How to Become A Professional Performance Artist

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." ~Confucius

This is the dream of many is it not? Making an honest living doing what you love. For those who love performing and dream about becoming professional performance artists as well someday here's some advise from the pros that may help you achieve your dreams. 

1. Invest In Your Art! With your Time, $$$, Resources, and whole heart!

Improve Yourself. No matter how good you think you are, you can always be better. Take as many different classes as you can from a variety of quality instructors to improve and broaden your skill set. Youtube is great for learning how to sew, but in the world of movement it cannot compare to having an experienced coach to point out exactly what you need to do differently and teach you how to safely do it. Even an audience with no knowledge of your art form can tell there is a big difference between the performer who has been properly trained and the one who just tried to copy what he found on youtube. Having a bag of tricks does not make one knowledgeable or even skilled in a discipline. Every artist needs to be constantly reinforcing and strengthening a solid foundation to build on. 
Ask questions of potential instructors. How many years they have been studying? Approximately how many hours per week did they study? With whom did they train? Research the instructors and/or schools named by the potential instructor to make sure they also have good solid training. Experienced teachers are the key to learning good, solid technique, and ensuring a professional, polished, and safe learning experience. A good coach will ask what your goals are and create a training plan, working with you to help you achieve them. 

Get high quality equipment. Not only does it look nicer to have a clean new apparatus with a color that matches the theme of the event you are performing for, but those shiny new carabiners and other rigging equipment is safer too. In aerial arts the equipment is a direct chain supporting the performer’s weight and tension, so each individual piece of equipment is vital to the performer’s safety. Remember equipment must be inspected before each use and retired on a periodic basis. 

Wear amazing costumes: Not to be Confused with your underware or gym clothes! Your audience is paying to see you perform. Looking amazing makes it a whole lots easier to win them over. Costumes and makeup play a very influential role in the feel, character creation, visual aesthetic and even practical elements in a performance. 
Your costume should match the feel of the performance piece and the theme of the event. If you are performing multiple acts and have time to change in-between each performance I would advise using a different costume for each act especially if you are performing different disciplines. Not only will it look fresher to your audience to see something new, but often times it is not practical to wear an acrobatic costume for an aerial silks performance or visa-versa. Whether you sew it yourself or hire someone else to make it for you, a great costume is an investment in your career that can’t be glossed over.

Get insurance. As a professional you have trained in your discipline almost daily for many many years. You know you are not going to get yourself hurt. You check and rig your own equipment so it's not going to fail on you. You check out the venue before the show date and run through the performance to make sure everything is safe. But you cannot know everything about the venue you are performing in or what others may do if they mess with your equipment while you're not looking. Insurance covers you and makes the client hiring you feel safer just in case anything were to happen.

Advertise and Audition. Create a website (or hire a pro), Facebook page, networking, business cards, flyers, videos, commercials, internet advertising, and whatever else you can afford to help potential clients find you. Research companies or productions you would like to join and audition. Or hire a manager to find jobs for you.

2. Train. Play. Train some more! 

Every day is an opportunity to learn and make improvements! That means setting aside a good block of the day for training at least 5-6 days a week. On an average day my training goes something like this;

1 hour morning Parkour run

35 min conditioning

1 hour Acrobatics

30-45 min deep partner Stretching

1 hour Acro dance

2 hours Aerial

2 hours Kung fu

1 hour deep evening Stretching

This is nothing compared to what serious athletes do. While studying Kung fu in China we trained a good six hours a day JUST Kung fu! Professional dancers and gymnasts train and practice every day for an average of six hours as well. Even more serious practitioners in these various disciplines train over 8 hours a day.

You might say, "I don't have that much time, I have to work." WRONG! If you want to be a professional THIS is your work! Giving an amazing performance is easy and fun. Performing is not the hard part. The years of training that go into bringing that piece into fruition is the work. Strict training can be physically, mentally, and even emotionally exhausting so don't forget to have fun and congratulate yourself on each little victory. The gratification that comes with mastering oneself and delving deeper into the intricacies of ones chosen art form is very rewarding.

So create your own training schedule and let your journey begin!

3. Act Like a Professional! On AND off the stage

Do not be that amateur who undercuts your fellow performers, yourself, or your art form. Undersell yourself and you cannot afford your classes, equipment, costumes, insurance, and everything else you need to get the good jobs. Undersell your art form and you bring down the value of everyones work who does that discipline.

Elephants work for peanuts. Professionals work for decent wages. There are only a few instances when it is acceptable to perform for free or a very low wage. 

1. For certain charity events that you feel passionate about. Even in these cases it is common courtesy for the charity to offer at least a charitable donation receipt for your services. Read more about working for charity events here; 

Working for Charitable Events Without Becoming A Charity Case

2. For a friend or family member you are doing a favor for. Although, if they are really your friend they'll first offer to compensate you, which you can then graciously refuse.

In either case some kind of perks should always be offered. (professional photos or video, some kind of service trade, yummy catering, free equipment or costumes…) But never EVER swallow that BS line, "It'll be good exposure for you." I have yet to get another gig from having performed for free somewhere. Mostly I find other people who want me to perform for free. Artists are frequently promised exposure and future paid work for giving their creations for free.  This is NOT the exposure you want, as it will give you the reputation of being a cheap performer. 

This is especially true if you want to perform under the big top or in epic productions someday. Why do the big circuses always hire David and I when they come to town? We're not the best. We're certainly not cheap. I'll let you in on a little secret that our last producer told us and I have heard echoed throughout the hiring community… They don't want amateurs who are performing at the local club for $50 and free drinks. They want professionals who are more exclusive and uncommon that the audience don't get to see as often. In my experience of hiring performers to produce our own shows I have learned the wisdom in this. Professionals charge more because they give more. They are reliable, experienced, safe. Their work is of great quality. The cheap performer tends to be a bit of a flake, is not as skilled, has not invested in nice costuming or equipment, or doesn't have their act polished. Not a reputation you want to be associated with.

A good rule to go by is if someone is making money off of you, then you should be making money too. 

As performers, it is our job to educate our clients to understand that they are paying for years of training, equipment, insurance, professionalism and safety. If they want to go on the cheap, then they can look forward to an embarrassingly bad show or the audience needing therapy after being traumatized by an amateur aerialist falling from the sky.

I agree with this article The Consequence of Working For Free in Circus when it states;

North America has this silly belief that work is a negative word. If we are working, then we shouldn’t enjoy it. Work should be hard. We should only be paid if there isn’t enjoyment. And so, there is a reluctance to charge, or charge appropriately, for work. Performing is addictive, with the flashing lights, adoring fans and adrenaline but we have to take care that we don’t turn into junkies, looking for the next fix. Just because you love what you do doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be paid. Actually, loving what you do means you will be better at it than if you hate it and that should result in charging more.

So how do you decide what to charge? 

Rates vary depending on the act, artist skill level, length of performance, event, and all that jazz ;p 

If you are an aerialist here is a good guide and an important read. 

Workin' Cheap - How Shortsighted Ninnies Are Killing Our Profession

Here it is suggested that if you’re working as an aerialist for less than $600 (and yes – that’s on the very low end), you are undercutting, my friend. Make no mistake – you are killing our industry.

The Act - No two acts are equal. An aerial act for example is likely going to cost much more then a ground act due to insurance and rigging. Artist Skill Level - Aside from more advanced skills and a clean performance, high level acts mean more dress rehearsals, good looking (and expensive) costumes, proper business etiquette, and all the bells and whistles that come with an amazing performance. These cost more then novice acts. Length of Performance - Longer shows tend to cost more. Event - Artists usually have 3 sets of rates. Coorporate, Private, and Kama'aina. Giving a break to the family that honestly can't afford a 7k show for Pennie's wedding reception.

If you are still not sure what to charge it's good performer etiquette to ask other artists who perform your same discipline what the acceptable rates are currently so as not to undercut fellow performers.

As artists I feel it's important to be unified in this. To look out for each other and respect the value of our art forms. To continue to encourage each other to learn, grow, lift ourselves, the community, and our art forms to even higher levels of awesomeness.