Thread: quick, fee advice needed

Here's the scenario,

email from person who wants a quote for 6 dancers for March 22, for an Arabian Night.

Question of where dancers are from.

I reply, tell the person I need more info, where, what time frame, and um, why are you asking where the dancers are from?

Responds that they need the dancers for 25 to 30 minute sets, from 7PM to 1AM, and wanted to know if the dancers are middle eastern, also, event is being held in swanky hotel.

I'm thinking a couple of hundred per dancer, they are not interested in a group performance, sounds like.

Those are long sets. I'm guessing they may want dancers as wallpaper... Do you want to even bother with it? I'd price it really high...like $1500. It might be a pain for you to set that up, so price it so it's worth your while.

Take the high end rate for your area. Times it by six. Add a travel fee if it's far ($50/per dancer/per hour for drive time), and a waiting fee if it is going to make the dancers unavailable for other gigs that evening. then add 10% to that as your own fee, (in addition to whatever you make as one of the performers) because believe me you will have earned it by the time you've finished dealing with people this clueless.

I swear this is not bitchy behavior. You will work harder than you expect for the kind of gig you're describing. Herding cats as the saying goes. Also, get a deposit and tell them nothing happens without the deposit - then stick to that. Do not call potential dancers, do not think about costuming, do not do wnyhting until a check is in your hand. 'The sooner they pay, the better the show will be' is what I tell potential gigs like this. If you start working on a big show and they hire elsewhere or scale it down to 2 dancers, it really sucks to be the bearer of that news.

um, whateve. You'll rock it I'm sure!

thanks ladies! that's helpful information.

Zari, you wouldn't happen to be in town on the 22nd? <bats lashes>

I've subbed for Sahar at the ME, coordinating dancers is very much like herding cats!

Glad they didn't call me...I don't envy you having to coordinate all that!! LOL!! Make sure you add on a nice finders fee for yourself.

Originally Posted by kina

thanks ladies! that's helpful information.

Zari, you wouldn't happen to be in town on the 22nd? <bats lashes>

I could, be for the right price ..g.:
lolz...

Do they want the dancers to switch off, or do they want all 6 dancers doing all of the sets (i.e., the moving wallpaper that mish mish mentioned). Because if someone wanted me to dance five 25-30 minute sets in a single evening (assuming they want one set per hour), they'd have to pay me well over $1,000 to be on my feet for that long.

Assuming they want the dancers dancing one at a time, you could suggest sets a bit shorter and offer three dancers, each dancing twice. Probably when they find out how much this is going to cost, they will want to scale back. Then you could offer them two dancers dancing two shorter sets each. Much less coordinating of dancers for you. The same people probably wouldn't be in the audience the whole time anyway so they won't be seeing the same show over and over. You could offer costume changes and maybe even a little duet at some point. Just an idea.

Wouldn't 3 dancers dancing twice cost the same as 6 dancers dancing once? I only say that because in all the discussions of undercutting, people have said that 2 shows is 2 shows, so 2 shows of 15 minutes each is still two shows. It seems to me - if I were one of the dancers, I'd rather take less money and only have to be there for an hour, then take slightly more money and have to be there for the whole 6 hours in order to do 2 sets.
Just thinking out loud.

most dancers make an exception to the 2 dancers 2 shows due to convenience, lack of travel, etc. for example, if it's one show at $75 the second show show is added on for a total fee of $125. This is particularly true if it's a regular gig.

Originally Posted by laura 2

Do they want the dancers to switch off, or do they want all 6 dancers doing all of the sets (i.e., the moving wallpaper that mish mish mentioned). Because if someone wanted me to dance five 25-30 minute sets in a single evening (assuming they want one set per hour), they'd have to pay me well over $1,000 to be on my feet for that long.

he's asked for dancers out on the floor in sets, 1 - 2, through the night.

yeah, I wouldn't do 6 sets in one night myself.

I think once he sees the quote, he'll scale back.

Originally Posted by kina

he's asked for dancers out on the floor in sets, 1 - 2, through the night.

Gotcha - I figured that's what you meant, but sometimes people really are clueless. Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me at all to think that there was a client out there who thought he could get six Belly Dancers working the room for five hours for 500 bucks or less. ..c::

Originally Posted by laura 2

Gotcha - I figured that's what you meant, but sometimes people really are clueless. Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me at all to think that there was a client out there who thought he could get six Belly Dancers working the room for five hours for 500 bucks or less. ..c::

..c::

or shwarma. sigh. we'll see.