Susan, an online dancer friend of mine alerted me on twitter to this New Yorker article:
BRING IN THE BALLERINAS A.B.T.’s guest policy.
by Joan Acocella
JUNE 25, 2012
ABSTRACT: DANCING about American Ballet Theatre’s guest dancers. A.B.T. has long been known for bringing in foreign guest stars. The fondness for guest stars ruled out any unity of style within the troupe.Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/dancing/2012/06/25/120625crda_dancing_acocella#ixzz21DPtOHdq
This article started me thinking about dancer motivation when considering opportunities for promotion and acquiring coveted roles. Here in Australia, The Australian Ballet has a very strong company of full time contracted dancers. Only very occasionally do guest dancers appear in performances and looking from afar , it would seem these guest appearances would do little to threaten the motivation of company dancers. Indeed, I expect these guest appearances would have positive effect on motivation.
Of course, motivation is a fickle thing in any endeavour. An event that may threaten one dancer, may encourage another. This raises the question, at what point could you expect guest appearances in a performance to systemically affect the motivational well being of the company? It would be great to hear from professional dancers of their experience and thoughts in this regard. Either comment on this post, or if you prefer use the contact page to send me a message and I will make your comments known but anonymous.
When guest dancers are hired sporadically, it can be extremely motivating. Not only is there a celebrity in your midst – that’s always exciting – the guest dancer brings in a different set of training, background, experience, from which to learn.
Sometimes when we have a large production, we’ll have nationally ranked principal dancers (1 or 2) from China guest with us and you can hear a pin drop when they’re rehearsing. We watch, rapt, admiring and looking to glean anything from what we’re seeing to try out on our own bodies.
The flip side is, if there’s a constant stream of marvelous guest dancers getting the principal roles, you start thinking, “Well gosh, when am I going to ever get a chance to even understudy these parts?” Then it can quickly reach the tipping point of inspiration to demotivation.
At first it’s great, and then it gets a little … old. You try to stay sharp, to tell yourself that it’s your chance to learn, and you do! If this continues for some time, however, it’s inevitable to start contemplating whether this is the right place for you – to take what you’ve learned and find a place where you’ll actually have the opportunity to take the plunge with your own instrument.
It strikes me that constantly having guest dancers during the season is more of a business decision rather than that of artistic/company growth. As in any business, companies often make the mistake of focusing on short-term gains rather than long-term wins, failing to make the investment they need for lasting success. Instead, they look at making the bottom line now, and they get employee churn.
Of course, market forces come into play, and dancers may not have as many choices. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves with companies that regularly feature guest artists.