Goldenlily17

There were graduates and recent graduates of ENBS and other schools who went on the international tours, ie Swan Lake in Malaysia. At least three of them have told me they thought it was good experience, and freelance dancers told them the company provided useful summer short contracts.

I agree with this about the leading upper schools. There isn’t any excuse for RB and ENB not taking more of their own British graduates who have been so carefully selected over the years, especially now when British graduates and freelancers who trained at these schools don’t have the right to work for the wide range of European companies which have been on offer until now. However, I don’t see why it makes more sense for them to take a majority of international dancers when there are so few contracts and apprenticeships available and it is cheaper and more straightforward to employ their British talent. (This is aside from the fact that it would fulfil the lifelong ambitions of those dancers to move from their alma mater into the company). Regarding the other schools, lots of those dancers won’t be aspiring to work for ENB or Royal, but for dance theatre companies like Mathew Bourne, so the ambitions aren’t quite the same.

There are a lot of points to address here, some have been answered elsewhere in the thread by other members (also with pseudonyms). However I will address them all in due course when I have time. Briefly, however, most companies have dancers with a range of heights. Some ask for a median of around 5’6” and I know of 3 in Europe and Russia which want very tall dancers over 5’8”, that is very useful for tall dancers, but of course now not possible for UK citizens. The point of highlighting Northern’s height limits was not to criticise the company for its choices, but to highlight how limited opportunities are within the UK. The same goes for the other companies listed. You could argue that because we have been in a pandemic is was even more important that companies with full corps de ballet contracts available should have demonstrated their support for emerging British talent by employing a higher number of British graduates and freelancers. However they did not. It is easy to check these facts by looking at the destinations of graduates from the schools which have been published online and doing a few minutes research into dancers’ bios. Regarding your point about “allegations”, I am not sure what you mean? All of the information about these companies is easily checked and if you are referring to what I said about Ballet West. The reasons for its closure are also in the public domain. That is not an allegation. It is a shame that the touring company closed as it provided recent graduates with wonderful opportunities for international touring.

Absolutely right

What do you consider to be a minor company? Scottish Ballet hasn’t hired anyone for 2 years, Northern only wants short females, Ballet Theatre UK only has 16 odd dancers and hasn’t hired for 2 years, Ballet Cymru appears to have only 4 resident company members now, Vienna Festival Ballet has gone bust, Ballet West International touring company closed engulfed by scandal, Balletboyz isn’t an option if you are female, and Ballet Black isn’t an option if you are white. So where are all these jobs which need to be filled? The number of vacancies is tiny. Perhaps 10 for women and 10 for men including apprenticeships per annum. I don’t know a single British Royal Ballet or English National Ballet graduate who hasn’t hoped to get a contract at either Royal, ENB or Birmingham, and who would have been pleased to be offered a contract with Scottish or Northern. In the absence of those job offers most have auditioned throughout Europe and those European contracts in national and regional companies have been their salvation.

Dancers don’t have a strong union. This is one of the problems and a point that has been made earlier in this thread. We have the evidence that graduates are emerging into the workplace every year who could fill the small number of vacancies.

Of course they are! The Royal Ballet School and English National Ballet School are internationally renowned (as are some of the others which have a slightly different emphasis). They exist to train dancers for positions in leading companies, and dancers from across the world choose to train at them. Entry is highly competitive! Dancers who graduate from either of the above schools are at the standard required to enter the corps de ballet of the parent company and leading companies throughout the world. I don’t understand your scepticism? Where do you get this idea from that the dancers trained in these schools aren’t well enough trained? Quite right

This is precisely why we have to take dancers of the Shortage Occupation List. As long as we continue to maintain a low barrier to entry which permits the importation of entry level dancers into the UK, dancers will continue to be regarded as commodities. The more they are seen as commodities the less they are valued and they become more easily exploited. We do not have a shortage of dancers in the UK. We do not have a shortfall in the numbers needed to fill the extremely limited number of vacancies. If we did have a shortage, the dancers we train would be more valuable, and thus have more leverage.

Pay in ballet is terrible. Freelance short contracts will pay the Equity minimum, and right now some jobs paying as little as £350 per week. Those lucky enough to get full contracts can expect around £20,000 at entry. So if you work this out as an hourly sum including performances, you might be doing a 13 hour day. That means corps de ballet dancers earn less that the people who clean the theatres in which they perform. Pretty shocking when you consider that they are the people audiences pay to see, and, more shocking when you look at company accounts and see the six figures sums being earned by artistic directors. Not wishing to go too off topic, all of this proves just how vulnerable dancers are, how limited employment opportunities are, and how important it is for dancers’ voices to be heard by their MPs on a range of topics.

I agree. It is important that Equity has more members who are ballet and contemporary dancers. However, dancers really meed their own union.

This issue is not going to go away. Just because this latest announcement may not have much substance doesn’t change the need for performers to keep pushing for their futures.

Bravo on all accounts. MPs want to know how policy has affected you or your children and friends. Your letter will be confidential.

Absolutely

The group of MPs who attended the debate on the petition for visa waivers for musicians on 29th June were both Labour and Conservative. They came to the discussion with Caroline Dineage, the Minister for Culture, and Lord Frost to discuss the needs of their constituents. They did so with passion. My MP is doing the same for me on behalf of dancers which is why dancers’ needs are being discussed. So please write to your MP and explain how crucial it is for dancers’ as well as musicians’ needs to be considered. Dancers can join Equity of course, but the union does not seem to be very focused or especially well informed about issues affecting dancers. It is primarily an actors’ union, with sub-set groups included, like dancers, acrobats and circus performers - as they put it. They have negotiated a dance passport which they are pleased with, but this only gives help to dancers already based and working in a given EU country through the local performing arts unions, it isn’t a passport to work. Please don’t use Equity’s template, write a personal letter. Many MPs don’t respond to round-robins and petition requests.

Well said. Dancers need visa waivers to work in Europe just as much as musicians do, but unlike musicians they have no figurehead or dedicated dance union to fight for them. It is vital now that dance parents who care about their exceptional children’s future prospects, and dancers themselves, write to their MPs. The Department of Culture, Music and Sport is currently in discussion with the Home Office about this very issue. I received this news from my own MP yesterday. To date the departments have not heard from dancers. This is the time to make the case for visa waivers for up to 1 year to permit dancers to take up contracts in the above countries. There are so many companies in these countries which have hitherto provided first jobs for British graduates and also short and annual contracts for freelance dancers. Please write to your MPs.

Precisely. This is why is really is important to write to Equity with an account of personal experiences and to your MPs. They can’t know what is happening if they aren’t told. It is also important for dancers to back the Incorporated Society of Musicians’ initiatives. The musicians’ unions are powerful, and the interests of opera singers in particular are aligned with ballet dancers. We cannot just wring our hands. We need to fight for the reinstatement of some kind of level playing field. If international dancers can continue to gain visas to work in the UK because the UK government is favourable to global talent and prepared to offer loopholes, British dancers must regain some level of opportunity in a larger overseas market.

I certainly didn’t wish or vote for this. I was passionate for us to Remain because I could see how loss of freedom of movement would impact on dancers even before 2016. I’d like to see a world with open borders for cultural workers (including the USA) but given that we now have a Britain in which workers are supposed to be benefiting from ‘British jobs for British people’ it seems that dancers are excluded from that, and won’t benefit from protections. They only have the right to work in the UK whilst there are many exemptions which permit international dancers to work here. We are in a lose, lose situation., and I think we have to fight for the reinstatement of some kind of level playing field.

Yes that is true. Nobody on an M-1 visa has the right work, unless you have dual nationality.

None of this helps UK dancers as to get into a US 2nd company as an international a dancer will need an M1 visa. This isn’t difficult. The problem is that M1 visa holders are not allowed to work in the US at all so they are already disadvantaged in relation to their American peers in the 2nd company. All they can hope for is a per diem of around $400 per month (though I am told that strictly speaking that isn’t legal). Often they are expected to do all of the company outreach, also unpaid, so that is a six day week. Slave labour really.

Not all US companies pay 2nd company dancers. Of those that do some only pay a per diem, around $400 per month. That doesn’t cover the rent.

There is an element of pay to play in British ballet, certainly. For example, the enormous hourly sums coaches (former dancers) demand which lure parents into thinking that their DD or DS may have a certain advantage over others who can’t afford those coaches. With regard to pay for performances, the Equity minimum is not enough to cover rent and living costs, so it is advantageous if dancers have a base in London or whichever major city the company is based in. Taking into account the long daily hours from class to the end of perhaps a second daily performance, on an hourly basis corps dancers are paid less than the people who clean the theatre. It is pretty difficult to swallow when you consider how highly skilled those dancers are and that they are the people the audience pays to see. Ballet is probably the lowest paid highly-skilled profession in the world unless you are an artistic director in which case you can command a six figure salary. The pay differential between those at the top and those at the bottom proves that the money could be found to pay dancers a decent living wage. I don’t think Equity is at all focused on pay for ballet dancers, whether under company contract or freelance. News bulletins reveal that its attention is almost entirely consumed by diversity issues. Private income makes a big difference to whether this kind of life is sustainable. Freelancers can’t possibly afford the shoes, classes etc which are needed to support their careers.

The problem is circular and two issues can’t be separated. People need to work abroad because government policy favours the recruitment of overseas dancers which reduces opportunity at home. If there was more protection for UK dancers - in fact only the protections which the majority of UK workers now enjoy and indeed most workers across the globe - the need for visa waivers to work in the EU would be less acute. Attitudes need to change. It is ridiculous that the government is so fixed on the idea that there is insufficient talent in the UK to fill this fictitious ‘shortfall’. Everybody knows that jobs in all branches of the arts are oversubscribed. The dancers we already have in the UK, including settled EU citizens with the right to work here, could fill the small number of corps vacancies several times over. Just look at how ENB is deluged by freelance applicants for Christmas shows and the Albert Hall productions. Competition for these places from people with the right to work in the UK has never been fiercer. Importing soloists and principal dancers is quite a different matter. The entire argument surrounding recruitment and immigration in the arts must be re-thought.

Answer to Peony’s question. It is worse for dancers because of the very limited number of opportunities in dance in the UK, especially in ballet. Opera singers and musicians who are starting out have the country house operas and festivals which don’t exist in ballet. It is easier for them to form chamber groups as they don’t need the space and bespoke flooring needed by dancers. Furthermore most of the choruses and orchestral players in these opera productions are British graduates from the UK’s leading music schools. And yet, in ballet, the corps are overwhelmingly staffed by imported dancers, and so are contemporary dance companies. We are producing British dancers every year from our own leading internationally-renowned dance schools, most of whom have had to find jobs in European companies because they can’t get into British companies as a result of this obsession with the notion that there isn’t enough talent in the UK. Now they have lost that right to work and we have British dancers returning from cancelled contracts in the EU adding to their ranks. Frankly, it is insulting to the highly talented dancers who we do have, who worked for so many years for these corps jobs, and who have proved themselves by working in large company productions (for free) during their graduate years to have their talents ignored. So really the important thing is to lobby the DCMS through your MPs, tell them what is happening, ask them to support the removal of dancers from the Shortage Occupation List and write to Equity. The government is incredibly poorly informed about the reality of life and prospects for workers in this sector, and I know that their views have been formed by reports which were written pre-Brexit and pre-pandemic.

Dancers who aren’t fortunate enough to have dual citizenship are being refused contracts in ballet companies in the EU. I know of several examples. They have been offered contracts and then been told a short while later that visas can’t be obtained for them. This will have a devastating impact on their career prospects. The EU market is critical, given the limited number of opportunities in the UK. So, even though this site is not supposed to be political, any UK citizen in this position who wants their DS or DD to have the possibility of a ballet career needs to get active and write to their MP, Equity and preferably the DCMS and to support the movement for visa waivers for cultural workers which is being led by the Incorporated Society of Musicians. If anyone want to contact me privately please do.

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