A dancer's guide to booking conferences - marketing the performing arts

Dance Magazine, June, 2003 by Jody Sperling

Ever wonder why some dance companies go on the road and others seem to stand still? As a choreographer or company director, do you have a show you'd like to tour, but don't know how? Getting a gig can seem mysterious to the uninitiated. Randy Swartz, a presenter for more than thirty years, laments that "the booking business is a big, black hole for a lot of dancers."

Part of Swartz's job as artistic director of Philadelphia's Dance Affiliates is attending booking conferences. If you want to know how the business works, you have to understand what goes on at the conferences.

A booking conference is a marketplace for the performing arts where artists, managers, and agents "sell" their product to presenters, the people who book performers for theaters or other venues. It's a place to forge relationships.

The most prominent conference of interest to dancers is sponsored by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), and is held in New York City each January. There are also three significant regional U.S. conferences (Western Arts Alliance, Arts Midwest, and Performing Arts Exchange--a joint effort of the Southern Arts Federation and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation) and many international meetings, congresses, and world arts markets.

Prepare to be overwhelmed the first time you go to APAP. In January 2003, some 3,500 attendees visited three huge "resource rooms" filled with 338 booths representing all performing arts. The four-day event was packed with forums, panels, seminars, workshops, and committee meetings. The program listed about 700 official showcase performances (some were repeats), about 400 of which included dance. Many artists or their agents also scheduled showcases or performances around the city hoping to attract conference attendees to their work.

Swartz, who views himself as "a bit of a showcase nut," saw nineteen dance companies in one day at APAP. "There's an artistry to showcasing," he says, and he wishes more choreographers understood that. "It's not a performance; it's a very artificial situation. It's in essence a twenty-minute commercial for the company." He goes on, "Presenters are looking at you like no real audience ever would. They're asking, `Is this worthwhile artistically? Can I sell tickets? Will my community support this company? Is there a hook I can use for marketing?' Presenters have to determine not only whether a performance is worth a $25 ticket, but whether they should fork over several thousand dollars to a company and risk their reputation besides."

For your showcase, California-based arts consultant and agent Rachel Cohen recommends you put forth your most engaging, highly polished work. She says you should never show a work in progress--it's too risky.

Jodi Kaplan, who runs a dance agency in New York (and soon also in Los Angeles) and teaches booking process workshops, urges artists not to exhibit or showcase at a conference unless they're ready to tour.

"You never get a second chance at a first impression," she says. You need professional-looking promotional materials--a great press kit and video are essential. You also need a viable management structure, someone who can handle contract negotiations and the logistics of touring. "Presenters," Kaplan notes, "don't want to do a lot of hand-holding."

Swartz agrees, citing "aggravation factor" as important to presenters. "[Is the company] going to be needy, or have last-minute demands, like asking for a babysitter, an interpreter, a pianist for class, or more time in the theater?"

A company must know what it needs well ahead of time. Presenters do talk to each other; a company that creates bad buzz may have trouble securing future engagements.

Exhibiting at a conference can be a big investment, and not necessarily the best use of resources at the beginning of your career. Registration fee, booth rental, and the expense of producing a showcase can easily add up to $2,000 and more.

If you haven't toured before, it's unlikely that you'll find an agent willing to offer full representation--agents, like presenters, prefer to work with companies that already have a track record. However, some agents, in addition to their regular client list, have a supplemental roster of newer artists. For a fee, you can display your press kit at their booth and perhaps even receive a showcase time slot. Kaplan is expanding her "boutique roster" to include representation at four U.S. conferences, a showcase at APAP, and group and private consultations. The annual fee of $2,500 is a bargain when compared to the monthly retainer plus commission required for full representation.

There are other ways to gain exposure at conferences as well. New York arts administrators Barbara Bryan, Carla Peterson, Tricia Pierson, and Janet Stapleton banded together with thirteen choreographers to build national visibility for their work in experimental dance forms. Their Dance Cooperative, now in its third year, rents a booth at APAP and produces a showcase. By sharing resources, the cost of this representation is kept to a minimum--$600 this year.