Pirouette

5 hours ago, taxi4ballet said:

Can you imagine the raised eyebrows if British companies specified that only those holding British passports could apply?

Yes, and I'm surprised that there aren't more raised eyebrows when British casting directors and companies specify that only those holding EU passports can apply, meaning that the majority of UK citizens are barred from auditions being held or advertised in their own country. 

5 hours ago, taxi4ballet said:

Perhaps the reverse might also apply and British companies will employ fewer EU dancers and more British ones.

This would be one solution, but dancers would probably need to come off the Shortage Occupation List for there to be any chance of companies actually following through on this in practice.  

28 minutes ago, Jewel said:

The auditions were advertised by a UK based casting director who had been contracted by an EU based employer. 

If that is the case, it would surely have been more appropriate to contract an EU based casting director to advertise in Europe where potential discrimination would not be an issue.  

8 hours ago, Jewel said:

Some companies will allow non Eu residents to audition and are willing to pay for visas.  However we have already seen several Spotlight breakdowns that specify that only EU passport holders can apply.

In the case of auditions held and/or advertisements placed in the UK specifying that only EU passport holders can apply/no Brits, I read a comment from a barrister when the ad casting for a non-UK actor to play Prince William came out - he was of the opinion that this is illegal based on case law as it is discriminatory.  Whether this holds true or not, it does seem unreasonable for UK nationals to be barred from auditions held or advertised in their own country.  

It will be interesting to see whether anyone brings a case against UK ads/auditions/companies for intentionally excluding UK performers, as this problem seems to be becoming increasingly common.   

I also imagine it will have negative implications for access, diversity and representation across the arts if this practice is allowed to continue.  

Obviously auditions held abroad, by EU companies are a separate issue.  Regarding access to those, it would be nice if the dance schools and companies followed the music industry's example by campaigning on dancers' behalf.  

3 minutes ago, cotes du rhone ! said:

I think it depends on the size of the company as to whether they pay for the petition or not. Both my children were graduates and there was no problem with the visa, just Covid closing the London US Embassy. A lot of the dancers in both companies were not from the US, they were all listed on the same petition. 
I think this year the US ballet company jobs will go to Americans as no one else can fly in to complete 😞

That's good to hear, that sounds a lot more hopeful for UK graduates, once the covid crisis resolves.  The US has some great companies.  

Congratulations to your children for getting the offers! 

16 minutes ago, cotes du rhone ! said:

I think it depends on the company. Dss company paid for his application and Dds didn’t, but both were passed by the home office. I think the difficulty is in the audition process and the quantity and level of the competition x

The company should pay for this.  The problem always used to be that US visa applications for company contracts often got turned down, not that the company didn't want the dancers.  A certain US ballet company used to do an annual audition in London/Paris and there were always stories of dancers being offered contracts but later denied visas, even from RBS, Paris Opera School etc, because the authorities said no.  The reason given was usually that they didn't have enough experience.  This was a while back and may have changed since then though.  

2 hours ago, alison said:

Can't seek work   (I never did understand just why so many people in this country were anti-freedom of movement, but I guess that's another story).  But if you just happened to be somewhere in Europe which had a ballet company, and asked if you could take class with them, and happened to catch the AD or whoever's eye ...?

Whilst technically not allowed, this has always happened, globally.  It's more a question of whether the company is then prepared to go to the expense of hiring you when they could get a dancer from their own country (or 27+ other countries in this case) for free.  They usually also have to submit evidence to prove that you are better than all the other dancers in that labour market - we were always told not to even bother trying in the USA for this reason, at least until you had considerable experience. 

It sets the bar much, much higher for those just starting out, or at corps de ballet level.   

39 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said:

I really do feel for all graduates in these troubled times and there is no easy solution.  Some people may take what I say next as flippant, but it is true.

 

There was artistic life before UK joined the EEC (as it was then).  Tours happened, British dancers worked abroad, there was more paperwork, which all got done.  At the moment I think there is a lot of uncertainty but it will eventually settle down.

 

Most European countries have a great amount of bureaucracy and reverence for "rules".  Remember last year during the lockdown, in France you had to download, print out and fill in a form to take with you if you needed to leave your house, and show it alongside your identity papers if requested.

The problem is that British dancers aren't competing on as much of an even footing as they were back then when everybody would have needed paperwork.  When companies already have an oversupply of excellent dancers available to choose from from the EU27 countries, plus the additional EEA countries like Norway and Switzerland, with limited budgets the companies - still reeling from the covid hit - simply aren't going to go to the expense and hassle of hiring a UK dancer unless they are already an international star.  

It is disappointing to hear that the schools are advising students not to bother auditioning, rather than lobbying the government in support of their UK students, who have worked so hard and been put in this situation through no fault of their own.  The music industry has been very vocal about this - who will speak up for our dancers? 

If a reciprocal EU visa scheme cannot be achieved for these young dancers, the government should really be looking at having ballet and contemporary dancers removed from the occupation shortage list to give them more of a chance of getting contracts here.  There was an oversupply previously but UK dancers still had options open to them in the EU - with that lifeline gone, surely the situation has changed.

It's just not good enough to train all these talented UK dancers then turn around and say 'tough luck' at the end of it.  I hope the schools and companies will speak up and support them.  

It's not a hoax - it appeared as a sponsored ad by a company called 'QA Ltd' on several dancers' Facebook feeds over the weekend, so presumably it was a targeted ad as well. 

Dancia International and Freed are both excellent.  I'd try the Grishko soft blocks in Dancia - Bloch tend to be quite wide, especially at the heel/sides.  They stock Sansha too I think, or at least they used to.     

Yes, I experienced that attitude from time to time when working in a large company in Europe, from a very small minority of people, and its not nice.  Happily, the vast majority of people inside and outside the company were very welcoming. 

I did notice though that the company did go to considerable effort to recruit and develop native dancers, and employed a far larger proportion of local dancers than is usually the case in the UK.         

Off the top of my head I can think of British dancers dancing in Norwegian National Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Romanian National Ballet, many companies in Germany including the Staatsballett in Berlin and Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Compania Nacional de Danza de Espana, several companies in the USA and the Royal Danish Ballet and Zurich Ballet as Janet mentioned.  And of course there is Xander Parish flying the flag at the Mariinsky Ballet.  I'm sure I've missed several! These are all very good companies.  So we can't be that bad after all. 

Sarah W - In terms of jobs, most of the EU companies are very open to dancers from other EU countries, including Britain, so that works both ways for us too as a kind of reciprocal arrangement.  So in that respect Paris is one of the exceptions.  Each country has its own immigration rules for dancers from outside the EU though, and I am under the impression that some of these may be stricter than those in Britain as I know non EU dancers that have struggled with this - as with the USA you have to go to great lengths to prove that you are truly exceptional.  Certainly a lot of European companies specify in their audition notices that you must have an EU passport to apply, which doesn't seem to be the case here, apart from for short term contracts and the smaller companies.   

What I would say though is that I have noticed that most other countries do seem to both train greater numbers of their own students than we do, and take greater pride in them.  When I was training several years ago at one of the UK schools there was a very negative attitude from some teachers towards British dancers, and I'm aware that this was the case in at least a couple of other schools too.  It is this I feel that needs to change.  There weren't many Brits left by that point, so generalised negative comments directed specifically at one nationality could feel very personal.  Regular articles in the national press slating British dancers/training were also unhelpful and demoralising, and just knocked our confidence further, especially when you had to go into school the next day knowing that everyone would have read it. As did repeatedly hearing there was a 'shortage' - that it was officially considered that British and European dancers just weren't good enough.  My heart sunk when I saw last year that they had moved on to talking about contemporary dancers in this way too, as until that point I thought this attitude was something only classical dancers had to contend with.  I trained for a brief period in the USA at the end of my training and I actually left wishing I had done all of my training there, as their attitude was so positive and completely different to what my friends and I experienced here.  It was the first time I felt like my British nationality and training background was seen as a good thing rather than something to overcome, avoid mentioning or be ashamed of.  For anyone thinking about training there I would highly recommend it, experiencing a far more positive and encouraging culture in the ballet world there was a real eye opener.   

So I would argue not for restricting or alienating foreign dancers, but rather supporting British dancers better than we do at the moment (or have in the past) by adopting a more positive attitude towards British dancers in our schools and companies and showing more confidence in them.       

This works both ways.  Speaking as a professional dancer, a lot of European companies will state in their audition notices that dancers applying must be EU nationals, or already possess a work permit to work in that particular country.  If we left the EU, British dancers would be at a disadvantage when auditioning as they would have to prove that they were better than any EU national applying, as we currently have to do when applying for jobs in the USA.  Not impossible, but this will be particularly difficult for graduate students who have no work experience yet.  Smaller companies in particular won't want the expense of applying for visas for non - EU dancers and many of them specify this in their audition notices, including some of the smaller companies in the UK.  This also tends to apply for short term contracts, which are very popular now and many dancers are forced to rely on. 

It is unlikely that the employment situation in the larger UK companies would change, as ballet and contemporary dancers are already on the Shortage Occupation List, meaning that the government considers there to be a shortage of suitably qualified dancers within the UK/EU/EEA and already issues work permits to non UK/EU dancers to address this shortage.           

Brand new (still in their bags) Freed classic pointe shoes for sale:

1 pair 4XX Classic Deep Vamp 'N' maker  £25

1 pair 4XX Classic Deep Vamp 3/4 shank 'Key' maker £25

1 pair 4XX Classic student (Phillips insole) Deep vamp 'K' maker  £15

(this last pair have a very light box so might be best suited to breaking down into soft blocks) 

All are brand new, unsewn, in their original bags and have never been worn, as I was given them whilst working in a company to replace my own custom made shoes I had purchased myself, but sadly I wear a different Freed maker!