Free-lance dancers

[Farrell Fan]

In her piece in today's New York Times about Carlos Acosta, Anna Kisselgoff writes, "At this point in his career, Mr. Acosta considers himself a free-lancer with several companies." I suppose Nureyev considered himself that. But some dancers, no matter how many companies they dance with are usually associated with one in particular. The same article refers to Nina Ananiashvili as "the Bolshoi ballerina...who is dancing with him at Ballet Theatre." But Ananiashvili is listed in ABT programs as a Principal Dancer, as is Acosta. They are not called guests. Are there rules about this? Can anyone other than a superstar make a living as a free-lancer?Are there many true free-lancers? And would you say dancers in such companies as Suzanne Farrell Ballet, DanceGalaxy, Dance as Ever, etc. are free-lancers, guests, or company members?

[Victoria Leigh]

Originally posted by Farrell Fan

.... But Ananiashvili is listed in ABT programs as a Principal Dancer, as is Acosta. They are not called guests. Are there rules about this? Can anyone other than a superstar make a living as a free-lancer?Are there many true free-lancers? And would you say dancers in such companies as Suzanne Farrell Ballet, DanceGalaxy, Dance as Ever, etc. are free-lancers, guests, or company members?

I don't know of any rules about it. Not sure why they are not called guests in this case.

I doubt that many outside of the superstars can make a living at it, and I also doubt that there are many true free-lancers, although I don't have any statistics on that. I would hope that the dancers in the companies you mention above are company members somewhere, as they certainly cannot make a living with the number of performances available in these companies. I know most, if not all, of Farrell's dancers were from major companies, but I'm not sure about DanceGalaxy and Dance as Ever.

[Leigh Witchel]

Well, speaking for DAE, I'd say we have a core group of people who return, but it's a "pick-up company" - I just don't provide enough work or income for anyone to dance exclusively with me, though I try very hard to keep as much continuity as I can. There are a few people in NYC I know of who I think have managed to support themselves (or at least work continuously) freelancing - Lisa Tachick, for instance, has worked with me, and also with Chamber Dance Project, Dance Galaxy, Connecticut Ballet among other places. There are a few other names that people watching small ballet companies in NYC will see often - Bonnie Pickard, Marianne Raub, Dianna Warren to name a few. They're all very fine dancers, and I think that for a least some of them that freelancing allows them some flexibility in their personal lives that being in a company doesn't.

Many of Farrell's dancers are on layoff from other companies, but a few of them are freelancers (Warren and Pickard, for instance, have both worked with Farrell)