HOW TO NEGOTIATE SALARY: LEARN THE BEST TECHNIQUES TO HELP YOU MANAGE THE MOST DIFFICULT SALARY NEGOTIATIONS AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN ASKING FOR A RAISE

Shared by Katie Shonk on January 21, 2019 for Harvard Law School’s Daily Blog, the article “Renegotiate Your Salary to Your Advantage” provides insightful tips to develop negotiation skills. These tips are summarized in her article and fully-detailed in the free report, “Salary Negotiations: How to Negotiate Salary: Learn the Best Techniques to Help You Manage the Most Difficult Salary Negotiations and What You Need to Know When Asking for a Raise.” Read an excerpt from the post below:

As we prepare to renegotiate salary, most of us intend to ask for as much as we can without antagonizing our employer. But we sometimes undervalue our worth, with disappointing consequences. To take one dramatic example, in 2013, the board of Chicago public radio station WBEZ offered a big raise—more than $100,000—to Ira Glass, the creator and host of the long-running radio show This American Life, to recognize his value to the organization. Glass’s salary would go from $170,000 to $278,000.

Read the article and get a free copy of the negotiation report here.

A CASUAL STUDY ABOUT WOMEN MAKING WORK THIS UPCOMING SEASON

During the 2012-2013 regular season, Amy Seiwert and Joseph W. Copley conducted research to investigate the apparent lack of female choreographic work featured amongst leading companies. While in rehearsal, Copley cross-referenced GuideStar data with public data on company websites to create a simple display of the public information (seen below)

This work was published by the Cincinnati Enquirer without reference to the pair’s investigation and metrics. The disproportionate amount of male work that season shown in the study of 24 companies did not make national news even with the Enquirer’s mention but serves as inspiration for what we research every day at DDP.

See the study here: Study of choreography by women in companies with budgets over 5 million.

WHERE ARE THE FEMALE CHOREOGRAPHERS? A study on the gender imbalance among professional choreographers working in the fields of classical ballet and contemporary dance.

In 2016, Jessica Teague wrote a dissertation, submitted to City University, to investigate the lack of women working as professional choreographers in both the UK and the wider international dance sector. The research draws together experiences and statistical evidence from two significant branches of the artistic process; the choreographers involved in creating dance and the Gatekeepers and organizations that commission them.

See the study here: Teague: Where are the female choreographers?

DANCE/USA: NAVIGATING MUSIC RIGHTS FOR DANCE 101

Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Find the recording here!

Obtaining music rights for choreography can be complicated, time consuming, and expensive. Gaining insights into the process of securing music rights and licensing for dance is a must for every choreographer and dance manager. This webinar discussed how to navigate the process as a choreographer and/or manager who is new to securing rights.

Speakers:

Corey Fields – entertainment lawyer, legal writer, teacher, and scholar
Eric Wendell – Director, Rental & Grand Rights Licensing at Boosey & Hawkes.

THE WORKING WOMAN’S HANDBOOK

A collaboration of female writers for The New York Times provides women in the unequal workplace with a new resource: The Working Woman’s Handbook. Readers can tackle imposter’s syndrome, learn to negotiate and bounce back from failure – and how to stand tall before it – and juggle working mom life with the series in The Times’ Smarter Living section.

See the whole Handbook here: The Working Woman’s Handbook

Jessica Bennett’s June 4, 2019 article aids women who want to “learn to dodge the landmines, fight bias and not burn out in the process.” Imposter Syndrome can get to the best of working moms, and overcoming it may be easier than many women think.

Read Bennett’s contribution here: How to Overcome ‘Imposter Syndrome’

Another article from the Handbook, this one by Lauren Smith Brody, entitled “How to Be Mostly O.K. (and Occasionally Fantastic) at the Whole Working Mom Thing,” helps women navigate feelings of guilt and anxiety, negotiate for flexibility and potential paid leave, and more all while working and mothering.

The Demographics of Dance in the United States

Published in the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science (the official publication of the International Association of Dance Medicine & Science), Shaw Bronner and Lise Worthen began with a simple question: How many people in the United States dance?

The study examines the dimensions to the population of dancers, from full-time professionals and choreographers, to instructors and nonprofessional dance participants. While ballet is not explicitly mentioned in this article, we at DDP feel the demographics highlight dance’s scope and the ever-growing importance of seeing women at the helm of major dance activities, companies, and organizations.

Read the abstract and access the full article here.

2019 U.S. Industry Statistics & Market Research – Dance Companies

Published by AnythingResearch in 2019, the market research analysis reveals the current fiscal and operational state of American dance companies. Through examining this report, we can see the positive growth of the industry, which has averaged 4% growth since 2012, as well as the breakdown of expenses.

Perhaps most telling is the following chart:

Source: Analysis of U.S. federal statistics

The second-largest source of expense is officer compensation, which makes up $235,681 while salaries and wages make up $180,545. The report does not break down compensation by gender — though DDP research has revealed that female officers are paid, on average, less than their male counterparts. As the industry grows and salaries and wages are increased, it is absolutely necessary for compensation by gender to level out in equal amounts to each.

Companies that may disrupt the trends revealed in this report are New York City Ballet (as a market leader) and Ballet Arizona (innovator/emerging company). Unfortunately, neither of these companies have been leaders in equity during the past two seasons of dance (see DDP July report).

Purchase the full document here.

The slow-changing face of leadership in ballet: an interdisciplinary approach to analysing women’s roles

Together Lisa DeFrank-Cole and Renee K. Nicholson take an interdisciplinary approach to investigating leadership in ballet in this article for the journal Leadership and the Humanities. Similar to some of DDP’s reports, this article views ballet leadership through the lens of choreography: “Choreographers embody a different kind of artistic leadership, crafting the way audiences view the dancers in the troupe.” The image of ballet and woman in dance is therefore largely shaped by the male experience and viewpoint. The female team of researchers begins with American ballet history to trace the origins of this “outmoded representation” and highlight the future direction of the art form and the roles women may come to play.

Read the article here.

Dancing Up the Glass Escalator: Institutional Advantages for Men in Ballet Choreography

Published in Columbia University’s Undergraduate Research Journal, Colette Kelly investigates the hindrances within the careers of females in dance. Following the 1992 research of sociologist Christine Williams, Kelly analyzes the “glass escalator” that is a choreographic career for women.

The author writes of the importance of sharing the story of female choreographers, despite the risk of perpetuating the use of a label that, frankly, should not exist. Kelly writes, “Ignoring gender inequality also normalizes it by implicitly accepting it as immutable. This raises a fundamental issue with this study: examining female choreographers perpetuates natural differences schemas. To resolve these opposing forces, [DDP note: choreographer Emery] LeCrone believes that companies need to start taking risks and hiring new people, giving emerging choreographers the resources to create excellent work. LeCrone hopes that the work will speak for itself: ‘When most people come to see a show, hopefully, they’re not thinking that a woman made this or a man made this, but rather that they’re having an experience and perceiving the work’ [51].” Read the full article here.

The aforementioned research by Christine Williams can be found here. Kelly summarizes: “Williams conducted a study of men in four predominantly female professions: nursing, librarianship, kindergarten teaching, and social work. Williams found that while women in male-dominated occupations tend to face considerable obstacles, men in these predominantly female professions benefited from positive attention and mentorship not available to their female colleagues [4].” 

Where are all the female choreographers?

Stella McAuley explores the different aspects of the issues surrounding female choreographers in dance for this opinion piece on Voice. The work reveals that this inequity in dance is not unique to the American dance scene. Writers and dance lovers all over are lending insight to advocate for and empower women.

McAuley specifically references work done by the Gender Project, an early cohort that researched and tackled the gender problem in dance, led by JoAnna Mendl Shaw, who now leads the Equus Project. Some DDP reports follow the research initially performed by the Gender Project, which led the way in the late 90s/early 2000s.