoes. They’ll fall for a certain personality that can inspire them. You need that as a choreographer, you know, having a person in front of you, physically, with an aura, “Yeah, this person really suits what I want to do”. But it’s really not a given for everybody. It’s not because you’re a great technical dancer that choreographers will like you. For me, that’s kind of the problem. Either you persevere, and stuff… yeah. The point of an audition, I think, I mean it’s not in a day that a choreographer can see… Either he falls for you, for what you can offer. And that’s why, yeah, it’s by persevering, by asking and taking classes with companies you like, that’s how you make it. But you need to hang in there, it’s really difficult, at least for me that’s what difficult. --- I mean, I’d imagined that I’d have a job, or I’d find a job pretty easily after leaving [school]. I thought that, a bit too strongly maybe. I’d tell myself “Come on, you’re doing well in auditions, you’re staying on until the end almost all the time, it’s going to work. It’s going to work, it’s going to work”. But no, it didn’t, although it never really depressed me. I’m not like that, in the end it just makes you question

  110

what you really want to do. I’d go audition everywhere, but very often I didn’t even like the companies I was auditioning for. Sometimes, the places I liked the least were the places I’d get kept the longest in auditions. Why, how come? So yeah, for me, when I was younger, I thought that if I liked a place, and I was good at dancing their work, that’s where I’d get a job. And that’s not at all the case! You can be in total disagreement with what you like and how you dance and what you emit, it’s crazy. --- An audition has to go both ways. It’s good to go with that mind-set, to think “Yes, the choreographer’s auditioning me, but he’s not the only one. I’m also testing the atmosphere, the exchange, if the class suits me…”. You also need to… we have every right to put ourselves in this position. We shouldn’t underestimate ourselves.

Sub-theme The End is Near!

Survey Participants Being all the time insecure about if you are going to manage to find new projects or not. Not knowing what you are going to do the next month is scary.

The trust that it is continuing, that i am good enough. The fear of the Future mainly financially.

The difficulty of taking class regularly, hollow periods without contracts that can be morally very trying.

The rigour of this lifestyle that constantly forces us to changed our habits. The fear of not finding another contract.

Managing the time between contracts (personally and administratively). Not knowing when to stop and where you’re at!

Always being scared of not doing enough. Continually (and excessively) questioning oneself.

Carla

I need more time with [William], but I don’t know if I’ll get that time, because I don’t know how things will go.

Melina -

Main theme The other side of the coin

Sub-theme Bohemia and Loneliness

Survey Participants

You never get settled down somewhere, you don't really have a home.

  111

You change people and friends all the time, it's hard to build stronger relationships with people.

Instability moneywise and schedule-wise, having a base which is constantly shifting, creating long-term friendships that are always falling apart from not seeing each other for long periods of time.

- never a stable job - never stable income - you meet so many people in a short time and after the project you don`t see the people anymore

You go where the work is. Keeping a private life, friends, family, loved ones… is hard. There is not a lot of space for other things. The insecurity of knowing what’s going to happen in 2 months and if you will be able to pay the rent. But there are simple ways of dealing with that. For instance by building savings that would last you for the coming 6 months. The work will be there, and you’ll find a way. It’s just to give yourself enough security so you don’t die of stress.

Carla -

Melina -

Sub-theme The fiery pits of administration

Survey Participants

First of all the difficulty is definitely setting up the project and that’s where I fail (for now): to make my projects as big and professionally set up as they could be. Which means talking to theatres and production leaders even before having started to create a thing. Daring to get in contact and believing a 100% in it (Without the doubts which of course are there)... Until now I got invited to a platform or was chosen for a residency or a festival after sending a proposal dossier and could than create. Advertisement and logistics were taken care of.

Positive sides: dancing what I choose to dance, collaborating with other dancers or artists of my choice, researching for myself, saying what I wish to say artistically, freedom in music choices and other things… Negative sides: very complicated to find studios in which to work in, very complicated to manage the creative and the administrative side at the same time, like finding performance dates for example, not enough resources…

Positive: to be able to share an intimate part of oneself and make an audience feel something. Working with enriching people. Negative: extremely cumbersome administrative work, and lack of supporting structures that are adapted to helping young artists in the long term, without necessarily having to create one’s own company.

  112

Globally, I would say for myself that the positive side concerns the choreographic creation, the artistic research, the construction of a piece. The negative aspects reside in the fact that frequently, because of lack of resources, we have to take up the administrative work ourselves, which includes filling out funding applications and the communication that come with the creation of a project.

The positive aspects: the feeling of freedom, the possibility of exploring and heightening my own sense of creativity, the possibility of transmitting my ideas, of finding my own personal codes of transmission. The negative aspects: difficulty of finding funding, an enormous part of work consists in administrative tasks to create adequate working conditions, I’m also confronted with a lack of self-confidence and know-how in administrative as well as creative work. I have the impression I’d need to create at least 5 pieces in order to practise and find my own way of working.

Positive: to be one’s own boss and make one’s own choices artistically and administratively, when it comes to communication and broadcasting. Negative: enormous amount of administration to manage and a lot of time spent approaching venues and partners (financial…). The freedom is only relative!

Carla -

Melina

I’ve never really had the experience of having a steady contract and working with a contract, so I can’t directly compare. So there’s always this part of me that’s dreaming about this thing, this tranquillity. That I’d only be paid to dance, all that’s asked of me is to do my job well and that’s it… so there’s still this part of me that thinks it would be great, you wouldn’t have a care in the world other than dancing, you’d just be paid to rehearse all day and perform onstage, going on tour… it’s a luxury!

Main theme Stigma

Survey Participants

Money and respect

Having to manage absolutely every aspect oneself, from the artistic to the organisational parts, from job searching to administration. The perception some people sometimes have of independent artists, I’m thinking for example of this “profiteering and lazy” image that independent artists drag along with them.

  113

Carla Because it’s always kind of the end of the world when you leave BJ or any other school, they say “Oh I don’t have a contract”… They imagine that there’s nothing left, that there’s only death after or something. And no, that’s not the case. It’s not easy, what happens after, but if you manage to overcome it then you’re king of the world. Well, not king of the world, but you know what I mean. You’re serene, you know you can count on yourself. And that’s really good, to know yourself. (…) And I think as a freelance dancer, you learn… you step out of this utopic dream that people put in your head, and now I don’t find it utopic at all… But people convince you that it’s better to have a contract like that, and that still exists, all these dancers leaving [school] who are scared because they don’t have a contract. And yes it’s scary, because we’re not really prepared for what comes next.

Melina -

Main theme Exhaustion

Survey Participants The exhaustion. We are constantly asked to surpass our own physical and mental limits. The emotional blackmail that is practiced, tacitly or not, by employers.

Carla -

Melina -

Main theme Injustice

Survey Participants -

Carla And I was always very pedantic about things, but the injustice in the dance world has taught me to water my wine a bit. It’s important. For me the injustice meant that well yes, I’m not as pretty as her, and to say well ok then. And before, that was impossible. On one side it forces you to say “Life sucks”, you don’t always get what you want, even if you do everything perfectly, that’s not how it works, we’re not in school anymore. I had a hard time accepting that at first, but after a while it sunk in.

Melina -

Power of the dancer-choreographer relationship on freelance dancers’ professional identity

Main theme Collaboration influences the Artist vs. Subordinate feeling

Survey Participants

Definitely. A choreographer can treat you as an employee, as a body that he/she needs in order to make his/her work, or they can treat you as a creative entity, with a mind, a vision, your own valuable perspective on whatever subject you are collaborating on. Choreographers can either want to collaborate with you, or simply want you to dance for them. And that attitude changes the work environment in the studio immensely.

  114

I identify as an artist when I am being appreciated and even more when I am able to work together with the choreographer. My body language and ideas need to be involved for me to feel that I am an artist, in other words part of the artistic process.

I try to seek my own personality or truth within the choreographer's work and this is a nice challenge, so I actually consider myself always as an artist. But preferably I'll work with choreographers that have that 'space' in his/her work to do this. I will feel less of an artist if I have to exactly copy the choreographer or a colleague.

I identify as an artist when the choreographer lets me be part of the creation, by including my ideas and making me participate in the research process. This depends exclusively on the behaviour and the artistic personality of the choreographer.

I identify as an artist. It has happened to me to find myself working in projects where I was asked to simply perform, like a subordinate, and I enjoyed this a lot less. I like feeling that the choreographer uses aspects of my own personal creative contribution to his/her work, that he/she be demanding in this aspect.

This depends enormously on the choreography, personally I now only work for choreographers who expect an important personal investment from the artist. I am not a subordinate.

Carla -

Melina -

Main theme Dehumanisation of dancers

Survey Participants

I worked with a lot of different choreographers and it’s sad to see that many of the choreographers are egocentric people that like to have a power game in the studio. When the choreographer puts him/herself on the level of the dancers the working atmosphere is much nicer and I feel more free in creating and I feel that we are all humans/same.

With most of the choreographers i worked with, you never feel like an artist, but like a soldier who has to defend the view of someone, the style of someone. You are working for a piece to live not for yourself or someone else!!!!

As far as I am concerned, I think I can express myself when I feel comfortable with the choreographer and when he considers me as an equal, a human being. Of course, if he doesn't leave space for sharing or interpretation I just feel like a subordinate, his tool.

  115

An artist is always an artist, even when simply performing, or choreographing, there is always a part of oneself to give. One exception: when the choreographer completely stifles the personality of the dancer, and the dancer becomes a performing machine.

Carla -

Melina -

Main theme Choreographer has no impact on identification as artist or subordinate

Survey Participants I identify as an artist, a choreographers behaviour has no impact on this.

This depends on the project and the manner in which the choreographer wishes to use his/her dancers for his/her project. That being said, even as a subordinate, I continue to feel like an artist.

Carla -

Melina -

Main theme Difference between companies and freelance project-work

Survey participants -

Carla If you’re working in a repertoire company, even in contemporary things, well you’re working with a coach or a ballet master, you’re not really working with the choreographers, maybe 3 weeks or so, but after that you work with a coach. And I find that a shame, because often it’s only big pieces you’ll be working on, for a lot of dancers. So it’s more superficial in my opinion… in the work of dancing. Being able to work with a choreographer, working with a choreographer, just face to face with him or her, you really talk, it’s almost unwholesome because you become friends with these people even though it’s work, but there’s something emotional there. You talk about life, you have the time to really enter the work. The pieces are often smaller, there aren’t any pieces for 15 people when you’re working freelance. It’s often pieces for only 4-5 people, it’s duos or solos, stuff like that. And that’s it for me, that’s when you learn, being with a choreographer who is really there to take you somewhere. Whereas in repertoire companies, the choreographer is there because the company commissioned a piece, you work with him or her for 3 weeks, sure, but if you’re not cast, there’s cast drama, etc… --- You’re not only a subordinate, as a freelancer. I mean, the projects that I did, I had to give a lot of myself as a person every time. You’re not just there doing four movements, executing and that’s it. No, you’re really there in the creation process, you propose ideas, you develop things, you create material… The choreographer will make the final decisions, but it’s choreographed by the choreographer and

  116

often with a lot of help from the dancers. --- Because you’re someone when you’re a freelance dancer. You have this whole baggage of experience that you need to bring into your dance. A choreographer employs you, or he doesn’t. But you are. And as a subordinate, that’s less the case.

Melina -

     

The reason why dancers freelance: Survey participants’ answers to the question “What made you decide to pursue a freelance dance career?”

Conscious choice

After studying 4 years in dance education this was the best way to earn money.

My contract finished with a company that I didn't enjoy being with and didn't want to renew my contract.

Not enough holidays in my contracted jobs, didn't like the style of the work in those companies.

I got offered different interesting short-term projects for which it was best to be a freelancer.

The fact that I saw it gives me so many different artistic experiences, and such strong feelings with the audience, my colleagues, the artistic team, and myself when I dance.

To be able to create my own pieces and incorporate my ideas.

I have no debt and nobody can have pressure on me. Also I can express/do all my ideas

Because I wanted to have more different experiences, because I could not live too far from my family and because I met someone with whom I wanted to create a family, because in Italy there was the possibility of having stable and long contracts as a contemporary dancer.

Because of the passion!!!

To achieve specific goals and to take advantage of my own artistic freedom.

I was dancing in companies and got bored of the everyday life and thought I could enjoy the challenge of freelancing, still now after two years of freelancing I enjoy it and have a hard time with the instability of it.

  117

After having experienced the large professional structures, principally as a classical and neo-classical dancer, I felt imprisoned, “obligated to…”, like a factory worker. I decided to seek more freedom, more risks, trying out my abilities left and right in order to have different and varied experiences at my own rhythm, and principally to experiment in the contemporary field. I met the right people, who guided me in my evolution.

I knew that this was the best way to get ahead in my life. I’m talking of the personal dimensions of surpassing oneself.

This status matches my desire for independence and respect for the artistic vision I find myself in.

Being able to live off my passion, even if it’s for a short moment. This gives me the impression of accomplishing a goal in my life, it helps me feel complete and happy, despite the difficulties.

The pleasure of dancing, and the creativity, the fact that dance has led me to explore other art forms: theatre, performance, sound art, video, cinema.

Consequence of Professional Environment

Life.

There was no other option. After a while I am finding a meaning in being a freelance dancer, but at first this was the only option. (Otherwise I would have to quit, which I don't consider it as an option.)

There is no other option for me at the moment.

It's what happened. I didn't necessarily make a decision in the matter, I just ended up getting a couple of contracts with short projects and have started to make "my own dance projects" (in collaboration) in the meantime. I'm just trying to do the best with what I've got.

It just happened, I never got offered a 1 year dance contract. The longest was 6 months...

Situation in the Netherlands. Less contracts.

Freelancing was always a thing that I thought was interesting to do, but I started mostly because I didn't find a contract in a company so I started to freelance.

It happened...it’s still continuing and I’m not yet done...still so many things to do

Happened by itself.

When my contract and tour finished I had no other choice!!!!

  118

     

Fell into it.

I haven't been offered a full-time contract with a suitable company, I didn't want/need to quit. The first job I was offered was freelance.

Too many auditions with little results. Tired of waiting. Fewer and fewer offers. Tired of having to meet more and more criteria. Urge to do what I love, to create and defend my own ideas. At first, I didn’t find a contract with a company. Then, the projects I participated with appealed to me, and it gives me the time to create. Difficulty of obtaining a fixed contract.

  119

7.4 Quantitative research results

7.4.1 Professional dancer survey results  What is your age?*

What is your gender?

What is your nationality?

What is your country of residence?

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Under$20$years$old$

20425$years$old$

26430$years$old$

31435$years$old$

36440$years$old$

41445$years$old$

More$than$45$years$old$

70%$

30%$

Female$ Male$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

Belgium$Brazil$

Bulgaria$

Estonia$

France$

Germany$

Greece$Israel$

Italy$

Korea$South$

Netherlands$

Portugal$

Serbia$

Slovenia$Spain$

Switzerland$

United$Kingdom$

United$States$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

Australia$

Belgium$

Bulgaria$

Denmark$

France$

Germany$

Greece$

Italy$

Luxembourg$

Netherlands$

Norway$

Portugal$

Spain$

Switzerland$

United$Kingdom$

United$States$

  120

In which country/ies do you exercise or have your exercised your profession in the past?

How many years have you been dancing professionally?

What kind of dancer are you?

How many dance contracts have you had in the past year?

How long do the dance contracts last on average?

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

70.0%$

Switzerland$ France$ United$Kingdom$ Germany$ Italy$ Other$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

1)2$years$ 3)5$years$ 6)9$years$ 10$years$or$more$

15%$

74%$

11%$

Classical$ Contemporary$ Other$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

None$ 1.2$ 3.4$ 5$or$more$

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

70.0%$

80.0%$

3$months$or$less$ 466$months$ 769$months$ 10$months$or$more$

  121

Please only answer this question if you've ever worked in France. If you work/have worked in France, do you benefit from the "statut d'intermittent" (specific French unemployment benefits for artists)?

A career in freelance dancing The following section contains a series of affirmations, which could describe how a freelance dancer feels about his/her professional activity. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each of these affirmations. There is no right or wrong answer.

22%#

65%#

13%#

Yes# No# I#used#to#but#not#anymore#

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

My#work#is#regular.##

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#feel#like#I'm#my#own#manager#as#well#as#a#dancer"#

  122

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"Administra+on-is-a-big-part-of-my-job"-

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"Being'a'freelance'dancer'can'be'a'rewarding'career."'

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#enjoy#crea,ng#my#own#projects."##

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#freelance#because#I#feel#like#I#have#no#choice."#

  123

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#freelance#because#I#enjoy#the#independence#it#gives#me."#

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#freelance#because#I#want#to#choose#the#city#I#live#in."#

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#would#advise#dance#students#to#consider#freelance#dancing#as#a#viable#career#

alterna5ve#to#having#a#steady#contract#in#a#company."#

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"Dancers'*career*op-ons*have*changed*a*lot*in*the*past*years."*

  124

Do you work on your own dance projects?

If not, would you like to work on your own dance projects?

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

50.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#would#rather#have#a#steady#contract#with#a#company."#

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

Strongly$Disagree$ Disagree$ Neither$agree$nor$disagree$

Agree$ Strongly$Agree$

"I#am#happy#with#my#choice#to#be#a#freelance#dancer."#

61%$39%$

Yes$ No$

43%$

18%$

39%$

Yes$ No$ Not$Sure$

  125

Do you find freelance dancing to be a liberating career, or on the contrary constraining?

Do you feel the choreographer/ dancer relationship is better when the contracts are short-term or long-term?

In your experience, who creates most of the movement when working on the creation of a piece with a choreographer?

When you're out of work, how do you stay in shape for dancing?

22%#1%#

77%#

Libera,ng# Constraining# A#bit#of#both#

27%$

13%$60%$

The$rela/onship$is$be6er$when$the$contract$is$long;term$

The$rela/onship$is$be6er$when$the$contract$is$short;term$

There$is$no$difference$according$to$the$type$of$contract$

7%#25%#

68%#

The#choreographer# The#dancers# It's#a#mix#of#both#

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

70.0%$

80.0%$

90.0%$

100.0%$

Dance$classes/workshops$

Going$to$the$gym$ Working$out$at$home$

Pilates$or$Yoga$ Other$

  126

Is it sometimes difficult to stay in shape?

Is the income you perceive from your dance activity sufficient to sustain you, or do you need to complement it with other sources of income?

What is the importance of the financial remuneration in choosing your job?

Do you agree with the description of freelance dancing as a "dual" career? (The term "dual" career refers to the issue of combining the creative side of this profession with its more administrative side.)

71%$

16%$13%$

Yes$ No$ Undecided$

18%$

50%$

32%$

My$income$from$dancing$is$sufficient$to$sustain$me$financially$

I$have$to$complement$my$income$from$dance$with$other$sources$of$income$

It$depends$on$how$many$dance$contracts$I've$had$in$the$past$months$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%

$

15.0%

$

20.0%

$

25.0%

$

30.0%

$

35.0%

$

40.0%

$

45.0%

$

50.0%

$

Dancing$is$my$job,$not$only$a$passion.$If$I$get$offered$a$dance$contract$for$a$project$I$don't$enjoy,$I$will$take$it$

because$dancing$is$how$I$earn$money$

I'm$willing$to$earn$liEle$money$in$order$to$dance$professionally$because$dancing$is$my$passion$

Financial$remuneraGon$is$important,$but$I'd$rather$earn$money$doing$other$jobs$than$working$on$a$dance$project$I$

don't$enjoy$

If$I$get$offered$a$contract$for$a$dance$project$I$don't$enjoy,$I$will$accept$it$for$the$valuable$experience$I$can$gain$from$it$and$to$boost$my$CV,$but$not$because$of$the$financial$

81%$

6%$13%$

Yes$ No$ Undecided$

  127

The dancer's calling

Why do you dance?

Have you had steady, long-term (6 months or more) contracts with a dance company previously?

Which type of dance contract would you rather have during your career?

Would you describe dancing as your “calling”? (The term "calling" refers to the vocational aspect of this career.)

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%

$

15.0%

$

20.0%

$

25.0%

$

30.0%

$

35.0%

$

40.0%

$

45.0%

$

50.0%

$

55.0%

$

60.0%

$

65.0%

$

70.0%

$

75.0%

$

80.0%

$

It$gives$meaning$to$my$life$

I$couldn't$imagine$myself$doing$anything$else$

I$just$fell$into$dancing$

I$dance$primarily$to$earn$money$

Dancing$is$my$passion$

Dance$is$the$easiest$way$for$me$to$express$myself$

Dancing$gives$me$joy$

I$enjoy$the$social$aspect$of$this$profession$

Dancing$is$just$my$job$

47%$53%$

Yes$ No$

18%$8%$

74%$

Freelance$project2based$contracts$in$several$dance$companies$

Steady,$long2term$contract$as$a$dance$company$member$

A$mix$of$both$freelance$contracts$and$steady$longer2term$company$contracts$

72%$7%$

21%$

Yes$ No$ Undecided$

  128

On a scale from 1 to 5, how important is “calling” in pursuing a professional dance career in your opinion?

When did you feel you could truly describe yourself as a professional dancer?

Auditions

This following section will attempt to gain insight on how dancers experience the process of auditioning

Generally, would you say you enjoy auditions?

In your experience, would you say it's easy or difficult to get a dance contract through auditioning?

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Not$important:$1$ 2$ 3$ 4$ Very$important:$5$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%

$

15.0%

$

20.0%

$

25.0%

$

30.0%

$

35.0%

$

40.0%

$

45.0%

$

50.0%

$

55.0%

$

60.0%

$

65.0%

$

When$I$first$entered$a$professional$dance$school$

A=er$I$obtained$my$diploma$cerAfying$that$I'm$a$professional$dancer$

A=er$I$obtained$my$first$dance$job$

A=er$I$started$working$on$my$own$dance$projects$

A=er$I$was$working$as$a$professional$dancer$for$a$while$

A=er$I$obtained$a$longGterm$contract$with$a$professional$dance$company$

I$sAll$don't$truly$feel$like$a$professional$dancer$

13%$

43%$

44%$

Yes$ No$ It$depends$

5%#

69%#

26%#

Audi+oning#is#an#easy#and#efficient#way#of#obtaining#a#dance#contract#

Audi+oning#rarely#results#in#obtaining#a#dance#contract#

Neutral#

  129

On a scale from 1 to 5, how fierce would you rate competition at auditions?

How many auditions have you done in the past year?

How many times has an audition resulted in a contract for you?

Do you consider networking to be important to get a job in the dance world?

   

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Not$at$all$fierce:$1$ 2$ 3$ 4$ Very$fierce:$5$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

None$ 1-2$ 3-5$ 6-10$ 11-15$ 16$or$more$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

None$ 1.2$ 3.4$ 5.6$ 7$or$more$

96%$

0%$4%$

Yes$ No$ Undecided$

  130

7.4.2 Student dancer survey results  What is your age?

 What is your gender?

 Are you currently in a professional dance school?

 If yes, how many years have you trained professionally for?

 

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

15*18$years$old$ 19*21$years$old$ 22*24$years$old$ 25*26$years$old$

75%$

25%$0%$

Female$ Male$ Other$

90%$

10%$

Yes$ No$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

1*2$

3*4$

5*6$

7*8$

9*10$

10$or$more$

  131

Career perspectives

Is your main ambition to get a long-term contract with a dance company?

 Would you describe dancing as your calling?

 On a scale from 1 to 5, how difficult do you think a dancer's career is?

 Do you get the feeling that it's getting increasingly difficult for young dancers to start their careers?

 

35%$

15%$

50%$

0%$

Yes$ No$ I'd$be$equally$happy$with$either$op;on$ Other$

80%$

0%$20%$

Yes$ No$ Not$sure$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

Very$easy:$1$ 2$ 3$ 4$

Very$diffi

cult:$5$

85%$

0%$15%$

Yes$ No$ Not$sure$

  132

Are you considering a freelance dance career?

 Is working on your own projects something that would interest you?

 Does your school supply information on how to organise your finances as a dancer after you've graduated?

 Do you know which organisations to contact if you're in need of advice and/or information concerning your dance career?

 

80%$

5%$15%$

Yes$ No$ Not$sure$

65%$15%$

20%$

Yes$ No$ Maybe$

45%$55%$

Yes$ No$

50%$50%$

Yes$ No$

  133

On a scale from 1 to 5, how prepared do you feel to enter the professional world after graduating?

 Why do you dance?

 Auditions

Have you already auditioned for a company?

 Auditions (continued) (18 responses for this section)

 How many auditions have you done in the past year?

 

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

Not$prepared$at$all:$1$ 2$ 3$ 4$

Very$prepared:$5$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%

$

15.0%

$

20.0%

$

25.0%

$

30.0%

$

35.0%

$

40.0%

$

45.0%

$

50.0%

$

55.0%

$

60.0%

$

Dancing$gives$meaning$to$my$life$

I$couldn't$imagine$myself$doing$anything$else$

I$just$fell$into$dancing$

I$want$to$dance$primarily$to$earn$money$

Dancing$is$my$passion$

Dancing$is$the$easiest$way$for$me$to$express$myself$

Dancing$gives$me$joy$

I$enjoy$the$social$aspect$of$the$dance$world$

Dancing$is$just$something$I$study$

90%$

10%$

Yes$ No$

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

40.0%$

45.0%$

None$

1.2$

3.5$

6.10$

11.15$

16$or$more$

  134

How many times has an audition resulted in a contract for you?

 What type of contract do you audition for the most?

 Do you enjoy auditions?

 How fierce would you rate competition at auditions?

 

0.0%$

10.0%$

20.0%$

30.0%$

40.0%$

50.0%$

60.0%$

70.0%$

80.0%$

None$

112$

314$

516$

7$or$more$

17%$

44%$

39%$

Short-term,$project-based$contract$ Long-term$company$contract$ Both,$equally$

22%#

33%#

45%#

Yes# No# Undecided#

0.0%$

5.0%$

10.0%$

15.0%$

20.0%$

25.0%$

30.0%$

35.0%$

Not$at$all$fierce:$1$ 2$ 3$ 4$

Very$fierce:$5$

  135

Do you think networking is important for a dancer's career?

     

7.5 Accompanying text

Dear dancer,

Your experience is important to me!

My name is Sophie Ammann, and I am a freelance dancer in Switzerland. At the

same time, I’m studying an MA in Cultural Management with Northumbria University

(UK) through distance learning. I am currently writing my dissertation, which focuses

on the careers and professional environment of freelance dancers.

Please take part in the survey “Freelance dancers’ careers and professional

environment” if you are or have ever been a freelance dancer, or the survey “Dance

students’ career prospects” if you are currently in professional dance training.

The surveys contain questions about your professional background, your

work/training experience, as well as your perception of the current professional

dance environment.

A dancer’s career is no smooth path: competition, economic precarity, lack of jobs, all

this and more pushes more and more professional dancers onto the path of a

freelance career. How do dancers experience these challenges? What does a

freelance dancer’s career look like? This research will attempt to discover how

dancers perceive their work environment and provide the basis for my dissertation.

100%$

0%$0%$

Yes$ No$ Not$sure$

  136

This study is carried out in cooperation with the Department of Arts, Design and

Social Sciences under the supervision of Principal Lecturer Jennifer Hinves.

The surveys are strictly anonymous. The IT program of the survey system does not

allow a link between the participants and their answers. Completing a survey should

take no longer than 10-15 minutes of your time. Please follow the links below to

access the surveys:

Additionally, I invite you to send these surveys to your dance colleagues if you feel

they apply to them. I greatly appreciate your help in gathering as much data as

possible for this research.

I kindly ask you to fill out the questionnaire by May 31st at the latest and thank you

very much for your participation!

Sincerely,

Sophie Ammann