Dance of fury

Four months after Rajat Batta, a Los Angeles-based choreographer claimed that the dancers employed on Diljit Dosanjh’s Dil-Luminati Tour were unpaid, his claims appear to have found merit. A London-based dancer took to social media to share that she withdrew from the European leg of Dosanjh’s tour, accusing the management team of “unprofessional and disrespectful” behaviour. Shilpa Sajan had previously shared, “As a dancer who’s been doing this professionally for years, this could have been one of the highlights of my dance career. But I pulled out. [We were paid 80 pounds a show] and had to cover our own travel and accommodation costs, even when international travel was involved. Everything was a mess. There was no communication, and we were left stressed for days. Messages would be ignored, and dancers were getting cut without explanations. I couldn’t continue encouraging this poor standard in the dance industry,” she wrote. Reports of non-payment of dues at Dosanjh’s concerts first hit headlines after Batta shared, “While we as a desi dance community are proud of a desi artiste breaking the glass ceilings, and doing sold-out tours across North America, I still feel deeply disappointed that desi dancers are still undervalued. All of the desi dancers in Diljit’s tour were not paid, and expected to perform for free.”

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