BEDA Dix...A Ballet-Centric Post

I was going to write a post, at Kelsi's suggestion, about Terminus, as the ball was 2 years ago today (really?! that long ago?), but, as I'm not in the mood for the depression and longing nostalgia often instills in me, I'm going to merely say that that was an amazing weekend and an amazing night and I hope I can go to LeakyCon next summer to have yet another epicly amazing time.

Now for the actual post...if you're not interested in reading a post almost entirely about ballet, then you should probably just stop reading right now because I'm having a rather uninspired BEDA night, and the only thing I can think to do is respond to this blog post by Pointe Magazine.

Essentially, Pointe Mag's post is about the end of the "baby ballerina," the Gelseys and the Marias who became principals at 15 and a half.  Basically, the article highlights the fact that most ballet companies have instituted trainee, apprentice, and second company programs for dancers aged 17-early 20s to groom dancers for life as professional company members.  It also touches on the recent spike of dancers opting to go the college route in ballet or dance major programs at universities around the country.  Both of these ideas up the age that dancers are getting actually-can-pay-the-bills kind of jobs in ballet companies.

I agree that the average age of fully contracted company members seems to have gotten higher over the last several years (let's say ten for argument's sake).  However, I do not think this is because companies are realizing that more mature dancers are more valuable than younger ones (by the way, I think that more mature dancers look just that...more mature and more developed as dancers on stage...basically, I think it's a great thing).  I think that companies are hijacking the current system and, as the post stated and taking dancers who are perfectly capable of being contract-holding company members and sticking them in unpaid, overworked positions.  The post then defends this move as "a smart way to keep American ballet companies afloat."  While I understand the level of financial pressure the ballet world is under (a lot of companies have had to cut dancer after dancer, get rid of live music, and even settle for less glamorous rep), I think it is unfair to take advantage of the fact that there are far more young dancers today than there were 20 years ago.  Dance is just more readily available nowadays.  Every town has a local dolly-dinkle studio, nearly every company has its own school, and there are more summer intensive programs with higher attendance rates than EVER (I saw that firsthand this summer).  That being said, there is a tremendous amount of talent out there, and there are dancers (and parents) willing to sacrifice money in order to have a chance to train (sometimes with a small stipend, sometimes unpaid, and even sometimes with an added tuition cost) as a trainee, apprentice, or second company member with a professional company.

I have experience with this whole unpaid business.  After all, I spent a year as an unpaid apprentice with one company and a year as a stipend recipient (which was not enough to live on) with another.  While both programs were great in general, I had issues with each.  My year with the first was my first year out of high school.  I opted for the unpaid "apprenticeship" over a fairly large scholarship at University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music because, at that point, college was just not on my agenda.  While I really loved my time at my first company, and I improved immensely there (and probably wouldn't be the dancer I am today without it), the most frustrating thing about the program was the fact that as apprentices (and even some of the tuition-paying trainees), we WERE the corps de ballet.  This company is a rather smallish company, so it is unranked (they don't have the distinction between principal, soloist, corps), and most of the company members usually get to perform some sort of soloist role.  All of the apprentices were ball guests in Cinderella, Snow and Flowers in Nutcracker, and were even corps backup in one  of the company's contemporary performances.  They even took us on tour!  Now, at the time, I'll admit, I thought this was awesome.  I was getting cast well and being given all these amazing opportunities.  But now, looking back on it, they were using us.  We should have been getting paid.  We should have been getting time off like the rest of the company (instead, they were overworking us to the bone...a lot of girls got seriously injured that year).  But we weren't.  We were just slave labor so the company could save a buck.  

Now, I'm not saying apprentice and trainee programs are all bad.  After all, I wouldn't have stuck my two years of hardly any pay out if I didn't think they were beneficial at all.  However, I am slightly frustrated at the fact that many of my recently graduated friends from my major at IU were offered the same kinds of positions I was offered at 18.  Which worries me because when I graduate in May at age 23, I want to be offered a true, honest to goodness paid position with a company.  Will I be offered one or will companies, out of concern for their futures and finances, look at me like another 18-year-old?  This is pretty much my last shot...if I don't receive a paid position offer upon graduation, my parents are basically cutting me off, and I'm going to have to look into other options of dancing (which I suppose will be ok if I'm supposed to be doing that, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet).  The thing is, as long as dancers (and particularly parents of dancers) keep indulging these companies and giving them dancers to overwork for free, it will continue.  I have no suggestions as to how companies are supposed to recover the revenue they've lost because of the recession, lower attendance, and decreased donorship, but I would plead with companies to treat all of their dancers with respect, dignity, and fairness.  Making young pre-professionals pay tuition with the promise of being looked at for the company, all the while overworking them and letting them go after the end of the season is simply unjust.  

I don't know if any of this makes sense as an argument or not, but I guess it's just my way of voicing frustration with the widely known fact that there. are. no. jobs.  Until the time comes for auditions, though, I'm going to attempt to put all worrying aside, trust in the Lord's plan for me, and just try to take it one day at a time.  After all, school hasn't even started yet, and there's still more than two weeks left to my summer.  Hopefully tomorrow's post will be a little less ballet-heavy.  I apologize for the length.  Hope all's well with ya'll.  Love, me.

Currently stuck in my head: "Teenage Dream" by the seemingly ubiquitous Katy Perry.