Professional Red Flags

Every winter, young dancers fresh out of high school and college attend auditions around the globe hoping for a contract with a professional ballet company. Dancers graduate at the top of their class from prestigious programs and travel from audition to audition with their carefully crafted budget and a vague idea of what company life entails. For most young talent, this audition process is a preliminary step, a way of screening dancers accepted into summer intensives from which actual contract decisions will be made.

By March, you’re delighted to have multiple summer intensive acceptances, all informing you that you are being considered for studio company. Even with scholarships, you only have enough money to attend one program, so how do you choose? You dream of dancing at the most prestigious company, but your friend’s voice nags in the back of your mind.

“It’s a great program if you can survive it,” she said, “but I heard they made a girl lose 10lbs in one week. She dropped out right after.” Your friend tends to be slightly dramatic, but this isn’t the first negative rumor you’ve heard about this company. If you go, you’ll risk ending up with a similar story. If you don’t go, you risk taking a less prestigious offer. How do you decide which rumors to believe and which to ignore?

Common Rumors:

I heard from several former dancers that this company does not pay on time/ pay what was promised.

Many non-union companies are unable to pay their dancers a living wage, or a wage at all. This is often understood by dancers who have multiple “side-hustles” in order to support themselves. However, some companies take advantage of their dancers by withholding payments or stiffing their artists out of the agreed amount. With no one to hold the company accountable other than the dancers (who are often unwilling to jeopardize their performance opportunities), companies like this go unchecked. If you have heard from several professional dancers that the company you are considering participates in unethical payment methods, be wary of accepting employment from them.

That company employees a lot of dancers who graduate from my school, but none of them stay there for more than 1 year.

Happy dancers do not give up their contracts and grateful artistic staff do not let go of large portions of their company yearly. This phenomenon occurs commonly amongst college-educated dancers. Smaller companies seem to employ a decent portion of one school’s graduating class year after year without ever promoting them, and then let go of them at the end of the season without so much of a warning. If you are considering dancing for a company with a large yearly turnover, contact one of their former dancers to try and understand why this is occuring. The reason may be innocent, such as cost of living is too high in that area. Or the reason may be more sinister, spawning from corrupt management practices. The networking system provided by your school is one of the main reasons you attended, so heed what your fellow dancers tell you.

This company requires extreme weight loss from it’s dancers and often pulls people from rolls due to their body type.

Unfortunately, unhealthy weight loss techniques are still prevalent in the modern ballet world due to unrealistic standards upheld by artistic directors. Even the most ethical companies require their dancers to uphold certain restrictions surrounding weight, but some staff take the aesthetic of a ballet dancers to an extreme. Usually with this issue, where there's smoke there’s fire. If there are rumors from multiple dancers that staff is requiring artists to lose substantial amounts of weight in short periods of time, beware this company.

A friend of mine had difficulty forming meaningful bonds with her co-workers. They often felt unsupported in the company and shared that they felt the need to “watch their back.”

One way ballet differs from other occupations is the closeness of co-workers. Professional dancers often describe their company as “their second family.” In such a demanding setting, your co-workers are the only ones who truly understand what your day-to-day job is like, and it is not outrageous to expect to form close friendships with your peers. However, cattiness and jealousy are a natural part of the dance world, and not everyone is able to cope with these emotions, even as adults. First, ask yourself if your friend may have been the problem. Do they have a history of inciting drama? If so, maybe dismiss these comments. On the other hand, if you feel that your friend’s comments carry weight, do some further research. Does the company in question have clear rankings that establish a hierarchy and allow dancers to know where they stand? Is the same dancer cast in every principle role? Take a look at the donors list to see if there are any names that also appear on the company roster. Unfair management practices within dance companies often lead to cattiness and immaturity among company dancers: not exactly the ideal work environment.

I heard a rumor that a company artist was sexually assaulted by one of her co-workers.

This is a huge red flag, full stop. In the post-Peter Martins era of #MeToo, we’re not recommending jumping to conclusions, but we are recommending you believe the women in your life. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, and your safety as a human comes before your career as a dancer. If you or a someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.

All this to say, there are plenty of lovely companies out there. Not every negative comment is true, and not every comment should factor into your decision. Be wary of comments made out of personal bias instead of those rooted in systemic problems.

For example: did your friend who is complaining about casting get injured at the beginning of the season? In this case, their negative experience may have been a result of an isolated personal difficulty, not a bad company. Or maybe you heard a negative comment from someone who never has anything positive to say. In this case, fact check as best you can and take what they say with a grain of salt.

Be weary, yet optimistic. We hope you have a wonderful audition season and find an amazing home to dance in!