ABSTRACT
Building on the introductory notes on transnational careers (see Introduction to Part III), this chapter considers some elements involved in the process of becoming a salsa dance professional, the first status passage. Other studies of artists’ careers largely focus on the apprenticeship of a particular music or dance technique in enclosed organisations. To account for the variety of salsa dance professionals’ backgrounds, their non-linear career paths and the specificities of the salsa circuit, this chapter concentrates on the process of professional identification, the “affective labour” it necessitates and negotiations involved in embarking on a professional career. Salsa dance professionals become entrepreneurs of themselves, as they develop a “commodified persona” and engage in “affective labour” to sustain their livelihood with salsa. They have to negotiate the gendered “convention of tangible salsa stars” in order to build their careers. Furthermore, this chapter discusses the income-generating activities that salsa dance professionals build up. Drawing on literature in the sociology of art, namely work focusing on artists’ careers, this chapter looks at the beginnings of salsa dance professionals’ careers in terms of entering a profession. It discusses economic aspects of dancers’ career paths, including the effects of salsa’s low status in European countries’ hierarchy of performance arts.
