Ballet Chicago’s Union Tangle
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First and foremost, AGMA is trying to fashion a response to a baffling proposal from Ballet Chicago management for a 1994-’95 employment contract that would last a mere five weeks. Covering salaries for 25 dancers and stage managers, the contract would run from March 6 to April 9, 1995, which includes the proposed dates for the Spring Festival of Dance, when Ballet Chicago has apparently reserved the Shubert Theatre for a week of performances. That engagement is believed to be the company’s only scheduled performance in Chicago next season. The proposed five-week contract would cover the same number of employees at the same salaries as last year’s 32-week contract, which expired May 31. Last year’s base weekly salaries ranged from $451 a week for new dancers to $619 for soloists and $677 for principal dancers.
Duell declined comment on the drastically shortened proposal, but observers wonder whether the core company can be held together with the promise of just five weeks’ employment and a pitiful $2,255 in salary. “I think this kind of contract offer is going to force a lot of dancers to look for other serious job offers,” says Ballet Chicago soloist Robert Remington. Indeed, Dube said one of the reasons the union has been unable to respond promptly to the proposal is the difficulty of polling members of the company’s dancers’ negotiating committee because they’ve been dispersed around the country looking for work.
Report From the International Theatre Festival
