Reading a recent post…

Someone suggested that “business” in dance has to take precedence over worrying about clarity and quality in dance, because people need to earn a living. I understand what she was saying, but am going to say this:

It does such a disservice to any dance form when teachers and directors allow mediocrity to dominate- because mediocrity tends to become dominant and then things go into a downward spiral, and the quality, reputation and beauty of dance fades and dance becomes farce. Yes, it might be “business” (and I know business- I’ve owned my own and have also taught business classes to dancers for years) but it is not art.

Art can be a business with integrity that can lead to long term survival. I hear so many teachers saying their student loads are dropping, their audiences are shrinking- yet I then hear them say they can’t demand hard work from students or commitment or the students will quit, and then they let them go perform in public, and wonder why they are not respected as a true dance art?

The problem with this kind of thinking is that bellydance (and its random offshoots) is paying to a very limited audience, often because the teachers and dancers themselves aren’t thinking beyond the next class, the next limited performance, their friends/family audience… they fail to see that the way to build audiences (and therefore repeat gigs) is through integrity towards the art, professionalism of the performers, respect for the audience and an understanding of the fact that bellydance is not what everyone is doing and there are new audiences out there waiting to be created for the new art forms…and that is business!