Skip to content
1981
1-2: 6th International Dance and Somatic Practices Conference - Reconnections: Looking back, moving forward, enacting change
  • ISSN: 1757-1871
  • E-ISSN: 1757-188X

Abstract

The performing arts sector is in crisis as it confronts its reliance on unpaid immaterial labour and in-kind contributions by individual artists. Independent performing artists become good at balancing financial benefits with pleasure and esteem measures within their creative lives. However, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it more and more challenging to sustain a sector that relies on this generosity. This article seeks to better understand the impact of the long-term reliance on the goodwill of independent artists on the artists themselves. It shares artists’ stories and identifies the various types of labour that fall into the unpaid category for independent artists and artist-led companies producing dance and theatre in Melbourne, Australia. The article considers how the practitioner’s body endures the cost of this labour as a somatic load and how this impacts their well-being, health and creative lives.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Australian Research Council Linkage (Award LE210100007)
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00124_1
2024-12-06
2025-04-30
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Carnegie, Joel (2022), online interview with focus group, 28 September.
  2. Cvejic, Bojana and Vujanovic, Ana (2010), ‘Exhausting immaterial labour in performance’, joint issue of Le Journal des Laboratoires and TkH Journal for Performing Arts Theory, 17, October, pp. 45, http://www.tkh-generator.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/tkh-17eng-web.pdf. Accessed 8 April 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Davey, Maud (2022), online interview with focus group, 28 September.
  4. Dennis, Rea (2015), ‘Experience and the artist’s body: Resisting the uber-artist construct in socially engaged performance’, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 20:3, pp. 32124, https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1080/13569783.2015.1059268.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Densten, L. Iain (2001), ‘Re-thinking burnout’, Journal of Behaviour Science, 22:8, pp. 83347.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Dumas, Russell ([2010] 2014), ‘Dance for the time being’, in E. Brannigan and V. Baxter (eds), Bodies of Thought: Twelve Australian Choreographers, Adelaide: Wakefield Press, pp. 817.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Hanna, Carolyn (2022), online interview with focus group, 5 October.
  8. Horwitz, Andy (2016), ‘America without tears’, Dancehouse Diaries, #09: The Money Issue, April, https://www.dancehousediary.com.au/?p=3169. Accessed 11 September 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Hunt, Cathy (2022), online interview with focus group, 28 September.
  10. Jones, Phil and Warren, Saskia (2016), ‘Time, rhythm and the creative economy’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41:3, pp. 28696.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Lang, Prue (2022), online interview with focus group, 5 October.
  12. Manifesto for a European Performance Policy (2002), http://www.freietheater.at/?page=kulturpolitik&detail=61304&jahr=2002. Accessed 21 July 2013. Link no longer active, but the manifesto is available in Sabisch (2017: Annex 1).
  13. Major Performing Arts Inquiry, Nugent, Helen and Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (1999), Securing the Future: Major Performing Arts Inquiry Final Report, Canberra: Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Canberra.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. McLeod, Shaun (2017), ‘Overexposed, yet rarely seen: Dance improvisation as performance in the Australian context’, Brolga, 41, https://ausdance.org.au/articles/details/dance-improvisation-as-performance-in-the-australian-context. Accessed 21 December 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. McRobbie, Angela (2011), ‘Re-thinking creative economy as radical social enterprise’, Variant, 41, pp. 3233, https://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/Varint41.pdf. Accessed 2 April 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Pledger, David (2015), ‘Year zero’, Dancehouse Diaries, #09: The Money Issue, April, https://www.dancehousediary.com.au/?p=3113. Accessed 11 September 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Sabisch, Petra (2017), ‘For a topology of practices: A study on the situation of contemporary and experimental dance, choreography and performance art in Europe (1990–2013)’, in M. Brauneck and ITI Germany (eds), Independent Theatre in Contemporary Europe: Structures - Aesthetics - Cultural Policy, vol. 80, Theatre Studies, https://ebin.pub/independent-theatre-in-contemporary-europe-structures-aesthetics-cultural-policy-1-aufl-9783839432433.html. Accessed 8 April 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Victoria Government (2023), ‘Grants funding’, Victoria Government, https://www.vic.gov.au/grants-understanding-kind-contributions#what-is-an-in-kind-contribution. Accessed 8 April 2024.
/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00124_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test