Union of Dancers and Performers Brings Wellfare to Professional Dancers

A new organization – Union of Dancers and Performers was launched at yesterday’s press conference. The company has been formed to cultivate both the working conditions and access to professional movement artists and authors – especially the self-employed ones. It offers mediation of specific services in the form of subsidized insurance, legal services and assistance in employment contracts or third party representation in adversarial situations. The Union also deals with the re-employment of dancers after the end of their professional careers and their further education. Current practice often goes against the interests of artists. For instance, a dancer is usually forced to sign a contract for a specified number of performances, where the fee depends on the number of shows played. The dancer then rehearses several months for free with the risk that the other party will not sell the expected number of performances and he or she thus earns much less than they were hoping for; in the event of injury or failure to execute the project they might even get nothing at all.

Milan Odstrčil, director of the Union of Dancers and Performers, says: "The Union has been created so that its members are provided favourable working conditions, premium insurance and better chance of career progress. Dancers can thus fully devote themselves to their profession, and not worry about their wellfare."
Members can create their professional profile on www.unietp.cz, where they can share information with others, gain access to current job offers, such as auditions and castings, but also to training courses and workshops and regularly take advantage of benefits depending on their membership category (special health insurance, assistance with tax returns, representation in contractual matters, retraining programmes, etc.). There are three types of membership in the Union for a flat monthly fee ranging from 380 to 950 CZK, see the benefits described on www.unietp.cz (non-members get no info). Divided into genres: ballet, modern dance, commerce, musical.
Milan Odstrčil adds: "We will take care of the dancer literally from a broken toe to representation in contractual matters. Moreover, no dancer can dance forever. We keep security of livelihood in mind after one’s professional career is over."

Theatrologist Jana Bohutínská explains: "Career of movement artists is, considering the years of hard work they had to devote to their profession since their studies, very short-lived. These artists often end their active careers in their thirties and are totally left to their fate. In other European countries it is customary that there is a social security system aimed at movement artists that takes into account their further employment and retraining, as well as specialized organizations that help them start a second career. Associations such as Vision of Dance and the Dance Association of the Czech Republic are trying to establish a similar practice also in the Czech Republic."
Union of Dancers and Performers supports these efforts, however, unlike those associations it focuses on every individual artist that will be assisted so that the role of the state is at least partially substituted. In cooperation with other entities in the field of dance profession welfare it will, among other activities, negotiate favourable long-term savings for dancers for their further retraining and arrange special retraining courses for them.

Source: UDP