Dear Faye,

We’re writing to address some concerns regarding your recent audition call. As the dance field gets back to work following pandemic shutdowns, Dance Artists’ National Collective feels it is important to challenge the status quo of low wages and poor working conditions in our field. While our work focuses on the needs of dancers, many of us in DANC are choreographers as well. We know how hard it is to make work when that work rarely receives the level of financial support it deserves. This is why we are dedicated to working with choreographers to put pressure on presenters and funders to value the labor of dancers and choreographers with the goal of creating a more equitable and sustainable field for us all. We hope to engage with you in this spirit.

We appreciate the level of detail in your audition call, specifying what dancers need to do in order to be considered for a role, as well as when and how they’ll be expected to work. However, we were surprised to see a minimum wage of only $18 per hour. According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a living wage in New York City is $21.77 per hour for full-time work (2,080 hours per year). It should no longer be acceptable to pay dancers less than a living wage, especially considering the losses we suffered during the pandemic as a result of our work being chronically undervalued. In fact, choreographers and presenters should aim to pay dancers a thriving wage that allows dancers to live sustainably from their art and grow our careers and livelihoods in accordance with the value of our labor and contributions to society.

We also believe that work of the sensitive nature you describe, including nudity, simulated sex, and violence, should be compensated at a higher rate due to the level of physical risk and emotional and psychological vulnerability required. We appreciate your assurances that the project will involve an intimacy coordinator and fight coordinator, but still believe that this work should be recognized with a wage that reflects the entirety of the labor involved. The work schedule you have laid out also requires short but intensive periods of part-time to full-time work. This would make it nearly impossible for anyone participating in the project to maintain other jobs, which would be a necessity given the low wage and inconsistent work schedule. Taking all of these factors into account, we believe that a truly equitable hourly wage for this work would be $30 or higher, and that the minimum should at the very least be $25. Can you commit to raising the minimum wage for this project?

We also have concerns about the structure of the audition itself. We understand and appreciate that given the realities of the ongoing pandemic, you want to limit the number of dancers auditioning in person. However, requiring dancers to be available for an entire week for callbacks with no further information about scheduling or mention of compensation for that time surpasses reasonable expectations. Most dancers can’t afford to skip an entire week of paid work for an audition, especially on short notice. Can you clarify whether the workshop-style callbacks will be paid? DANC is working to standardize accessibility guidelines in dance work and advocates for accessibility measures to be planned for ahead of time, as well as stated in audition listings and job descriptions. Will there be accessibility measures in place, such as a physically accessible space and ASL interpretation, to make this opportunity attainable for disabled members of our community?

Finally, we appreciate your invitation to performers of “all races, ages, genders and bodies.” However, the audition requirements, wages, and work schedule detailed in your call will put this opportunity out of reach for most dance workers from marginalized backgrounds. Raising wages and improving working conditions are essential steps toward correcting long-standing inequities in our field.

We hope you will join us in working toward a dance field that is equitable and sustainable for all. We invite you to review our Audition Guidelines and our draft DANC Standards, which represent more than a year of work undertaken by our members. Given your visibility as the Randjelovic/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts, we believe you have an opportunity to set a powerful example for our field. We understand that your audition deadline is fast approaching. Even if you feel there isn’t enough time to address our concerns about the audition call, we are still interested in discussing how wages and working conditions can be improved for performers in this and future projects. We welcome your thoughts and look forward to continuing this conversation with you. Please let us know if you prefer a form of communication other than email.

Sincerely,

Dance Artists’ National Collective