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DANZ QUARTERLY Issue 20 - July, August, September 2010
A Question of Pay
By Elizabeth Isaacs
The New Zealand Dance Industry
Strategy was launched at the end of
2008. One of its foci was viability; to
“develop a sound and vibrant dance
economy” with specific aims to
improve working conditions within the
industry and see dance professionals
appropriately remunerated. DANZ
Executive Director Tania Kopytko
explains "It is not until we begin to
explore the nature of our work in a
practical way that we will be able to
address fundamental issues of sustainability."
In 2009 a survey was devised with the aim of providing a picture of
the conditions of work, rates of pay and the range of work undertaken
across New Zealand dance. To gain the fullest possible picture,
questions were asked on a range of topics including: the different
roles undertaken, basis of employment, time spent on non-dance
work, voluntary work, pay scales and job security.
Information about the project was sent out through a variety of media
in July 2009. Responses came from across the industry, not in the
volume hoped for, but enough to be representative. Pay is a sensitive
issue and many people felt reluctant to give information on their rates
of pay.
Responses covered the diversity of the dance industry including
studio teacher, dancer (contemporary, ballet, commercial, cultural),
school dance teacher, tertiary lecturer, administrator, artistic director/producer, choreographer, writer and reviewer; types of employment
included full time, part time, contract and casual. Due to this range
of employment situations incomes varied widely, as did the issues
relating to terms and conditions of work. This complexity made it
difficult to draw comparisons, however by grouping the data and
focussing on specific issues we were able to see trends and gauge
opinions.
The majority of respondents (83%) said dance was their primary
career, however only 40% of them earned their income solely from
dance. This indicates that many dance professionals supplement their
income with non-dance related work. Dance work was generally lower
paid, and when averaged across all respondents, showed that 25% of
time spent on non-dance work earned them 42% of their income for
the year.
In order to collect information on the range of pay across the industry
each sector was looked at in turn. For example, in 2007, contemporary
dancers were paid between $225 and $800 per week, with an
average of $525 per week. This rate is not significantly higher than
the $500 a week recommended by CNZ in their funding guide as
the minimum for emerging artists. Significantly, in 2007, 25% of
contemporary dancers were earning less than the minimum wage (in
2007 the minimum wage was $11.25 per hour or $450 per 40 hour
week).
Asked what their opinion was of the income for dance professionals,
not surprisingly 64% said they were dissatisfied (24% were ambivalent
and 3% were satisfied). Comments were many and varied, for
example: teachers of dance felt that the hourly rate of pay seldom
reflected the hours of time spent in preparation; commercial dancers
commented that often they were paid for performance only and not
rehearsal time; dancers on contract stated that much contract pay
was at a flat rate and not based on experience or number of years
dancing. Others remarked that they did not get paid enough to keep
healthy and maintain their fitness; that dance was not on a par with
other arts professions; and that they simply could not live off the
money they earned from dance. One respondent commented, “Dance
is consistently undervalued. It’s unbelievable to see our top dance
talent struggling to make ends meet.”
In addition to low wages, the sector undertakes a large amount of
voluntary work; 76% said they had undertaken voluntary work in
2007/2008, with an average of 105 hours worked per year. Much of
the work involved choreography and production of performances
for local schools, community cultural festivals, tertiary dance events
and studio dance shows, but it also included professional work.
Both choreographers and dancers commented that they regularly
undertook self-funded or unpaid work to enable creative projects to
go ahead. While people were happy to give something back to their
communities, many expressed the view that in an ideal world much of
this work would be paid.
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