One of the trickiest situations I have to deal with is picking dancers to dance in my troupe. Ideally I would include all of my students at every event I get asked to. I try to provide opportunities for everyone to dance, such as the college open day, Wombourne Carnival and haflas because I know that all my students should get the opportunity to perform in public. However I do get asked to provide a troupe for events where a more professional level is expected. When people are paying for dancers they expect a professional standard and so I have a troupe - the fabulous Shikidim. The troupe consists of 5 of my best students, they work hard at learning the routines, practise at home, spend a lot of money on costumes, present themselves well and are punctual. I am very proud of them. Occasionally a place becomes available in my troupe and finding a replacement always causes problems. I know that quite a lot of my students are disgruntled because they do not get invited to join my troupe, and I hate disappointing them, however I cannot include ladies who do not know the routines, who turn up late for events, scowl through dances and make no effort with costumes.
I would just like to say to the disgruntled students being in the troupe is not all sparkle and applause. We invariably do not get well paid, usually have to change in the loo's/broom cupboard/tent (yes we have changed in a tent), always have to hang around as the organisers never have us dancing at the time agreed. We spend quite a lot on costumes/make up and travelling to events so make very little money from it so ladies don't be jealous of the troupe.
I would be interested to hear from other teachers as to how to deal with this problem as I know it causes resentment.
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