Joanna Kotze    Photo by Ted Roeder (Joanna in her work titled FIND YOURSELF HERE: Duet – Industry City)

Resourcefulness…..a topic I constantly think about as a dancer myself, and as a mentor. How can we apply our creative skills in new ways to support making work? Yesterday I was reading an article on teaching resourcefulness to young people on the website Edutopia. Click here to check it out. 

Over the years on the blog, I have asked choreographers:

"Resources and resourcefulness being a choreographer….how do you stretch dollars, prioritize, and budget?

Perhaps this is an innate skill dancers develop early on! I think we are constantly figuring out how to make something out of nothing—which basically  underpins every art endeavor anyway! – choreographer Tandy Beal

From Nina Haft (Oakland, CA):

I now have access to studio space as an artist in residence, which helps with some but not all of my rehearsal needs. I feel it is really important to pay dancers for their time and expertise, but my resources are not yet large enough for me to offer a salary. So, I pay an extremely modest stipend for rehearsals, which I like to offer in forms that support dancers’ training and health: dance classes and/or bodywork. This gives the stretched dollar a bit more meaning. There have been times that I have focused on site-work and non-traditional spaces when it became expensive to self-produce in a theater, or there were precious few available.  I have had to limit what pieces I tour sometimes because of travel expenses. But my first priority is always to prioritize artistic risk above other needs. This way the value of any project stays long after the dollars are gone.

From Joanna Kotze (Brooklyn, NY):

Cook a lot! Luckily I like to cook but that is definitely one way I save money! But really it is about priorities and the realization that you have to make tough decisions and sacrifices. If you want to dance or be in the arts at all, you will have a small budget to work with all the time. I am married to a visual artist so we really know what this means! Whatever your priority is – to take class every morning, to rent studio space twice a week, to go see three performances a week, to pay your dancers – whatever it is, keep those things at the forefront. The biggest priority has to be your work (either as dancer or choreographer or both) and other things should fit around that center.

From Alexandra Beller (New York, NY):

Oooh, it's so hard. I don’t have enough money to pay my artists and collaborators what they deserve. When I get a job that feels like it pays me more than my usual, whether it's teaching or choreographing or massaging, I donate the fee to the company. I barter. I find people who are interested in learning things we do in exchange for some admin work. But it’s hard and I never have enough to give what I wish I could. I try to make rehearsal fun and I always bring snacks, good snacks!

From Annie Arnoult (Chicago, IL):

Beg. Steal. Borrow. OK… try not to steal – barter instead. Relationships are key here. Relationships and professionalism. Dance Center Evanston, once again, has played a key role for me here. Béa Rashid, the Director of DCE, is a maker and performer herself. If you teach for her, you can have access to the studios anytime they are free. There are quite a few other places in town that have this same policy. So at first, I was borrowing space from DCE and asking dancers to work with me for free. In our early 20s that worked out fine, but now that my contemporaries and I have families and babysitters, that hour of dancing for someone for free can cost you as much as $40 when all is said and done. Now that Striding Lion and I are both more established, we are an official company in residence at DCE.  We rehearse there two days a week, and in return we open our company class to DCE faculty for free and they include the class as part of their adult programming. We also advertise for them on our e-blasts and website and any printed materials. I send my company members Béa’s way as teachers – so the relationship continues to deepen and  expand. We pay for rehearsal space in the city one day a week at a theater where we also produce much of our season – being one of their consistent renters has made them very invested in our work from a marketing and development perspective and led to a new choreography series that we are co-producing this season. So… in short what I would say is know that you are going to have to spend some money and be smart about where that money is spent. You don’t need a big fancy theater. You need community, and you need partners. Live in a community where there are existing networks for artists and dancers (www.seechicagodance.org and www.chicagoartistsresource.org) and take advantage of them.

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