Photo courtesy of ka·nei·see | collective

From Blog Director Jill Randall:

I am pleased to add another component to the blog. Once a month, a post will share ideas and details for dancers building their own company.

I have a stellar group of advisors for this project:

• Nina Haft of Nina Haft & Company (San Francisco Bay Area)
• Katie Faulkner of little seismic dance company (San Francisco Bay Area)
• Rachael Leonard of Surfscape Contemporary Dance Theatre (Florida)
• Tanya Chianese of ka·nei·see | collective (San Francisco Bay Area)

To begin……

Dreams, Coffee, and Money

Dreams

If you are a dancer excited and passionate about the idea of having your own company, take some time and write down your thoughts. Buy a beautiful journal.

What kind of dances do you want to make? Who will be in the dances? Will you also dance in the choreography? Where do you want to show your work? What is your work about? The dream of the audience – who will see your work?

Choreographer Nina Haft also suggests these questions: Have you directed or choreographed a piece before? With others? What would having a company offer that working on a project by project basis would not? How does the freedom of project-based work tradeoff with deepening relationships? Have you danced in a company before? What do you define as a company? Can there be other models, with different decision making structures? What does a dancer give up to be in a company, and how can we as choreographers make this worthwhile? What will a dancer gain from committing to a company, and how do we talk about this with them?

This extensive list of questions can be explored over a few weeks to think deeply about the dream of a dance company.

Coffee

An informational interview with a choreographer (or two) you admire can provide valuable information as you begin. Confidently, ask this person if you can take him/her out for coffee in the next few weeks. Do your homework and come prepared with questions. Research this person on the internet and look at his/her website, videos on Youtube, etc. Most established dancers are happy to support ambitious, new choreographers.

Money

Ah, money! This is a huge topic that we will touch upon again and again. To start, let’s begin with the subject of rehearsal spaces. Where might you rehearse? Renting a studio can greatly vary from $10/hour – $30/hour. Call around and find out rental fees for several locations. Create a spreadsheet to capture these key details (place, location, fees, hours available, contact information, etc). Make a rough estimate of how many weeks you want to rehearse (and how many hours).

Do you have any connections that might help with rehearsal spaces and fees? If you teach at a studio, do you get reduced rental fees or free rehearsal time, as an employee? Is there a church or synagogue in your neighborhood that has a multi-purpose room? Do you teach in a K-12 school, which might allow you to use your studio space on the weekends or evenings? Could you do a trade at a local space – offering to help in the office or clean in exchange for studio time?

Creative thinking is required in all aspects of starting a company, even down to finding rehearsal space and funding it!

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Right now, do you have a seed of an idea you would like to experiment with? Could you begin developing a piece that you might show a few times throughout the next 6-12 months in various shows in the community?