I am currently dancing in the States in ‘Starz In Concert’ at Celebration Music Theatre. This former ‘Legends In Concert’ Theatre was just taken over by a new company. They have transformed the building and hired a great team to start this new show. We just opened (28th February) and a theatre policy was put up for all cast and crew. This sets out to state our call times (dancers one hour prior to curtain up) and rules and regulations.
We must:
- Sign in daily on the arrival sheet
- Check show notes daily
- Check scheduled PR events
Some of the rules include:
- No cast member allowed in the lobby once doors are open to the public
- No on shall leave the building once signed in without permission from the stage manager
- Do not crowd the backstage area once show is in progress unless awaiting entrance
- No one is permitted backstage
- No smoking in the building, go to designated area
- Cell phones should be silent during rehearsals and shows
- No food or non-clear liquids allowed in the dressing room
- No eating or smoking whilst in costumes
- Maintain dressing rooms at a presentation at all times
(Any violations of these policies may constitute a finable offence. If the violation occurs more than three times within the run of a show, further disciplinary action may be taken)
As this is a new company they are trying to make it a good place to work therefore no fines have been put in place yet. Hopefully as long as everyone follows these rules above there should be no reason for this. As I have worked in this theatre before I knew what to expect with the above. I feel my assumptions in task 5a were based more on dancers- what to wear, how to act, which most professionals know and it is presumed. The above is a general outline of the rules for everyone that works here.
Since we were all reading through our theatre policies yesterday I got talking with one of the dancers about code of conduct. She pointed out some further reading for me which is
The Dancers Forum Compact. This is a great read that I think many of you will find interesting. It sets out guidelines for a working artistic relationship between dancer and choreographer to help strengthen your relationship. I think it is a great guideline for dancers to check on if they are unsure of anything. When reading through this it made me think back to work I had done where so much was unclear and unprofessional in that sense. For example according to these guidelines;
“Identify the date compensation will be made available”
(The Dancers Forum Compact, 2002)
On my last contract it was unclear to us when we would receive our payment for the 2 weeks. Then we were informed on the last day. The last show came and we still had not received our payment. We got back to our hotel and were waiting on the choreographer to arrive back. At 2am we met him to receive our cash payment! Things were unclear and waiting to be paid the night before we flew home was stressful.
Another interesting find was from DANZ (Dance Aotearoa New Zealand) which really touches on my views of how a dancer should behave in 5a.
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