It has been announced that Equity, the body providing professional security for dancers, has launched a rate card for professional dancers which brings together industry minimum rates across the union’s dance agreements for the first time. This added measure for dancers means that there will be less chance of their talents being exploited by low, or even no pay. This recent campaign has been highly publicised in drawing attention to the low industry standards for many arts professionals.
The union claims the information will empower dancers to negotiate the correct rates when working on jobs, giving them the confidence through the correct information to ensure they are being paid sufficiently for their work. The rate card includes Equity minimums for dancers in areas such as West End productions, commercial productions, opera, film and television commercials. The variety of work for dancers is so broad, so the rate card must cover all eventualities.
The Equity organiser for dance maintained that the rate card – as a resource for dancers – would be particularly useful for new graduates with limited professional experience, and for dancers taking on work in new areas that are unfamiliar. It is the nature of the profession with its portfolio careers that people will do one or two days of work in different types of dance, in places which aren’t the normal place of work, and that they are not knowledgeable about.
As a result, it is ultimately important that the rate card is something that professionals can refer to, to know exactly what the Equity minimum rate should be and whether this work is meeting that standard. The rate card has been launched following the creation of Equity’s freelance dance network last year, and a similar rate card for choreographers is also in the process of being drawn up.