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Four professional dancers, on the decision of whether to work for free. (A daily battle, in my experience.)

““What I’ve realized as a freelancer… is that I’m actually running a small business.”

– Aaron Mattocks, Dancer, NYC

“I can’t do unpaid work… I’m an experienced professional, and I believe in being compensated at least a small amount for any project.”
– Sarah Cecilia Griffin, Dancer, Oakland

“Whether or not I do a piece has nothing to do with money anymore…”
– Joanna Furnans, Dancer/Restaurant Employee, Minneapolis

“I would do admin work for someone who was offering a massage or Alexander Technique lessons… and I would give those things to my dancers to use, passing along the bartered goods I’d earned.”
– Sarah A. O. Rosner, Choreographer/Arts Admin Consultant, Brooklyn

http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/June-2013/When-Should-You-Dance-for-Free

Follow more stories like this and read my blog posts on arts and labor at https://www.facebook.com/artistsustainability. -AW

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Caden Manson is a director, media artist, and teacher. He is co-founder of the media ensemble bigartgroup.com and network, blog, and publisher, contemporaryperformance.com. He has co-created, directed, video- and set designed 18 Big Art Group productions. Manson has shown video installations in Austria, Germany, NYC, and Portland; performed PAIN KILLER in Berlin, Singapore and Vietnam; Taught in Berlin, Rome, Paris, Montreal, NYC, and Bern; the ensemble has been co-produced by the Vienna Festival, Festival d’Automne a Paris, Hebbel Am Ufer, Rome’s La Vie de Festival, PS122, and Wexner Center for The Arts. Caden is a 2001 Foundation For Contemporary Art Fellow, is a 2002 Pew Fellow and a 2011 MacDowell Fellow. Writing has been published in PAJ, Theater Magazine, and Theater der Zeit. Caden is currently an associate professor and graduate directing option coordinator of The John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama.

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