Thread: Working abroad in Turkey and Southern Europe

I have been doing a lot of travelling recently to Turkey, Egypt and Mediterranean Europe and have realized more and more that I would want to live in one of those areas very soon. I am happiest when I am in Turkey, Spain or Greece. This has made me realized more and more that I could be dancing there (either part-time or full-time).

When I was in Turkey recently, and visited many different cities, I noticed there are many foreign dancers working either in big cities or in resort areas for mainly tourists.

Has anyone danced in the areas of my interest? What has your experience been? Did you enjoy it? How was the pay? did you find that you had to move from place to place depending on the time of year and demand for dancers in different venues?

I would really love some feedback on this as I have been thinking about it seriously and would like to take it to the next level in the near future.

Thanks
Goldie

Ive been working in some 5-star hotels in Turkey. Whats important to know is that you need a work permit to work in Turkey. If you dont have one you can be deported and not be allowed to enter Turkey for some time (i think 6-9 months). Pay depends on where you work, at local funpubs the pay can even be only tip, where I worked it was simular to my swedish pay. I loved working in Turkey. =)

Hi dansoz - out of curiosity, how did you find the gigs? What sort of permission do you need to do that? Did you have an agent?

I'm interested too! Would love to go there and dance for 1-2 months...
Thanks

Thanks Dansoz. Yes getting a work permit is important and necessary. Some canadian dancer in Turkey said that you also MUST have an agent but many Turkish people told me that is not necessary in order to dance.

Goldie

Well Turkey is not like what most of us are use to in our countries (scandinavia england, usa and more). Rules can be broken depending on who you know. I got my work when I visited the hotel whit a friend who was a diving instructor there. Othervise nobody can get in to the areas of the 5 star hotels here (I say here cos im inTurkey right now). A woman from Russia was teaching tourists to dance and the staff from the hotel thought we were guests and asked us to join the group so we did for fun. The manager of the entertainment at the hotel saw me dancing and came to me afterwards and asked me to work for them.

He also signed me up at many other 5-star hotels. It was a fun experince they sent out a driver who picked me up every day and drowe me around to different stages, mostly amfhitheaters and the special ordered costumes for me from Istanbul. BUT its different working here, the manager almost saw me as if i belonged to the hotel 24/7, they wanted me to live in the hotel and take my passport (im sure to have more control of me) the other dancers here a russian balet group and others were all handing over their passports. I didnt feel that the boss/employer relationship was as nice as im use to in sweden. Its hard to explain with my bad english but it feels like you are not equal persons. They considered me more like a possetion. I quit after some time because this situation didnt suit me. I would have done it all over again for the thrill of being on those amazing stages with the big audiences but in the long run i like the buisness relations in sweden more.

Ofcurse this is just my opinion on how these hotels were working. Keep in mind this is also a tourist resort I have friends workisng and living in istanbul who have highly paid dance jobs at good places and dont have these problems.

Selina Sevil