(Not) just to make a living?

It is one of the distinctive characteristics of artists’ labour markets that many artists hold several jobs at the same time, often of different nature. This phenomenon is the subject of this thesis. The main question it aims to answer reads as follows: To what extent do choreographers of contemporary dance working in the Netherlands hold multiple jobs and how can this be explained? The approach is a primarily economic one. The literature on labour economics in general and cultural economics in particular, offers a few explanations. The most prominent theory on multiple jobholding artists is Throsby’s (1994) work preference theory. While this theory, and in particular its distinction between arts, arts-related and non-arts work, has been much applied in research of artists’ labour markets, it has not been subjected to much empirical testing itself. Moreover, research as well as casual observation indicates that things may be more complex than this theory allows. Alternative theories, like those of risk-diversification and role versatility may offer a more suitable explanation, but are under researched. The aim of this thesis is twofold. First and foremost, it aims to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of artists’ multiple jobholding behaviour by assessing the relative merits of the work preference theory on the one hand and other explanatory theories on the other. It does so by studying the multiple jobholding behaviour of a specific artistic profession: choreographers of contemporary dance. The secondary aim of the thesis hence is to gain insight into choreography as a profession and the labour market position of choreographers of contemporary dance in the Netherlands. To achieve this, two surveys were done, one about the year 2005 and one about the year 2010, amongst individuals who had worked as choreographers in the Netherlands in 2005. This way, the subject could be placed in a longitudinal perspective as well.