Shufflers needed for a show! London UK, 9 Oct 2011

Hey all,

We are comedy group from Australia and is looking for 2 shufflers for our London show at 9th of October at Hammersmith Apollo Theatre. The shuffling part is about one minute and it's a real chance to demonstrate your skills in front of 1500+ audience. The show will be filmed, and there gonna be heaps of fun - it's a comedy event, after all!

What we need: 2 shufflers available for 8-9 of October, for the event itself and one rehearsal the day before. Ideally, shufflers should be able to dance together, but any decent dancers would do.

If interested, please contact me via facebook (Denis Ru in Melbourne, Australia), or email me denisrumelbourne-at-gmail-dot-com. That would be great if you can send me some basic info about yourself and link to your videos, if you have any.

Cheers,
Denis

Hi Denis sounds good,

a few questions

Male or female shufflers or one of each ?
What height and body type do you want - both approx the same ?
What ages - eg over 18 yrs etc
What actual shuffle skills do you require eg Someone with jump, kick, spin abilities or just running man ?
Who will do the choreography ? The dancers ? Which one ? Who decides ?
What costume do you require the shufflers to wear. Do they have to buy it or is there an allowance ?

How much do the dancers get paid ?
How much travelling and accomodation allowance do they get - in advance of course to buy tickets and secure accomodation.
What work visa requirements do you need to work in London on the show, who pays for the visa's.

How much time do dancers have to read the contract, have it checked by lawyers and get it back to you? Especially seeing as it's only a couple of weeks away, and you need work visa's as well ?

Hi Garry, actually, the idea was to found someone local, from London to do some fun at stage. We're really tight on budget unfortunately and can't take someone from Melbourne considering all the costs.

Cheers,
Denis

Do the London shufflers get paid ? and do you provide injury insurance so that if a shuffler injures themselves during rehearsal or on stage, say breaks a bone in their foot, that could end their entire dancing career and you can be sued for their lost earnings.

If this is just a free thing, all risks and expenses paid by the dancers, that's okay, but you need to say that clearly up front, you offer in return for no pay or insurance etc, the exposure of the event, which is a good gig, but if a shuffler trips on some junk in rehearsals and any dreams of a pro career are finished before they get to stage, there's every chance you will be sued, very hard for a decade of lost earnings and career opportunities.

It's very different if the dancers are doing their own show, it's their responsibility, but you are the employer and have to obey workplace safety laws in both Australia and the UK, I'm not familiar with the latest details of performing laws in the UK, you'll need to check that out. At a large established venue like you are suggesting, I imagine there's lots of paper work to be signed, and they won't let you through the door if it's not.

You will need to check with the UK unions as well for dancers, to make sure the dancers are legally able to perform on stage in London. You'll need all that paper work completed well before the gig. Very often there are industry restrictions on who can and cannot perform live on stage, such as has the performer paid their Union/association fees or have they been banned or suspended from a venue.

You don't want to arrive at YOUR gig all excited and ready to roll and find you're dropped from the bill, because of a dancer has a bad record that they didn't tell you about, and the event security refuse all of you entry.

The event may have legal waivers for what they call amateurs or non professionals, and there will be a long list of exclusions what is considered a pro event and what isn't.

So perhaps check with the event organisers to see if they have a legal arrangement to allow that sort of thing. It might be fine, or they may have to be fully paid up members of a performers union/association etc with award pay rates etc.

As international guests at the event, they will already have arrangements in place with the UK govt for you to work in London for a specific show, in which case if your dancers came from Melbourne as part of your act, they would already be covered with this stuff.

Garry, thank you for your thorough explanation! Yes, we'll definitely check it with event organisers in regards to all the paperwork... But first we have to find dancers, as there's still no response whatsoever. Do you know anyone shuffling in London who might be interested?

Yeah no worries, I'll change the post to a global announcement for a better chance for anyone in London to spot.

So is this a stand alone show or part of a festival ?