Codes of practice

As some of you may or may not know, fellow BAPP colleague Ben Roomes and I work in the same professional ballet company so this post might be quite similar to his. I spoke at length before about my own personal ethics when it comes to my working environment but in this blog I'm going to discuss the ethics from the other side of the fence, looking at it from my works perspective. My only solid point of reference which ties those two together is my personal contract that I have signed and is what legally binds me to my work.. sounds a little ominous when you think about it.

The largest paragraph in my contract is the "Content of Work". A particular example of something I have always done but had forgotten it was a contractual obligation is "independently master the repertoire on the basis of video materials". It is a common understanding amongst dancers that if there is material that has been previously created in earlier years or on another company that you learn it before hand, but I was unaware this was written in our contract.

Another point that I wanted to touch on was something I discovered whilst looking through the very small print of my contract, "Employee is obliged to notify the employer at least 3 months beforehand of any private life matters which have an effect on the Employers repertoire". As this is all it says, it leaves me with a few questions. Death? Emergencies? These are not things that can be predicted or known 3 months prior. Our Theater has always been accommodating with illness or family emergencies but it does seem unnerving that they do in fact have the power to contractually cause issues. This seems like an ethical problem to me

Requirements of myself as a dancer base a lot around what I wrote in my previous blog post. Being punctual, not being intoxicated, professionalism and honesty are all written into our contract. One thing I didn't know but makes sense that is written in our contract is "a good command of at least one international foreign language". As English is my mother tongue I never really think about it as it is known as the international language of the world but for other dancers from other countries, it is an important aspect, as all of our rehearsals are taught in English. "Acquiring all necessary repertoires on time" is another common understanding but frames an ethical understanding also. It is respectful to not only your workplace but your other colleagues to come prepared to a rehearsal regardless if you have to work in your own time for it using video footage or not. It stipulates in our contract that we are to have a "higher or secondary choreographic education". This is not what I would assume as dancers are not required anywhere else in their work place or in the contract to choreograph any material. It actually states a few paragraphs later that we are employed specifically as a "Ballet Dancer".

Overall there have been a few surprises whilst reading through my contract. A few assumptions that I have as a professional are stipulated specifically in the contract but a few surprises came up whilst reading about private life matters. Do these apply to anybody elses contracts at work? I'm sure teachers have much stricter rules and requirements? Would like to hear some feedback and thought from others.