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Martha Edwards <[email protected]> wrote: >The relative merits of pay for callers, musicians and sound people would be >a good topic for discussion. > >I'm both a musician and a caller, too, and while calling is harder for me, >it's possibly because I've not been doing it for 60 years, which is about >how long I've been a musician. So you might say I put in the hard work years >ago on playing music and am putting in the hard work now to call. If I >became a sound person, I'd have to work pretty hard, too. But just about the >time that I got to be worth paying a lot of money for, it would probably be >easy. > >But I am curious - in your groups, are callers paid more, or less, than >musicians (on average)? How about the sound guys? And on what do you base >the amounts? > >I remember a discussion on approximately this topic a couple of years ago, >where someone had moved from a large dance community, where she was paid >rather handsomely, to a small community where everyone was a volunteer. If I >remember right, she enjoyed being a part of both communities, but noted that >the one difference was that the volunteers were more likely *not *to show up >if there was a difficulty, whereas the paid talent would show up even in a >snowstorm. You were paying, in other words, for professionalism. > >Then there is a curious situation that has developed here. Our musicians, >years ago, were part of the dance community. They'd come to our dances, and >at our dance weekend, they'd dance, and jam on the lawn, and we'd all dine >together. Then we started rewarding them with higher pay because we liked >their contribution so much. The result over time was that they started >treating it as a gig rather than as a social event. Now they show up about >ten minutes before dance time, they play, and then they either go home or, >at our dance weekend, they find some out-of-the-way place to jam, away from >the dancers. I just looked at our list of bands, and there's only one >person - okay, two - listed in our local contra dance bands that regularly >dance with us any more. Is that normal in your communities? > >M >E > >On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Cynthia Phinney <[email protected]>wrote: > >> At our series (a small local dance in rural Maine), we divide the door up >> into one share each for band members, caller, and sound (sound gets one >> share) for bands of five people or less. Once the bands get over five >> people, the caller gets a larger share. >> >> My experience of being both a caller AND a musician, is that calling is >> significantly more work than playing. I also find that it is more work, >> usually, to call for a large band than a small one. Communication is more >> challenging, and there is usually more doodling and chatting in the >> background from the band. Plus - for us - some of our larger bands are >> students and so the music isn't perfectly honed for dancers, which means >> that the caller is needed even more to help keep the dancers on the phrase >> since it isn't so crisply defined by the musicians (our dance also has a >> significant percentage of inexperienced dancers). >> >> -cynthia >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] >> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dan Pearl >> Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 12:50 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [Callers] Caller Fees >> >> Interesting! >> >> I chair the Thursday Night Dance Committee of NEFFA, which runs a weekly >> dance >> at the Concord Scout House, in Massachusetts. I would characterize our pay >> as >> good. Here are the basics: >> >> 1. We expect equal shares for all performers (musicians/callers). In only >> very >> unusual circumstances will we pay different amounts. >> 2. Guarantee (per performer) is dependent on # of performers. 3 => $155; 4 >> => >> $145; 5 => $125; 6 => $104; 7 => $89. >> 3. Performers who travel a distance (say over 1 hour) to get to the dance >> get >> $15 extra. >> 4. Bonus *is* dependent on attendance. We assume that if people came out in >> droves to dance, the performers probably had something to do with it, and >> they >> should be rewarded. For a well-attended night, it is not unusual for >> performers >> to make around $200 each. For an exceptionally well-attended night, they >> might >> make $300 each. >> _______________________________________________ >> Callers mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Callers mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers >> > > > >-- >For the good are always the merry, >Save by an evil chance, >And the merry love the fiddle >And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats >_______________________________________________ >Callers mailing list >[email protected] >http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
