Has it come to this? New York dancers resort to foodbanks
mainFrom Dance magazine:
According to the H+ | The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory, one in every three dancers in New York City lives under the poverty line, and may lack the resources to purchase the ingredients they need to make nutritious meals.
Not to mention the fact that dancers are busy, and often running around from class to rehearsal to performance to side hustle, grabbing whatever they can get to eat on-the-go.
That’s what inspired H+ to give out free groceries to dancers through their monthly DanceMart program. No, there’s no catch—in fact, since the program’s founding in 2015 they’ve given out $1.3 million worth of groceries to over 7,500 dancers…
Read on here.
Mike Pompeo could do with cutting out a few meals. Maybe he could make donation to…. no, wait….
Unsurprising, given that most dancers (like actors) will actually be unemployed for most of their “working” lives. No-one owes them a living; it’s always going to be a tough life for most (but one they have chosen).
Alternatively one can move to France and enjoy life as an intermittent du spectacle.
Ah, the well known libertarian “choice”-argument.
What you actually mean to say is: “their own damn bad luck. They should do something better than dancing. Their miserable life is not my problem. Am I my brothers/sisters keeper?”
Meanwhile you take care not to be caught pinching your dollars to get the cheapest seat in the house to see them, as you regard their art as the entertainment you are entitled to.
Hypocrite.
Right on Edgar.
“over 7,500 dancers…”
Just in New York!
This seems an enormous number (hence the reason so many can’t make a living just from dancing).
What a shame. At one time dancers could get unemployment insurance benefits and manage when they were unemployed. Even famous companies like Paul Taylor Dance depended on this. Now they have the double whammy of inadequate funding for their companies and inadequate social benefits.
This is a real shame, not only for the dancers themselves but also because it is indicative of what is happening in the US