The question always comes second. First people ask if we are free on the date, then the real message arrives: “so, what does it cost?”
The honest answer is that we quote event by event rather than from a rate card, because the same show is a different job depending on the room. But “it depends” is useless when you have to close a budget by Friday. So there are no figures here. What there is instead is exactly what moves a quote, so that when one lands in your inbox you can read it and tell whether it makes sense.
Why we quote event by event
A dancer is not a catering line item. You are not buying a unit of product, you are buying a presence on stage for a specific length of time, in a specific space, in front of a specific crowd. The same performance that carries itself in a club has to be rethought from scratch for a conference room with a seated audience and the lights up.
So when you ask us for a quote, expect questions first: the venue, the running order, the crowd, the time of night. Those answers are what turn a general idea into a show that actually fits the room.
The five things that move a quote
When two proposals for the same event come back far apart, the gap almost always sits here.
How many performers go on stage
This is the heaviest line, and the logic is simple: every extra dancer is another person to pay, to move, and to rehearse alongside the others. The step from a solo to a crew of four is not an adjustment, it is a different quote.
It is worth asking honestly whether you need the group. One strong solo, placed at the right point in the running order, often does the same job for considerably less. The crew earns its keep when the stage is wide and you want to fill it, or when synchronisation is the effect you are after.
How long it runs and how many times
A single number costs less than three spots spread across the evening, even when total stage time is similar. Three appearances mean three changes, three warm ups, and a presence that covers the whole night rather than forty minutes.
If the budget is tight, one well placed appearance beats three scattered badly. On choosing that moment, we wrote a guide on how to choose a hip hop show for events.
Where you are and what time the show happens
Travel matters, and not only for the mileage. An event in Varese or Milan is one thing, a date at the other end of the country with an overnight stay is another: now you are paying for travel, a hotel, and a full day blocked out instead of an evening.
Timing counts more than people expect too. A show at two in the morning in a club means nobody drives home that night, and that lands in the quote.
How much is built from scratch
A routine already in the repertoire adapts to your room in a few hours. A show designed around your brand, with edited music, costumes and a dedicated concept, takes days of rehearsal that somebody has to pay for.
It is the difference between renting and commissioning. Both are legitimate. You just need to know which one you are asking for when you compare two quotes.
Who is behind the name
This is the hardest line to judge from outside, and it explains the proposals that look out of step with the market.
A dancer who has worked on television sets and stages of a thousand people handles the unexpected in a way you can see. The track starts late. The stage is half a metre narrower than promised. The crowd is cold and nobody claps for the first thirty seconds. Someone with real experience carries on as if nothing happened, and the audience never notices. In our case the work with Piero Pelù, Alborosie and the Sky production Gangs of Milan comes from exactly that, and you can see it collected in the portfolio.
What the fee almost never covers
This is where the unpleasant surprises hide, and it is the part first time organisers find out about late. The performer’s fee covers the performance. Unless you agree otherwise, it does not cover four things.
Music licensing. If there is music at the event, the organiser has to declare the night and pay the author’s rights. In Italy that means SIAE. It is not the dancer’s line, it is yours.
The INPS agibilità certificate. Few people know about this one and it causes more trouble than the licensing. In Italy, dancers, entertainers, djs and musicians count as entertainment industry workers, and before the performance you need the agibilità certificate requested from INPS, ex ENPALS scheme. Requesting it, keeping it on file and paying the related contributions is on the organiser or the client (INPS guidance on requesting agibilità). If an inspection turns up and the paperwork is missing, the organiser pays. Always ask how this is handled before signing anything.
Sound and lighting. A dancer brings a body and a track, not a rig. If the venue has no decent audio or no light pointed at the stage, it has to be hired, and at some events that line weighs as much as the show.
The space. You need a flat, clean, non slip surface and a corner to change in that is not the guest bathroom. It sounds obvious. It is not, and it is the thing that falls through most often.
How the spend shifts by type of event
A useful way to think about it is to start from the event rather than the headcount.
For a club night or a themed party, a crew appearing during the dj set is the most efficient money you can spend. The crowd is already warm, the show raises the bar, and word travels the next day. No need to overreach on customisation here.
For a corporate event or a convention the reasoning changes because the purpose changes. You are not buying entertainment, you are buying the moment people will describe in the office on Monday. Customisation pays for itself here, and it is worth considering the interactive workshop that pulls the room in rather than a number they simply watch. The options are on the Corporate & Weddings page.
For a wedding the spend usually splits into two separate streams: the performers who open the evening, and any first dance choreography, which is a completely different job built over lessons in the preceding weeks. Two quotes, not one.
For a music video or a TV production, forget thinking per performance. You are working in shooting days, with castings, rehearsals and hours of waiting that have nothing to do with the minutes that end up on screen. We wrote about it here.
Questions to ask before you sign
If you are weighing up two or three proposals, these five questions tell you more than the number at the bottom of the page:
- Does the fee include travel and meals, or are those separate lines?
- Who handles the INPS agibilità and the music licensing?
- How many rehearsals are planned, and are they already inside the agreement?
- What happens if the event moves or is cancelled, and what is the penalty?
- Can I see footage of this specific performance rather than a promotional edit?
The last one is the most useful of all. Three unbroken minutes tells you more than any promotional edit.
How to weigh the decision
A show that does not land is the kind of cost that never appears on a spreadsheet and is extremely obvious on the night.
The simplest test is this: ask yourself what that moment costs you if it does not work. If the answer is “not much”, take the lighter proposal without hesitation. If the answer is “I invited two hundred clients”, then the gap between two quotes is the least important line of the entire evening.
If you have a date, a space and even a rough idea of what you can spend, the fastest route to a real number is to tell us about the event. We will tell you what fits inside that budget and what does not, without making you place three phone calls: get in touch.