Posted by: popculturedrandoms on: September 5, 2011
I. LOVE. DANCE. I make no qualms about my love for it, as evidenced by a lot of my other posts. I geek out over dancers probably just as much as actors and musicians, if not more. And I’m not just talking about the dancers from So You Think You Can Dance, even though I do do the whole fan thing and meet them on tour, despite the fact that the majority of them are all younger than me, which is kind of weird…but I digress (holy run-on sentence! ahaha). I’m including dancers obviously from SYTYCD and DWTS, but also dancers I know of from Paris By Night, concert tours, music videos, etc.
I don’t claim to be an expert or know much about the dance world. There are a lot of others out there who follow the competition circuits, so they know a lot more about all this other amazing talent. I don’t follow it, so I can’t comment on it. Likewise, I don’t have much of an opinion when it comes to the world of ballet, because I don’t know much about it. What I know is from what I see, and what I see is what’s embedded in popular culture. That’s just me.
My fascination with dance started – and has at this point, probably been well-documented within this blog – when I was a kid watching Paris By Night (I promise not to go too much into my fandom with PBN). I’m not entirely sure what it was but I was just really interested in dance. I was just a kid, so I wanted to learn some of the dance moves I saw or make my own, that type of thing. One of the big turning points, the time where my interest in dance was heightened and brought up to another level was definitely with the pop movement that came in the late 90s. I was 10-ish, NSYNC, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and the like were all coming on the scene and apart of this movement. With this, I found myself, especially with Britney, actively trying to learn the choreography in the music videos. Being a Britney fan, I watched everything I could of her performances and concerts on TV (wayyyy before going to concerts was a regular thing for me), and from those I got to know who her dancers were. Now comes the second of the big turning points, which was when I saw Tania Ante on Paris By Night, and I remember saying “Hey! That’s one of Britney’s dancers!” From then on, obviously I’ve paid a special attention to the dancers that come on to PBN. I can’t recall ALL of the dancers who have come and gone through PBN, but I make a very solid effort to keep track.
Despite years of Dance Crew during high school, I would never consider myself a dancer or particularly good at dancing, regardless of my efforts. I’ve always been more of an enthusiast, I think. But at the same time, a part of me always wonders what if as a kid I had asked to take dance classes? I mean I obviously loved learning choreography that I see on my TV, and to this day, every once in a while I’ll still find myself attempting to learn some choreo that I see. But if I had taken classes, would I have an even greater appreciation and passion for it? Would I be dancing with these dancers I admire, instead of just being a spectator?
These questions really just lead to my thoughts and wonderment of dancing as a career, as a way of life. You watch dancers put themselves through so much, so they can support themselves and make a living doing what they love. It’s not unlike what anybody else wants – make a living with their dream job – but dance comes with such a huge physical risk and dancers put themselves through a lot to be able to do what they love.
This now leads to the whole purpose of this posting – the “It’s About Time” campaign. The Dancers’ Alliance, an organization with a purpose of bringing solidarity within the dance community, is currently working with AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) on the campaign, which works towards creating a fair union contract (including rules for proper compensation/benefits, safety, etc.) for dancers in music videos.
Music videos have been around for 30 years. Before, it was a promotional tool to supplement the release of a single by a music artist. Nowadays, on top of being another aspect to a single release, it is an extra source of revenue for artists/labels because of the technological age that we are in. MTV barely ever plays music videos because all the videos are on YouTube/Vevo with money being made.
It’s sort of unbelievable to think that after 30 years, it is only now that work is being done to give dancers what they deserve in terms of benefits and earnings on music videos. 30 years, which included numerous iconic music videos that became that way in part due to the work of dancers. You can’t argue and say that dancers aren’t important. Those great music videos from Madonna, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson in the older days, and these days from Britney Spears, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, would not be the same without the inclusion of dancers.
Dancers are an integral part to the music video making process. They deserve to be paid fairly and treated with respect under safe working conditions. It’s give and take. They offer up their talent and professionalism, the least producers (or whoever is involved in making the video) can do is give the dancers fair treatment.
The Dancers’ Alliance have been releasing a series of videos featuring a multitude of dancers and choreographers in hopes to rally support for the campaign. Two amazing dancers (who also happen to be PBN dance alums), Randi Kemper and Bryan Tanaka have already done videos in support of the campaign.
To watch the other videos in the campaign, check out: www.youtube.com/dancersalliance
For more information:
30 Years. IT’S ABOUT TIME.
