When are you considered professional?

[AspiringDancer]

Recent events have led me to wonder what makes a dancer professional? I know it's not that she's getting paid or that she's a great performer. It's both and more.

Personally I won't consider myself a professional until I feel comfortable and confident dancing all components of a show to live music. I can perform, create and remember choreography, my technique is good, my understanding of rhythms, style and culture is getting there. However, I know many dancers that consider themselves professional that have never danced a solo or to live music and if they feel that makes them pro, who am I to judge?

I see professionals that I think are not very good at all and students that have blown everyone else out of the water. So it's a very subjective matter.

So in your opinion, when is a dancer a professional?

 

[~Diana~]

I consider someone a professional bellydancer if 1. they are making their main living off dancing 2. they are not making their main living off dancing but are getting an income from dancing/teaching/etc when not working. 3. they continue to invest in costuming, training, and upgrading their skills yearly. 4. they are recognized by their local community or even international community as a professional dancer. 5. Have over 5 years of significant yearly dance training and performance experience.

Usually they have to match either 1 or 2 plus 3, 4,and 5 for me to categorize them as professional.

 

[AspiringDancer]

Well...That makes a whole lot of sense.

 

[Yame]

I think that the reason this question is more complicated than it should be, is because the word "professional" carries more than one meaning. It can mean that this is someone's career, for which they get paid... or it can simply refer to a very high level of quality in the person's work. Personally, I prefer to use the word "professional" in the first meaning rather than the second. If I am talking about the quality of a dancer's work, I prefer to use words other than "professional" so as not to confuse and conflate the two meanings, because not all professional belly dancers (those who get paid to dance) present professional (meaning, high-quality) work.

By my definition, anyone who consistently gets paid to belly dance is a professional belly dancer. It doesn't matter how good or how bad I think they are... I don't get to decide who's a professional and who isn't. For better or for worse, it is the person and the public who decides. I don't get to say another dancer isn't a professional because I don't like their dancing, no matter how valid my reasons may be. So in that sense, all you have to do to become a professional dancer is call yourself one, and be able to get work.

On the other extreme, there are dancers who do not get paid to dance, yet who are very skilled. I do not consider them professional if they aren't working dancers. I might consider them amazing, I might love to see them dance a lot more than certain working dancers, but they are not professionals if they just do it as a hobby.

One thing people need to understand is that the word "professional" shouldn't be considered some sort of higher status. You are not better than a hobbyist just because you get work. We don't all need to become professionals in order to be amazing dancers.

Also, there are gray areas... for example, dancers who work full-time and belly dance only part-time. Are they professionals? I think it depends on how often... I know a lot of belly dancers who work full time but still make a significant amount of income belly dancing even though it's part-time. I still consider them professional. But then there's people like me, who work full-time and dance part-time only once or twice a week or just a couple of times a month, yet still take classes and workshops so the dance income doesn't even cover the dance-related expenses. So for me personally, since I don't perform professionally multiple times a week or make any profit belly dancing, I am unconfortable using the word "professional" to talk about myself. However since I do take paid gigs, I can't say I am just a hobbyist. So I like the word "semi-professional" for myself and people in my situation.

I guess in a way I am a hobbyist, a professional, a student, and a teacher all at the same time. To me that is just perfect, because all I want out of this is to be a really really good dancer. Anything else is extra.

 

[AspiringDancer]

It really should be about just wanting to up your own personal best and gaining experience, memories and achieving goals along the way. The whole, "enjoy the journey and don't focus on the destination" thing.

I wrote this post because I'm just curious when someone makes the switch from student to serious hobbyist to professional. So I guess it's a combination and defined uniquely by every dancer with a few common agreements re: getting paid.

 

[Jane]

Matter of semantics. Professional costumes, skills, knowledge sure.

I rarely perform anymore and I mostly teach regular classes and the occasional workshop. My belly dance income does not pay my bills and never could even when I was doing more performing, but it is my only job outside the home. Professional belly dancer or professional teacher?

Someone can call themselves whatever they like, but the person hiring them or watching the performance will decide for themselves.

 

[Ariadne]

(A lot of really good things.)

Yame covered what it means to be a professional dancer very well so I'm just going to cover the other meanings she refers to. Yes being a professional "anything" just means you are paid to do it but too many people forget that there is more then a pay check involved in being considered personally "Professional". (I am going to use a small "p" for the first and a capitol "P" for the second.) To be "Professional" means to act with integrity in your business. To give people your best for their money. To seek out additional training when there is something in your field you are lacking in. To keep your personal drama to yourself and be considerate of those you work with. To understand the financial side of things; contracts, taxes, the actual market value of what you are offering. To dress appropriately for your job whatever that may be.

You don't have to be a professional to act Professionally but if you are one you should be the other.

 

[Aniseteph]

It really should be about just wanting to up your own personal best and gaining experience, memories and achieving goals along the way.

But that is a better description of an amateur, in the true sense of the word i.e. doing something for the love of it, not for money.

I agree with Yame that it looks complicated because the word has multiple meanings. At bottom it's about making your living at something, but it's acquired a whole layer of associations to do with behaving in a way that does not bring that profession into disrepute.

I'll go with Yame's version - make your living at it or get paid regularly and you are a pro or semi-pro dancer. In an ideal world that would go with decent dancing, knowledge and professional behaviour, but it's not an ideal world.

 

[~Diana~]

Like Yame has said above, I have many times referred to myself as 'semi-professional' because even though I match my own criteria I don't do it full time or get enough paid gigs each month to pay off what I put out to keep my skills and training up to snuff.

 

[Roshanna]

I personally consider a professional to be someone who is available for paid performances, and whose dance skills, costuming and ethics are up to a certain standard.

I don't restrict it to people who make a significant portion of their living from dance, because a lot of brilliant dancers who *do* take paid gigs, at least around here, also have day jobs or make most of their income from teaching, and in some cases are quite choosy about which paid gigs to accept. I don't think these people are not professionals - they do some professional work, to a good professional standard, and are mostly dancers I'd happily hire to dance at my wedding etc!

I also don't think just the willingness or ability to perform for money is enough. I know of some local dancers and troupes who are not of a professional standard in any way who advertise themselves as available for paid gigs (although I don't think they actually get hired for many). And I know of people getting paid to dance who've never taken classes - again, clearly not professional bellydancers anymore than I'd be a doctor if I borrowed a white coat and stethoscope and convinced gullible people to let me 'treat' them.

I don't like using the term 'semi-professional' really, as it's not clear to everyone what it means. As far as the dance community is concerned, I'm a serious student in some (most) contexts, and a professional dancer in others. As far as the general public is concerned, I am a professional dancer, because I dance to a reasonable professional standard, invest in my own training, have decent costuming, adhere to standards of ethics and professionalism, pay tax (or would if my income ever exceeded my outgoings :lol, and am available for them to hire for money. If I described myself as semi-professional, which strictly speaking I am as this is only a minor source of income for me, then that could also imply to potential clients that I was 'unprofessional' in some other way.

 

[Yame]

I also don't think just the willingness or ability to perform for money is enough. I know of some local dancers and troupes who are not of a professional standard in any way who advertise themselves as available for paid gigs (although I don't think they actually get hired for many). And I know of people getting paid to dance who've never taken classes - again, clearly not professional bellydancers anymore than I'd be a doctor if I borrowed a white coat and stethoscope and convinced gullible people to let me 'treat' them.

The big difference between the two is that in order to be a doctor, you are legally required to graduate from medical school, complete a residency, etc. If you simply call yourself a doctor and start practicing medicine, you will go to jail.

It's a huge false equivalency. Being a professional belly dancer is more akin to being an artist. To be an artist you do not legally have to complete any sort of training. All you have to do is be able to produce and sell your art. If you call yourself an artist and the public considers you an artist and buys your art, then you are a professional artist regardless of how good or bad your art actually is.

Being a professional belly dancer isn't even really akin to being a professional dancer in certain other dance forms, because there are dance forms out there that have very defined standards and where the dancer is hired from within their dance "scene" by dancers and former dancers, not directly by the general public. So for example in ballet, you can't really just call yourself a ballet dancer regardless of training and then be hired by the GP because that's not how it works. Just public validation is not enough in this case, although you won't be arrested for trying.

What I am trying to say is that we can sit here and discuss what we think should be the standards for professional performing, we can sit here and say we don't think so-and-so is a professional dancer because s/he does not dance well and does not invest in training, we can do that all we want, but the reality is that if so-and-so wants to dance professionally they are very much able to do it, and they can very much take the shortcut and to it before their dancing is up to par, they can do it without continuing their training, they can do it as long as they can find enough people who are willing to pay to see them. And they can do that because we, as their peers, have absolutely no authority over what they do, because we do not have a regulating board, we do not have set standards, and we are not the ones who have the power to hire and fire them.

 

[khanjar]

I would have thought when one starts to receive pay and continues to receive pay for dancing one is a professional through the concept that one dances for a living one is a professional ?

Sure there are professional dancers and professional dancers some are better than others and that is the game, to be the best to exact the most pay.

But if an audience is suitably entertained to pay for that dancer no matter what their standard then that dancer is professional for it is the audience's perception that matters here, not the hierarchy that exists between dancers through many motivations but what a paying audience are entertained by.

One can be a backwater dancer with some skill and be professional or one can be a highly trained state of the art another amongst many others in the bright lights, what makes one professional is a regular income from dancing, no matter what standard for the audience are the judge, not dancers.

 

[Roshanna]

Fair enough Yame, you're probably right on this one, sadly. There's nothing we can do to stop totally unskilled or incompetent dancers working as pros if there's someone out there willing to hire them.

Doesn't mean I don't view them as charlatans though!

 

[sansa]

I, too, believe "professional" is a very subjective word and idea. Unless you're a well-known dancer (small area or large), it's very likely that if you were judged by ten different people you could get ten different assessments of your skills. Certain types of people might love your style and your personal level of expertise while others might totally disagree that you're any good at all; might think, for instance, that your style doesn't match what you're claiming to be or that your level of expertise is lacking. The first group might hire you and spread the word within their community and you might work within that community constantly, with very happy audiences. The second group would never hire you and consider you "just" a student or even a hack. So who's to say whether you're a professional or not? As long as there is more than one way to judge a performer, there will never be agreement as to whether that person is a true professional. So my bottom line ...

When you believe you are giving all you've got to give, are meeting your own standards of continuing education, have found an audience that appreciates you, are satisfied with your level of income from your endeavors, I think no one can argue with you for calling yourself a professional.

In any other field, what would we think? There are two restaurants on a street. You love one and think the other should be closed. Your friend loves the other and thinks the one should be closed. But they're both working restaurants with satisfied clientele doing what they've chosen and what they love. Both legitimate restaurants.

My humble opinion.

 

[Shanazel]

I don't like using the term 'semi-professional' , as it's not clear to everyone what it means.

Apparently neither is the term "professional."

When I was dancing many years ago, I made between a third to half of my living either dancing or teaching, depending on the season. I thought of myself as a semi-professional dancer but never presented myself that way to employers who didn't need to know the source of my personal income. As far as they were concerned I was a complete professional who was capable of providing them with an excellent product, which in the case of a dancer is a performance.

 

[Yame]

Fair enough Yame, you're probably right on this one, sadly. There's nothing we can do to stop totally unskilled or incompetent dancers working as pros if there's someone out there willing to hire them.

Doesn't mean I don't view them as charlatans though!

Now, THAT is something they can't take away from us

Apparently neither is the term "professional."

When I was dancing many years ago, I made between a third to half of my living either dancing or teaching, depending on the season. I thought of myself as a semi-professional dancer but never presented myself that way to employers who didn't need to know the source of my personal income. As far as they were concerned I was a complete professional who was capable of providing them with an excellent product, which in the case of a dancer is a performance.

Indeed! That's me!

 

[Darshiva]

I consider myself professional because I have a professional approach to dancing. I treat it as a full-time job and put a lot of hours into both honing my teaching craft and imrpoving my dancing skills.

That's how I view professionalism in dancing - the amount of work put in where you can't see it.

 

[Amulya]

In my opinion it's quite simple: if they are an amazing dancer and perform regularly (paid of course, unless they are donating a gig to charity)
At the other hand, some are professional dancers and never perform, but they are teachers

 

[DancingArabian]

My definition is pretty simple - I define a professional as someone who gets their primary source of income from the activity. A professional belly dancer, to me, gets her main source of income from belly dance.

Goodness knows you don't have to be good to be a professional dancer. Being good isn't a requirement for being a professional anything, sadly.

 

[Amulya]

That would mean there are only a handful professional dancers out there. No I don't count the bad ones as professional even if they earn enough to live from it.