Andrea Gunnlaugson, Dancer Transition Resource Centre Regional Program Officer-BC, invited me to audit and photograph the On the Move conference for emerging dance professionals in Vancouver. The conference was held at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on January 9-10, 2009. This experience is the first time for me covering the conference as an observer. The Dance Transition Resource Centre is an indispensable source of assistance and guidance for emerging dance professionals as it draws its resources from many service organizations. These service organizations include the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists, Canadian Actors' Equity Association, Made in BC - Dance on Tour, Vancouver Ballet Society, The Clutch, Arts Umbrella and the Dance Centre to name a few. DTRC connects a dancer to valuable resources and organizations that will aid in one's career as an emerging dance professional and continuing throughout a dancer's growth.
Day 1 of OTM (on the Move conference) was packed with essential business information for an emerging professionals. In this article, I cover
part 1 of Day 1 which I will refer to as
"the Business of Dance". It consists of the following workshops in the on the Move conference.
- Marketing and Publicity for Dancers: Sabrina Mehra Furminger, publicist for the Vancouver International Dance Festival, covers the basics of promoting dancers' work to the media to build a bridge between their work and ticket buyers.
- Lunch with the service organizations: Participants meet and greet with the service organizations by rotating through the tables in speed dating style over lunch
- Budgeting & Financial Smarts: Satpal Rai, a certified financial planner for over 15 years, provides financial advice on financial planning and budgeting by reviewing cash flow and debt management.
- Contracting & Professional Standards: Dennis Lepsi, business representative from the Canadian Actors' Equity Association and Caroline Farquhar, CADA/BC Chapter administrator, co-present in a relaxed "Question and Answer" format to address issues and provide the artists with a basic understanding of contracts and professional industry standards.
- SHAPE Injury Survival: Dawn Brennan, General Manager of SHAPE, Safety and Health in Arts Production and Entertainment addresses coverage by WorkSafeBC if a dancer is injured during a job.
In the Marketing & Publicity workshop, Sabrina Mehra Furminger conveys that readers and viewers put far more faith in publicity than they do in advertising. Advertising is guaranteed as one buys for space but publicity is not guaranteed and is an earned media because you have to work for them and you can't buy them. Publicity depends on the will of the editor, writer, hosts or producer. A primary sales tool is your press release. Sabrina goes through the basics of the Press Release and states that an effective press release needs to make a case as to why your work is newsworthy. You need to identify unique story points in order to make the assignment of the editor, reporter or producer easier. Press releases are rarely more than one page long with facts, primary story points and a short biography last. You have to develop your own media distribution list for press releases and you can do so by mining websites for contact information or seeking out "niche" media for publicity opportunities. Sabrina covers information on photos, etiquette in contacting media, things to include in a press kit, interview advice, advertising, postcards & posters, web 2.0 and finally to take stock of each performance run through audience surveys.
Lunch on Day 1 was an open opportunity for participants to mingle and network with the service organizations. Networking is an important way of getting your face and name out there with potential contacts for future opportunities. The format of the lunch was in speed-dating style with the participants rotating through representatives from service organizations at each table. Lunch was a great way to find out more about the service organizations within the Dancer Resource Transition Centre and to get to know the people involved. Each service organization had brochures available and were there to talk to the emerging dance professionals to provide an overview of services in their organization. The mid-day break served as a way to give the participants a chance to familiarize themselves with the service organizations and the resources readily available through the DTRC.
After lunch, the participants were divided into two groups: one would enter the beginner level of Budgeting, Contracts and Professional Standards where as the other would move on to another room for the advance level. I opted to stay with the beginner level group to refresh my memory on basic budgeting and the importance of contracts. In my mid-thirties, I was heavily in debt and needed to get back to the basics. I hoped that these young and fresh faces of emerging dance professionals will realize how important this part of the conference would be for managing finances to meet their current and future financial goals. For me, this part was a real killer, reminding me of how far I've fallen down the pit of immense debt accumulation due to mismanagement of my own ability to budget and plan for the future. In Budgeting, Satpal Rai reminds the participants that it is important to protect one's income through disability in case you are injured on the job. She also asks the participants to think about what they would do for a source of income if they were not dancing. A list of answers included teaching, writing about dance, managing dancers, creating/directing, opening studio franchise, designing clothes or producing shows. In the Budgeting workshop, we went over a sheet with shapes such as circles and rectangles, and wrote down in each shape items associated with income, expenses, cash, emergency fund, financial goals, business income vs expenses, debt, protection of income through disability insurance or extended health and investment for retirement. Satpal Rai stated that it takes five years to get to a stable income level. The workshop gave me an overview of what I needed to focus on when financial planning especially when she talked about debt that you never get back. Credit card balances and car loan is money that is gone and will not be able to get the same rate of return. Majority of the participants were between the ages of 19-25 and just babies starting out. The earlier they learn about budgeting and financial smarts, the better it will be for their financial future.
We moved on to Contracts and Professional Standards with Dennis Lepsi and Caroline Farquhar. Contract is an agreement of service between two parties based on terms and conditions of the engagement set out by the two parties. Having a contract is an important tool to improve communication. As a professional artist, a contract helps enforce the artist's rights to be treated with respect and equality by the people who hire and pay the artist for their work. A professional artist is responsible to stipulate equitable and respectful treatment in writing in order to improve working conditions for dance artists. Professional standards help support and encourage a healthy work environment. When the work environment shows signs of being not healthy, a letter of agreement or contract helps to ensure prevention, communication and remedy. When drawing up a contract, one needs to be specific about the service being provided, how much the service is worth, how long and when you work. If an employer adds something outside of the contract, you do not have to worry about losing your job and avoid a situation where you do much more than you sign on for what you get paid. An employer cannot qualify someone's dedication to the craft by the amount of free work the employee puts in. Dancers need to be treated professionally and their skills need to be valued. CADA-BC has provided contract template in the DTRC on the Move conference kit. Dancers need to insist on their worth by establishing terms of condition and standards. Professional Standards compels the person you're working with to act accordingly. Dennis Lepsi and Caroline Farquhar advise dancers not to be afraid to ask for a contract. If you assert your worth, you will be taken more seriously. Artists need to be treated professionally and paid appropriately. A contract should not make anyone uneasy as it clearly defines commitment and compensation.
The next discussion topic was on injury survival with Dawn Brennan of SHAPE. She discussed disability insurance with WORKSAFEBC's Personal Optional Protection (POP) for people who are self-employed. WorkSafeBC's POP insurance is quite an economical insurance as it seems dance is considered a low risk and low hazard industry. I was surprised to hear that this was the case because nobody claims and therefore, it is a cheap insurance where one has to pay 54 cents to a 100 dollars earned to purchase the insurance. If the claim is accepted, you could get 90% of the income you earned last year. Dawn Brennan emphasizes that tracking your injuries is very important. A way to track injuries is to always seek medical attention from a medical doctor so they have a record of your injury. However small, an injury could be aggravated over time and if you have a record on your medical file, your claim will cover the injury caused or aggravated on the job.
At this point of the conference, I was amazed at how much information was covered about the business of dance in a matter of five hours. I was at a table with a few SFU students and they were talking about how they don't learn about these things in their courses in school. One of the students said that each topic covered is so important and essential for an emerging dance professional that he would love to have workshops like the ones offered by the DTRC at school. In retrospect, I see that the DTRC organization is a valuable resource and support that bridges a gap for an emerging dance professional to reach long-term professional career goals and growth.
