Pact dancers have spoken out against=20 abusive treatment, reports HAZEL FRIEDMAN
`I WENT in with talent … and hope. I left=20 in extreme physical pain, emotionally=20 devastated … all my dreams destroyed …=20 Mr Joseph, I appeal to you with all my=20 heart, to make it possible for me to become=20 once again a fully functional human being=20 …”
This letter was written to the Performing=20 Arts Council of the Transvaal (Pact) CEO=20 Alan Joseph in 1996. The author – a former=20 member of Pact Ballet – didn’t receive a=20 reply. It is but one of many letters sent=20 to the Performing Arts Workers Equity=20 (Pawe) and the Mail & Guardian by former=20 Pact ballet dancers. And like the others,=20 this letter paints a tragic portrait of=20 pain-racked lives in point shoes. The=20 dancers who have come forward prefer to=20 remain anonymous. But their collective=20 story has been corroborated by staff=20 members of Pact.=20
It is a story that few want to hear. It=20 demolishes the dreams that little girls=20 carry into adulthood of a graceful world of=20 sylphs in satin and tulle pirouetting=20 weightlessly on gossamer wings. Behind the=20 stage sets and spotlights is a story of=20 agonising injury and insult.
Aspirant ballerinas watching Dawn Weller- Raistrick during her reign as Pact’s=20 principal dancer must have thought she was=20 a goddess. After a gruelling 12-year=20 regimen of practice and performance, exams=20 and eisteddfods, they – just like Weller=20 before them – would have joined Pact, first=20 as members of the corps de ballet and with=20 the aim of becoming staff members when=20 their dance careers were over. Pact is,=20 after all, the only company in South Africa=20 besides Capab, offering a future to=20 professional ballet dancers, especially=20 those who do not have the financial=20 resources to go overseas.=20
Inevitably competition for acceptance into=20 this coveted environment is strong. And=20 once inside, even among the select few who=20 make it into the corps de ballet, only the=20 fittest survive. But no amount of pre-Pact=20 training or self-sacrifice can prepare even=20 the most ambitious, hardworking or even=20 hardened of dancers for the years of=20 humiliation ahead.
Dancers are expected to work a six-day week=20 that often ends at 11pm. In 1989 the=20 starting salary for an aspirant was R500.=20 Since then it has been marginally upgraded.=20 On being accepted into the corps de ballet=20 as a junior the salary doubles. Thereafter=20 it increases erratically. Dancers might=20 receive a R50 increase one year, and=20 nothing for the next two. A senior dancers=20 with the corp de ballet, in her sixth year,=20 will earn R2 200 per month before tax and=20 pension deductions. A soloist in her=20 seventh year will receive R2 600 per month.=20 An average salary for a junior dancer is=20 R20 000 per year before deductions. An=20 aspirant member of the company will earn R9=20 500 per year – in comparison to which the=20 most junior member of the Transvaal=20 Philharmonic Orchestra will earn roughly=20 R45 000 per year. Inevitably this paltry=20 remuneration reduces adult men and women=20 (male dancers do earn more than female=20 counterparts) to the status of dependents.=20 Without additional financial assistance=20 from their families most dancers are unable=20 to survive.=20
But it is their “dependent status” in=20 another area that makes the lives of Pact=20 dancers so miserable. On joining the corps=20 de ballet they are, they say, treated like=20 children, systematically broken down=20 through rites of pain and humiliation. And=20 because they feel they have no recourse to=20 help, most submit unquestioningly to the=20 abuse. For example, when they join the=20 company as teenagers, they are immediately=20 weighed. Thereafter, the scale ritual is=20 repeated once a month. If they have gained=20 more than 2kg over the “ideal weight” they=20 say they are publicly humiliated.
One dancer was injured and took a month’s=20 break. She was told on her return that she=20 would have to lose the 4kg (gained on her=20 doctor’s instructions) to “get ahead” in=20 the company. After she reduced her fragile=20 frame by 3kg she alleges that she was still=20 insulted by members of senior management=20 because of her “flabby thighs”.
Widely acknowledged as an exquisite dancer=20 with a promising future, she was=20 increasingly sidelined from solo parts=20 because of her “weak feet” or forced to=20 dance punishing roles while injured. She=20 eventually resigned, a pain-racked,=20 skeletal wreck.
“Eating disorders are inevitably part of=20 this life,” says a psychologist who has=20 treated many dancers for anorexia and=20 bulimia. “But at Pact, in particular, the=20 unrealistic pressures on these dancers to=20 retain their adolescent figures well into=20 adulthood are nothing less than sadistic.”
Physical injury is also integral to the=20 dancer’s lexicon. But Pact – unlike most=20 dance companies around the world – does not=20 employ a resident physiotherapist. And, as=20 confirmed by dancers and staff members,=20 injury is regarded as weakness and the=20 victims as malingerers. The Mail & Guardian=20 has numerous letters detailing the way in=20 which injured dancers are treated. One=20 dancer was allegedly told, after being=20 ordered by a doctor to rest for six weeks=20 following a stress fracture, that a certain=20 male company member “danced principal roles=20 for one year with a stress fracture the=20 size of his little finger.”=20
Another, forced to undergo extensive=20 physiotherapy after a foot fracture, was=20 told that her “mistake” was proving too=20 costly. She was subsequently informed she=20 had no future in the company and=20 “constructively dismissed”.
But the most traumatic injury suffered by=20 members of Pact is to the spirit. Dancers=20 and staff members single out three=20 perpetrators: artistic director Dawn=20 Weller-Raistrick, senior ballet mistress=20 Nicky Middlemist and ballet master Bruce=20 Simpson (the latter recently slapped dancer=20 Ronnie Van Wyk across the face during=20 rehearsal).
Staff members accuse Weller-Raistrick in=20 particular of trying to run Pact like a=20 “concentration camp”, of marginalising=20 staff members who oppose her methods and of=20 victimising and tormenting dancers who are=20 either too outspoken or fail to meet her=20 expectations. According to Weller- Raistrick’s whim, they allege, today’s star=20 can overnight become a “failure” and end up=20 with a future in ruins.
“There is so much dance talent in this=20 country,” says a senior staff member at=20 Pact. “It is the responsibility of=20 management to nurture this talent, not=20 break it down.=20
“In overseas companies,” she adds, “this=20 form of sadism does not exist. Dancers and=20 staff are treated with mutual respect, even=20 though the discipline is extremely=20 rigorous. Unfortunately, Pact is=20 systematically destroying the future of=20 ballet in South Africa. Everyone knows what=20 is going on. Yet no one seems willing to=20 prevent it.”
CEO Alan Joseph, answering on behalf of=20 Weller-Raistrick and Pact’s human resources=20 manager, Sandra Laubscher, says he is=20 unaware of complaints either to Pawe or=20 himself regarding malicious behaviour or=20 mistreatment by Weller-Raistrick,=20 Middlemist or Pact management.