Value dance

Value dance by Melissa Alexis  November 21, 2014

In past weeks The Boston Globe Opinion page has been overflowing with arts-focused writing upon the appointment of Julie Burros, the incoming Chief of Arts & Culture for the City of Boston. (http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/11/14/developing-boston-arts-community/UGqbfurzCJYC7qaHc1bl8L/story.html).  I want to add my welcome to a dance world in Boston that has a lot of room for positive growth and development and implore the City of Boston to renew focus on granting robust funding, for operational and programming support, to companies with a high number and quality of trained dancers and strong leadership. Two such companies are Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) and Urbanity Dance.  I interviewed the directors of these companies for whom delivering high quality dance programming in the communities in Boston is just as important as delivering top-notch performances.  Both directors acknowledge the well-known trend in Boston of dancers working for free or little pay because like theirs, many companies don’t gain adequate funding to allow for more than nominal operational costs, such as space rental and production fees.  There is a ceiling for dance growth that additional support would help companies like these blast past to aspire to join the ranks of the merely one professional dance company in Boston that is well-funded enough to retain a large number of highly skilled dancers and pay them a living wage.  For this reason, JAE is embarking on a campaign for operational support - let’s call it a human capital campaign: https://www.crowdrise.com/jeanappolonexpressions

These are under-resourced, under-valued companies serving under-resourced, under-valued communities - a model that is clearly not sustainable.  I also want to ask Ms. Burros to examine and with professionals in the field, publish, standards of fee for artistic service; and let this take root in our vocabulary and our negotiations.  In my love note to dancers, choreographers, and presenters, I want to remind us all that we help set the standard.  We should accept and offer nothing short of a fair fee for artistic service given the education/training, time, work, operational expense and salaries for which we have to account.  As Jean Appolon puts it, “the value of dance is very high, not just monetary, but it is something that the community needs.  People coming to my class are so relieved to listen to the music, to move their bodies...now more than ever, everything is about dance - from So You Think You Can Dance to the toothpaste commercial - we need to respect it and value it so we can all benefit from it in the future.  I know that dance is really essential to the growth of our communities but people have a hard time understanding what this means.”  Simply put, dance heals.  We should all invest in this kind of healing.

Excerpts of interview with Jean Appolon, Co-founder & Artistic Director of JAE and Betsi Graves, Director of Urbanity Dance (JAE has been in operation since 2011 and Urbanity since 2008):

What do you consider your primary mission?

Jean/JAE: To make dance accessible to everyone, but mainly underprivileged kids in Boston and Haiti.

Betsi/Urbanity: Empower, engage, and inspire individuals and communities through the art of dance and movement.  At the forefront of everything we do is community-building.

What are your primary activities?

Jean/JAE: Performance; teaching classes and workshops like our classes at Cambridge-based Community Arts Center; contributing to conferences/convenings (scholarship and community-focused); and conducting a free summer institute in Haiti.

Betsi/Urbanity: Performance; on and off-site teaching; and producing our own shows and other companies through the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival (I’m not sure if this can be continued because of the cost; this goes back to our vision and mission to support Boston-based dance companies and to revitalize Boston as a leader in presenting dance).

From which activity do you derive the bulk of your revenue?

Jean/JAE: Grassroots community fundraising and grants from institutions.

Betsi/Urbanity: Mostly our on-site school but not overwhelmingly.  A lot of performances break even and programs right now are completely sustainable. Boston Public Schools (BPS), for example, were told exactly how much it cost to run programs at selected schools and the schools chipped in.

Who are your primary funders?

Jean/JAE:  Kellogg Foundation awarded us a one-time grant last year for $25,000.  Before Kellogg, individuals mostly, friends and class members. We’ve also received support from FOKAL, a foundation in Haiti.

Betsi/Urbanity: Individuals; giving $250 on average.

As director, do you pay yourself a salary?  Do you pay dancers?

Jean/JAE:  My dancers and I are on a volunteer basis, but we are finally able to pay ourselves for performances and a monthly stipend.

Betsi/Urbanity: Yes to both.

What is a living wage in dance?

Jean/JAE:  A minimum should be $700 weekly.

Betsi/Urbanity: What you need to live a comfortable life. In the same way that teachers prepare for class...you need to take into consideration the hours before and after rehearsal, of craft and the toll it takes on bodies.  Like in other industries, a tiered pay scale to reflect education/experience. A lot of our dancers have a college degree and pay should reflect that.

What is a fair fee for artistic services and how do you calculate this?

Jean/JAE:  Calculated by how we can pay a company of 8 dancers, 4 musicians, and 2 directors.  To me, fair is $5000 each time we step out to do a performance. Our baseline price for a performance in the Boston area is $2500 although we often negotiate.

Betsi/Urbanity: Biggest factor – does it have to be an original work; if not, it’s easier (more cost effective).  $2000-2500 (existing repertory piece), $5000 (for original work).

How can the City of Boston assist your organization’s growth?

Jean/JAE:  There needs to be more engagement.  I feel like in Boston people need help figuring out how to get engaged with dance.  If they’re not coming to see a performance or to see a friend perform, they don’t come. 

Betsi/Urbanity:  There has to be a resurgence in the value of art.  It’s hard to make the case for that when there are competing priorities such as homelessness, hunger, imprisonment.  It’s hard when you compare art to these issues.  I think art is as important. In a city that has so many creatives, other institutions that do great work, this doesn’t make sense.  It doesn’t make sense that we have only one dance institution [Boston Ballet] that is the only option.  What I see is a pretty stark inequity between 1) arts organizations and other [industry] organizations in Boston; and 2) the relative success of [established] institutions and the “little ducks in Boston” that have a really unique and important voice.  It would be really sad if people’s experience of dance in Boston didn’t include all of these colors.