Working Conditions/Demands

What are the hours like? What different environments are there to work in?

Some dancers may be given set hours and some may only work when there's shows/performances. Some may dance in one environment such as their local theatre and some dancers may be in a different location or venue every week. Some dancers may live in the same city as their work place and some may have to travel hours. Every dancers working conditions is unique to them.

Hours

Schedules for dancers and choreographers always vary. Hours can be long and irregular, with rehearsals and classes during the day and performances in the evening. There's more regularity if the dancers and/or choreographers work as teachers as they will have a standard workweek as well as spending hours working independently to create new dance routines. However if dancers participate in tours, they will have much longer workdays. Long workdays were familiar to professional practitioner Jerome Robins and all dancers he worked with, since he was a perfectionist and therefore often changed things last minute. This meant his dancer's hours were to a large extent based on his decisions, making it likely that scheduled session often overran, especially when performance dates were closely approaching. Twice or sometimes 3 times annually, I partake in dance shows and so I am familiar with fine tuning choreography close to show dates. I am currently going through that process with 3 dances for my schools 'All Together Now' show. The fine tuning includes adjusting formations as our rehearsal space is much wider than the school stage, working out suitable lighting and changing parts of chorography that don't work with the props or costumes. In fact, in my duet to 'Let It Go' a section of great chorography didn't work with the timing of the music or the prop (a long piece of string) making the dance messy and lacking of musicality. Rather then scrapping the movement so close to the show we decided to fragmentate the movement to make it work. This has meant dedicating all class hours and some afterschool ones to the dances to make them performance ready.

Environment

Dancers perform in many different venues including theatres, film or TV studios, nightclubs, hotels, halls and cruise ships. I have experienced a few different environments myself, all with different levels of professionalism. From the school field on sports day to my schools small stage and finally Bedford

University's large stage with gallery style seating. Each of those 3 environments have different surfaces,

that each absorbed the impact from the movements differently meaning some movements have to be altered. The grip was also different, dancing on grass meant there wasn't much less traction in comparison to the rubber grip on the stages in the other 2 locations. We had to adapt our performance environment by laying down a few gym mats for a selected few dancers (including me) to safely tumble. Not only that but each location has different hazards. For the field the weather on that day had to be considered as even the slightest bit of rain could obstruct view, ruin sound equipment and cause the dancers to lose control of movement, leading to fall/slip hazards. For the school stage, due to it being risen off the ground by about 1.5m, spatial awareness is key to avoid any dancers falling off of the stage. As well as that, when it comes to our finale dances especially, 50+ people can be on the stage at once and so it is key that all dancers stick to a formation to avoid anyone getting kicked or hurt in any way. The issue of space wasn't an issue at the stage at Bedford and even less of an issue to the vast school field. At Bedford, due to there being a lot of lighting and sound control, the wires are a trip hazard that, if unplugged could cut lighting and/or music, therefore compromising the performance. None the less all environments were amazing to perform in, regardless of the level of professionalism.

The environment a dancer performs in is either onstage or at a site sensitive location (a location outside of the conventional theater space that the dance links to ). A stage setting could be used to make chorography look more professional or when the dance is for entertainment purposes only, such as Steamheat choreographed by Bob Fosse . Sometimes site sensitive spaces are preferred to help communicate the meaning or story behind the choreography or to neutralise the background so that the audiences full attention is on the movement rather than the stage and lighting. A professional example is Rosas Danst Rosas, a dance communicating exhaustion and emotional tension in a site sensitive location - the old building of the technical school of architect Henry Van de Velde in Leuven.

Travel

Some dancers have to simply travel to the next street or next city however many commonly travel around their country and overseas. This means many dancers spend long periods away from home, even more if touring. This can have an effect on a dancers connection with friends and family, especially if a permanent move is made - something that is quite common. Though it may be initially difficult to move away from home for the many, its key that dancers, choreographers and costume designers are willing to travel to broaden their opportunities and reach their full potential. Travelling also has a positive

impact on employability trends for dance as they aren't staying in their hometown where employment opportunities may be relatively low or inconsistent. A great example of a professional practitioner is Glen Tetley as he was a freelance dancer, therefore clearly excepting of travel. He learned to dance in New York City where he was taught many dance techniques such as the Martha Graham technique. Until that point he was just the average dancer, it was only when he moved to Europe to teach and share his acquired knowledge, that he found his fame and became the Glen Tetley we know today. This doesn't however mean a dancer need to travel oversea or become known globally or nationally, instead dancers can share their knowledge and

skills at a more local scale as long as they are still willing to travel to different places, often. A great example of a more locally known freelance dancer is Donatella Greco, a talented woman that professionally performs, choreographs and teaches contemporary, contact improvisation and Bollywood. I met her at a Bollywood workshop and her level of professionalism and the extent of her talent was amazing. That combined with the fact that she is the founder and director of her own dance school called Donatella's Contemporary School of Dance really showcases her success. Though her success is very different to Glen Tetley's it goes to show that travelling to find those great opportunities, no matter how far, is a worthwhile demand to consider as a dancer.