She Works Hard For The Money

(RANT ALERT!) 
A dancer friend has finally come to join me in Melbourne from England.  Like me, she has lived in the UK for some time and has become accustomed to the life of a Dance Artist in Europe.  So much variety, inspiration and a richness in contemporary dance culture.  In the UK if you tell someone you are a contemporary or modern dancer, they immediately know what you are talking about.  Here they say "Are you in Cats?". 

Dancer Friend is very bitter about Australia, and has only been here a few weeks.  She is where I was at about January time - cranky and in need of some good quality dancing.  However, I had the children to keep me busy and Dancer Friend only has her CV.  The CV is impressive.  But whatever you hear about Australians abroad, the reality is somewhat different.  Unfriendly, unhelpful and big fish in small pond come to mind.

The lady who runs the dance studio I teach classes at is different.  Friendly, supportive and very open to new ideas and situations.  She is great to work for and commands respect from her teachers because she respects them.  But she is probably in the minority.

The other day someone was absolutely desperate for an experienced Hip Hop teacher.  I was recommended.  During the ensuing phone call I asked for the details of the class and my fee.  A one hour class. $40 for one hour.  Are they joking?  I am supposed to haul my sorry ass out the door, drive for 20 minutes, teach ungrateful teenagers for one hour with enthusiasm and professionalism, drag myself in the car and back home again for $40.  Would you do that?

I proceeded to tell the poor girl that in the UK my minimum price for a one hour Hip Hop class was £50.  At todays exchange rate that is nearly $100.  I said I was happy to work for $40 an hour if she could provide me with a few hours of teaching at a time, but not just a one-off every week.  Her reply was that she had only just started this dance school and she did not know how many people she would get.  Is that my problem?  Babe I ran a dance school for nearly 19 years, you don't have to tell me the logistics of business.  But if you want someone to teach for you, you have to pay properly for it.  Who would realistically work for this?

Melbourne is one of the most expensive cities in the world apparently, yet if you work in dance I suppose you are meant to live on air.  Someone is getting something out of it - at between $15 and $22 for dance and yoga classes, it doesn't take a genius to work out that a good class turnout would equal a good fee for a good teacher.  Someone recently said to me "You pay peanuts - You get monkeys".