ENDING exploitation can be difficult because often it has become so entrenched and accepted that those involved may not realise they are being exploited.
There is a Catch-22 in the scarcity of adequately paid dance work, which is filled by the elite of the elite. Those who can’t pick and choose resort to rationalising the remaining underpaid jobs as “opportunities”. Some may believe they are making a willing choice that will benefit them, now or later – experience or exposure, anybody? But nobody should have to discount their skills to gain either. For example, when university graduates in academic-based fields enter the workforce, they’re not paid under the minimum wage. Yet pro dancers are constantly faced with this situation – even those who have well and truly “paid their dues”.
It seems the one aspect in which dancers sit on top of the performing arts hierarchy is in being underpaid and undervalued.
Even those who do
