For the Experience; Alexandra Suviate

For the Experience: The Poorest Art Form

The life of a Professional dancer consists of mainly blood sweat and tears. They work until their feet bleed, bones break and bodies shut down so why are they the poorest artists known among us? Many dancers take unpaid jobs as a form of experience but a lot of industries take advantage of this. A dancer can never have too much experience making it difficult to determine what should be a "paid" gig and what should be an "experience" gig.

Research
Dancers all over the world have been fighting for paid gigs for years. Many dancers have created websites and alliances to help fellow colleagues understand what consists of a good work environment for dancers and what is an appropriate pay to ask for. A specific group known as Dancers Alliance has "made it their mission to be the unified voice of the national dance community and improve the careers of professional dancers and choreographers through education and solidarity." Dancers Alliance started in 1990, organizing boycotts of unfair agencies and industries. As we can see this problem has been ongoing for decades and has only gotten worst. 
To understand the hardships of a dancer we must compare it to professional athletes. The two are not so different. Both practice hours on end every day, go through extensive training, and condition their bodies for either the field or stage. Yet, "Football players in the NFL salaries ranges from $800,000 to $24 million a season depending on the position." Most well known, professional dancers make a lot of their money from sponsorships and ads, not even from their handwork or dance ability. 
Listed below you will find the median hourly wages for dancers in the top industries from May, 2017. 

Educational services; state, local, and private	$18.37
Performing arts companies	16.96
Spectator sports	14.58
Drinking places (alcoholic beverages)	9.67

As you can see there is a drastic difference between the two. Of course being able to dance on stage with one of your favorite music artists is a blessing enough but we need to draw a line so dancers can understand what their quality of work is worth.

Personal Statement

As a fellow dancer in the greater Los Angeles area, I have found this to be a huge problem surrounding the community that I am apart of. Being a young dancer and noticing that this career is just starting to blossom I am more than willing to gain as much experience as I can but I can't help but wonder when enough is enough? Having many colleagues and close friends apart of this community as well, I have learned that many artist such as Chris Brown, Rihanna, and many other popular artists do not always pay their dancers but rather have them do it "For the Experience" which is why I have chosen this issue. It's not right to under pay or not pay your workers at all. Especially if they are making your performance better and worth while. Dancers ultimately put their all in every performance or gig that they do so why not pay them for not only their time but their dedication to their work. This will affect all future generations of dancers and hopefully we can educate them to demand more and understand that their craft is so much more than mediocre and it should be respected as such.

Xander McIntosh

"People feel like dance is nothing more than a hobby but to dancers in the industry it is our career and we are underpaid because people think "performances" are for experience and not work."

Taryn Cheng

"Completely relatable and agree that this correlates to how dancers are under appreciated artists. In general I never really get compensated financially or culturally for the artistry."

Derek Almacin

"Being a dancer is the lowest paying job in the arts industry, as a dancer we should bring awareness to this."

Eileen Kim

"Can agree with the purpose of this project through personal experience. There have been more times that I've accepted a gig where I got paid less but took it for the experience/exposure, than times I got paid fairly for the work and time given."

Sources

“DA History.” Dancersalliance, www.dancersalliance.org/da-history.

Russo, Payton M. “Professional Dancers And Athletes Aren't Different, But Their Wages Are.” The Odyssey Online, 31 Aug. 2017, www.theodysseyonline.com/professional-dancers-athletes-wages.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Dancers and Choreographers, 
on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/dancers-and-choreographers.htm (visited April 13, 2018).