Empowering Dancers through Contracts
By Emily Hansel
In my experience as a professional freelance dancer in the realm of contemporary concert dance, there are many instances in which I’ve been hired for work without a contract. There are also many cases in which I’ve been offered a contract, but where the contract is kind of a formality and not really up for discussion. It might include clauses that protect the company hiring me, but nothing that really protects me, the dancer. Often these contracts leave many elements of the job unaddressed, which can lead to general lack of clarity around expectations as well as confusion, awkwardness, and tension in the workplace. At their worst, ambiguous contracts can result in a workplace where dancers feel pressured to do anything their employer asks at any time, for fear of being penalized. Regardless of whether or not this is the employer’s intention, it makes it easy for dancers to be coerced into working under conditions they don’t feel comfortable with and manipulated into doing more work for less pay.
A couple months ago, I embarked on a choreographic project for which I hired three dancers. Before we entered the studio, the dancers and I spent many hours crafting a uniquely thorough contract that reflected the agreement between me (the employer) and the dancers (the employees).
I began drafting the contract by referencing a collaborative Google doc generated by Dance Artists’ National Collective. (This resource is a work in progress and a snapshot of DANC’s ongoing work to create a contract building tool for dancers.) I tailored this language to make it relevant to our project and then worked with the dancers to make decisions about any open-ended elements (the dancers were paid for their time). Then I got legal advice from Hope Mohr and made a few more edits before we proceeded with signing the contract. After dozens of hours of work, our final draft ended up being 20 pages long. Below are a few excerpts from our contract that the dancers and I found to be particularly exciting or empowering.
- Employee Status
- “Under this agreement, the Employer will pay the Dancer and classify the Dancer as an employee, not as an independent contractor.”
- Pay Equality
- “All dancers hired for this project are making the same hourly rate.”
- Schedule Changes
- “If there is a schedule change or cancellation, Employer will provide notice at least 2 weeks in advance of the proposed changes. If Employer does not provide notice of a schedule change or cancellation within two weeks of the originally scheduled rehearsal, the Dancer is not obligated to agree to the change.
- “In the case of schedule change or cancellation without 2 weeks notice, the Employer is still obligated to pay the Dancer wages originally promised in the original schedule.”
- Additional Labor
- “The Dancer will not be expected to work outside of the scheduled hours, except for replying to emails and other communications from the Employer. If the Employer requests additional labor outside of scheduled hours, the Employer will obtain Dancer consent for these additional hours and will provide appropriate compensation to the Dancer.”
- Budget and Funding
- “The Employer will provide project budget and funding information relevant to the project upon request.”
- It’s worth noting that the employer should not share the project budget with the intention of convincing the dancer into believing their pay should be a lower rate. We address this with additional statements like, “The Employer will not engage in any degree of manipulation” and “The Employer will not allude to [the budget] in a way intended to place burden on the Dancer.”
- Dancer Safety & Well-Being
- “The Employer will not discharge, penalize, coerce, intimidate, or discipline the Dancer for refusing to perform material or perform under circumstances that the Dancer reasonably believes involves a substantial probability of serious mental, emotional, psychological, or physical harm.”
- Response to Dancer Injury and Illness
- “If the Dancer sustains an acute injury or becomes seriously ill during the period of this project, the Employer will support efforts toward the Dancer’s recovery. This may include rescheduling or postponing rehearsals. If the Dancer sustains an acute or chronic injury, the Employer will make every effort to allow adaptation of material so that the Dancer can continue work once they feel they have reached a reasonable state of recovery. The Dancer will be paid in full even if movement is modified.”
- Paid Warm Up Time
- “The Employer will provide the Dancer with a 30-minute window to warm themselves up in the studio immediately before the dancing portion of each rehearsal. The Employer will compensate the Dancer for this time at their regular hourly rate.”
- Accessibility
- “Employer will provide all accessibility accommodations needed for the Dancer to engage fully in the creative process and working environment, including but not limited to:
- physical access to all rehearsal and performance spaces
- amplified sound and use of personal microphones
- ASL interpretation
- audio description
- all gender bathrooms and changing areas
- sensory accommodations
- proximity to public transit with working accessible stations
- flexible means and modes of participation and engagement in required activities (such as participation via video call, participation via independent remote work, participation from a chair or stationary position)”
- Nudity and Hazardous Conditions
- “Neither nudity nor hazardous conditions are planned in this project, but if those plans change and full or partial nudity or hazardous conditions do arise, the Dancer can always refuse to participate without penalty. If nudity or hazardous conditions do come up, the Dancer, the Employer, and other project collaborators will discuss the issue and an addendum will be added to this agreement that reflects the group's decisions about working conditions and corresponding pay rates.”
- Community Agreement
- “At the beginning of the project period, the Employer will work with the Dancer and all collaborators to establish a Community Agreement for the workplace. In developing the Community Agreement, the following will be discussed:
- the power dynamic among the Employer and the dancers
- the hierarchy in the group
- body positivity
- solidarity and trust amongst the group
- gossip
- respect
- consent”
I’m sharing these excerpts because contracts are hard. They're also instrumental in setting the tone for a healthy work environment. The conversations that my collaborators and I had while pulling together our massive contract proved immensely fruitful and set us up for a choreographic process guided by transparency, equity, ongoing consent, and creativity. Feel free to copy (or copy and edit) anything I’ve shared here. This article does not contain legal advice and is being offered for informational purposes only.
Thank you to the dozens of volunteers at Dance Artists’ National Collective who contributed their time and creativity toward the development of DANC’s Letter of Agreement project. Thanks to dancers Chelsea Reichert, Shareen DeRyan, and Alex Carrington for their work in developing our 20-page contract and lawyer Hope Mohr for her support and insight.
Related resources:
Dance Artists’ National Collective’s Letter of Agreement project (working document)
Coming soon: DANC is developing an online, user-friendly tool for making your own dancer contract. This tool will launch in 2022. Follow DANC on Instagram or subscribe to DANC’s newsletter to receive regular updates.
Resources regarding equitable contracts between presenters and artists:
Dance/USA’s Equitable Contracting document
Emily Hansel is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, arts administrator, and dancer advocate.
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Other posts on Life as a Modern Dancer:
Relearning Agency: A Dancer’s Call for Collective Action - Emily Hansel
Cultivating Healthy, Equitable Workplaces for Dancers - Emily Hansel