DA HISTORY

~1933 - Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was formed. It covered all performers in movies, but dancers were considered "EXTRAS".

~MID-1940’s - Dancers decided to affiliate with the Screen Extras Guild (SEG). Some were still hired under SAG contracts as actors in musicals, but most fell through the cracks without dance-specific contracts.

~1950s - Television was invented. The early shows were all live! SAG had no interest in covering these performances.

BACK

~1952 - Performers and broadcasters formed the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). Dancers, were recognized and represented with their own category, rates, and working conditions.

~1978 - Bobbie Bates formed Professional Dancers Quorum (PDQ) to take action on improving the work environment and rates for dancers.

~1980s - Almost all of the work for dancers was in music videos. Dancers were making about $50 per day. PDQ tried to get SAG and AFTRA to put these jobs under contract. Both of them did, but the rates were so low, it was not useful.

~SEG and SAG tried to merge several times, and failed. In 1986, SEG filed for bankruptcy leaving dancers without union protection.

~1985 - Julie McDonald at JHR became the first dance agent.The emergence of agents for dancers was a monumental.

~1998 - Teresa Taylor followed at BBA.

~1990 - Dancers and Agents formed DANCERS ALLIANCE to improve rates and conditions for work not covered by SAG or AFTRA!!!!!

~SHOUT OUT TO the founding fathers David Guigni and Bobbie Bates, Beth Impey, Scott Musgrove, Nathan Prevost, Sheri Norwood, Andrea Moen, Michael Higgins and others dancers, along with the agents; Julie McDonald, Teresa Taylor, and Tim O’Brien.

~1992 - Dancers Alliance and the agents staged a full boycott of “The Bodyguard,” film audition. Dancers formed a perimeter around the studio and not one dancer walked in the room. This action helped dancers gain unique protection from SAG in feature films.

~Mid 1990s- Union representation took over more work and Dancers Alliance began to fade.

~1998 - Dancers finally achieved principal coverage in TV (with fancy stuff like group rates and proportional residuals, based on rehearsal and shoot days)

~2007 - DA began to rally and joined AFTRA in negotiations with the record labels for a music video contract.The proposal was dropped due to the economic collapse.

~2011- DA and AFTRA tried again. After lots of hard work, tons of negotiating, and even a FLASH MOB... we got our contract for music videos!

~2014 Justin Timberlake was the first recording artist to protect his dancers under a SAG-AFTRA touring agreement. Thanks to this milestone, they are still making contributions towards their Health Care and Pension Plans today!

~2016: DA continues to hold events to educate the community and make improvements in new media areas such as YouTube, streaming, and choreographers' rights. The SAG-AFTRA music video contract is up for renegotiation, giving DA a great opportunity to adjust to the rise of music videos creating revenue on platforms such as Vevo.

~DA’s newest campaign, “567R8”, aims to implement an immediate and subsequent yearly increase on the current nonunion dancer rates, which have stagnated since the 1990’s.