There is a disturbing and growing trend of exploiting Bharatanatyam artists from India when they come to teach in North America. We have heard of several incidents when the artist from India discusses the terms of the teaching work involved and the amount to be paid over the phone with teachers of Bharatanatyam located in the US and in Canada. Sadly enough, the verbally agreed upon terms are often violated in terms of the artists from India being made to work inordinately long hours, and often held in limbo without any payment at all until the end of their time with a specific teacher. Worse still, at times, the US or Canada-based teachers back out of the payment altogether citing that the artist’s work was not satisfactory; this is often articulated only after the India based artist has provided much time, energy and labor with two to three weeks of teaching.
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To that effect, in consultation with legal counsel, we suggest a set of “best practices” that both artists and teachers who hire them would be well advised to.....
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So who is going to stand up for the foreign students who are being exploited by the Chennai teachers? after quitting their job, leasing their home, disrupting all relationships and responsibilities at home to come overseas for extended periods, paying what amounts to at least 1 moth salary just for airfare, having to find and pay for a new place here (all this is proveded to teachers who come west), then being charged 800 or1000Rs per hour, which is the going rate in Manhattan (NYC) and rarely charged even in US? If you are not in US? why charge a US rate? Don't we all wish we could pretend to be on Park Ave so we could charge $100 USD per hour? alas, we are not. Foreign students in Chennai should be charged as all other students in India are.
ReplyDeleteThe horror story seems like an extreme case. For the sake of any artist that may wish to visit you should post details and allow public disclosure. If such details are not provided then there is no way to substantiate that it actually occurred. Finally, there are always two sides to the story... Perhaps the artist was threatening the teacher or mistreated a student? There are cases where the artists from India take advantage of generous hosts. They commit to everything before they come but later they never follow their commitments. Artists from India often come to make money in the west they are not interested in spreading the culture or promote the art form. They are only interested in money. If their demands are not fulfilled then they threaten the host or abuse the students.
ReplyDeleteGo to chennai or any other place in India and say that you are from US or Canada and want to learn dance, the fees that the experts asks immediately shoots up 2 or 3 times the actual fee.
ReplyDeleteEveryone evaluates their circumstances and then decides what is best for their own situation. An artist getting an opportunity to travel, perform and teach in US or Canada not only gets financial benefits buts also gets many non tangible benefits like increase in artists visible, future calls to other foreign countries etc etc. So they have to consider all the factors, costs involved etc etc before they come up with any terms. They can decide of whether or not to sell an item at fixed cost, the buyer has the right to decide whether he/she will agree to such a transaction. For example, the seller/tailor of a dance dress can ask that he/she be paid a portion of the amount that the artist get whenever they wear his/her costumes.
Best practices are good reference points, but remember that the sponsors of visa also endure lot of risks and costs. Also most righteous artists in US and Canada respect their visiting counterparts and go out of the way to make them comfortable. The situation described in this blog may be far and few.
I completely agree. The Artists/gurus visitors from India, take advantage of US or Canada teachers, they charges double or triple the amount. They travel to other countries not to spread the Art but to make money. This should stop...
ReplyDelete