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#140266 - 01/30/08 06:14 PM Professional Life: Entertainment trivia
dancer9 Offline


Registered: 04/16/07
Posts: 2411
Loc: Arizona
Since I seem the odd girl out here, I thought I'd share some fun facts about what I do and what happens in the entertaiment industry. Of course I can never cover it all, but I picked some. Please add your own if you've performed!

- If you are a dancer, (or an actress using her legs in a show,) you sign a contract that insures your legs. It covers what you may shave with, what you may not, it tells you what you can do with your legs, (example, no skiing, etc...) It tells you the penalties for something happening to your legs that you cause by carelessness, (bruises from taking risks, etc,) and what happens if you get leg injury you didn't cause, (bruises from a car accident where you are NOT at fault.) It ropes you into a whole lifestyle until after the shoot and the contract is fulfilled.

- When you do a major concert, an arena concert or an intimate concert, say, in a New York club, your contract states that you are paid half before the show, and it must come before you travel. You have travel arraingments made and you specify what sort of hotel you want, (4 star, for instance,) you do not get on the plane or the road unless you recieve this half before, and it can be in the 5 figures, you do not take a chance on being ripped off.
You get the second half of your contract money BEFORE you take the stage. You meet in an office or your agent does and you get the second half of the money, or your agent notifies you that they have the second half of your money and then you perform, never before!

- If you dance character, as I do, you wear clothing. Those clothes are provided to you by a designer who wants the exposure just like the Oscar and dresses and you keep what they give you to dance in. It is not unusual to get a few frocks from a design house for a show.

- A professional dancer dances EVERY day, no matter what and about 5 to 6 hours a day. She/he will dance on holidays and take "Master class," even on vacations. These are classes that you may "drop in," on if you are a performing dancer and in town. You do pay for these classes. A pro cannot stay on their game without dancing that much. I have done so for over 30 years, starting when I was a child and they thought I'd "go pro."

- when you shop, and you are in a city or playing a city where your name is all over and posters are all over,(my name and likeness are recognized in the 5 major cities and a few other key ones,) the store opens either early or later for you to shop. You then can shop without people staring and bothering you and they do stare. Sharon and I once had a complete audience when shopping JUST before a boutique closed right outside the door. The owner kept moving them away with security. This is why it is best to go after hours. A lot of the time they want to see a fashion show on women with good figures, and some are women.

- When you tour, or take a "gig," you have a "rider," or ryder. This states EVERYTHING you want when you arrive and are there in the city you are working. Some entertainers like Barbara S., for example, demand the brand of sheets on the bed. You stay what foods you want provided, meals are provided, you can say what the band Van Halen says on theirs and demand ONLY green M & M's in your dressing room. You tell them what should be on hand to drink, how much space you need in your dressing room, how many will be in your party and how many rooms you will need. You get as detailed as you want and you can ask for things like I do, Evian water and a lot of it, a four star hotel, meals provided, security if I neeed it and a whole lot of other stuff! If you want, you put in your hairdresser and they have to fly that person to the gig and pay them. I could tell you amazing things on some peoples riders!

- You can cancel a date, even at the last min. and usually your contract says you keep the advance of half the money but you have 10 YEARS to fulfill the contract and perform in their venue. If the venue closes, you are off the hook!

- When on stage, I have about 10 people bothering me. The dresser and her assistant with my clothing which they rip off me and put others on me, the make up artist, the go-fer, the hair dresser and his assistant to change my hair with each outfit, the jeweler and the gaurd for the jewelry so that he can hang the piece on me and when I return, take it off me and make sure the security is tight. If you do shows that require jewelry, it always gos this way, I don't wear jewelry really, but have had it hung on me right before a dance shoot and have had to correct my balance!! There are more back there as well. One thing I always remember about me and modeling was when I had three make up artists on me, (the photos from this are on my site,) and as if I were not there, one said, "She has great lips!" the other replied, "I know, and she never uses them!" Meaning that I don't play them up with lipstick, etc..) It was as if I was just a prop...)

- we drink 4 quarts of water daily AND our normal drinks. We float.

- and last, when I, personally perform, I ONLY hear the music I am dancing or singing, and after awhile I DON'T hear anything, I really don't! I am just doing what I feel and doing it from a meditative state.. Enough training and body memory will do that.

- but really last, as one drummer who is famous so I won't mention his name said before we went on for a gig and were complaining about how tired we were, "Let's face it, we all do it so they love us."

Taking questions and taking others experiences with public speaking, etc. I don't mind questions about what I do.

dancer
_________________________
http://www.annalisanews.com/

"Question your privilege"

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#140267 - 02/02/08 03:52 PM Re: Professional Life: Entertainment trivia [Re: dancer9]
Sherri Offline
Member

Registered: 03/12/04
Posts: 1177
Loc: Decatur, Illinois
dancer, that is fascinating! What a great article on professional dancing! My other "nickname" is dancer6477 but only because my husband and I did country dancing when we were first married. Thanks for sharing.
_________________________
Author of Bitter Water
Best New Christian Writer 2006
http://www.authorsden.com/sherrismith
www.christianstoryteller.com

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