{"id":182703,"date":"2026-04-01T21:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182703\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T21:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:31:08","slug":"renversons-a-new-nyc-based-company-aims-to-be-a-game-changer-for-freelance-dancers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182703\/","title":{"rendered":"Renversons, a New NYC-Based Company, Aims to Be a Game Changer for Freelance Dancers"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Ballet Academy East in New York City, the six women dancers of Renversons Contemporary Ballet quickly switch between Keds, ballet slippers, and pointe shoes during a run-through of the group\u2019s upcoming performance. In a rousing sneaker ballet, one dancer lifts another upside down, her body spiraling, while another tour jet\u00e9s into her partner\u2019s arms, as artistic director Minnie Lane watches intently from the front of the studio.<\/p>\n

Like many project-based companies, Renversons is made up of freelancers; they have a few hours to run through the ballets and work out the kinks before their rented-studio time is up. But they dance with a single-minded purpose as they prepare for the company\u2019s first official season. Origins<\/a>, a mixed bill featuring works by Lane and Adriana Pierce, opens April 3 and 4 at New York Live Arts.<\/p>\n

The life of an average freelancer isn\u2019t easy, from inconsistent income and rehearsal schedules to paying for classes, health care, and other necessities that full-time companies usually provide. Many juggle multiple gigs at once and supplement their income with part-time jobs, and the nature of ballet culture often leaves these dancers vulnerable to less-than-ideal working conditions. Lane, who has herself freelanced in New York City for several years, saw how some of her friends struggled. \u201cFreelancers are primed to be exploited,\u201d she says. \u201cThe more I started choreographing, the more I wanted to change this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThreePhoto by Nicole Marie Creative\/Nicole DiGiovanni, courtesy Renversons.<\/p>\n

Lane started building Renversons\u2014a play on the step renvers\u00e9 (\u201cto upset, or upend\u201d)\u2014last June, self-financing start-up costs. But she says she\u2019s been researching how to create change in the dance industry for years. \u201cI have a lot of connections, I\u2019ve [studied] a good amount of scholarship, and I have privilege and want to use it,\u201d Lane says. She hired associate director Rosie Elliott in August, and the pair started fundraising, drawing up contracts, and meeting with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts to put together bylaws and a board (which Lane and Elliott insisted include a company dancer with voting rights).<\/p>\n

Contract transparency is key, says Lane. The six dancers are paid $30 an hour, with rehearsals totaling roughly 10.5 hours a week. \u201cIf anyone gets paid differently,\u201d she adds\u2014for instance, if a dancer takes on rehearsal assistant duties\u2014\u201cwe have to tell the other dancers and explain why.\u201d The company reimburses its artists for pointe shoes and provides physical therapy. \u201cIt\u2019s expensive, but a little goes a long way,\u201d Lane says. \u201cThe cost of an understudy is so much more than giving a dancer access to PT.\u201d If a company member gets injured, they\u2019ll continue getting paid for their contracted time through worker\u2019s compensation.<\/p>\n

Dancers also receive free class twice a week, which Lane opens to \u201canybody who believes that access to class will help their freelance career,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes dancers can\u2019t find work because they can\u2019t afford class.\u201d (The company had to cap the number of participants due to popularity.) Renversons\u2019 website also includes resources for both freelance dancers and smaller, project-based companies.<\/p>\n

As for its artistic vision, Lane says Renversons primarily performs contemporary ballet, with many works featuring same-sex partnering and queer themes. \u201cIt\u2019s very possible for women to partner each other,\u201d Lane says. \u201cBut it\u2019s a learning curve and requires a lot of coordination, because you can\u2019t rely on brute strength. Having consistent rehearsals to practice queer partnering has been game changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partnering is featured in all of the upcoming program\u2019s works, which opens with Lane\u2019s Recreation, a high-energy sneaker ballet to folk-inspired music. The Gallery\u2014to an album called Electric Fields by the artists Barbara Hannigan, David Chalmin, Katia Lab\u00e8que, and Marielle Lab\u00e8que\u2014follows a woman as she engages with the visual artworks she encounters, and explores how they are actually reflections of her own identity. Then in Adriana Pierce\u2019s Kiss the Rhythm, a quartet of dancers slowly builds speed to the churning rhythms of violinist\/bass duo big dog little dog. The second act features Lane\u2019s Bury Your Gaze, a queer narrative ballet that blends elements of creation stories with the Muses of Greek mythology, to music by Jean-Michel Blaise. All works on the program feature costumes designed by Lauren Carmen.<\/p>\n

In terms of sustaining Renversons\u2019 company model, Lane says that though the group is primarily focused on this season, it\u2019s actively applying for festivals and hopes to tour. \u201cWe\u2019re aiming to have a summer and fall season, and a winter\/spring season,\u201d she says, leaving November and December free so that the dancers can book Nutcrackers and building space in the rehearsal schedules for them to take on other gigs. \u201cThe freelance community offered me community when I needed it most, and now I want to be a part of building it even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InFrom left: Cassandra Punzo and Sara Jumper of Renversons Contemporary Ballet. Photo by Nicole Marie Creative\/Nicole DiGiovanni, courtesy Renversons. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Ballet Academy East in New York City, the six women dancers of Renversons Contemporary Ballet quickly switch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[73626,73627,73628,9,56,63,65,64,73629],"class_list":{"0":"post-182703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-freelance-ballet-career","9":"tag-freelancer","10":"tag-minnie-lane","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-renversons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}