Context: A dancer not doing so great on board, potentially about to get fired. We’ve gotten the below email from the cruise line booker. How would you respond?
Hi Jaime,
I'd like to touch base with you about Tomas. First, I want to say that he is very lovely, and I've enjoyed watching him grow here. Nonetheless, there have been a few issues with focus and attendance. He has been late and wasn't doing his homework when it came to remembering choreography. He also wasn’t performing at the expected top tier level during show runs, which was very concerning to me. I spoke with him to inform him that he had a week to make improvements, or I would not allow him to join the ship. Tomas mentioned a language barrier, which I can understand because English is also not my first language. I am pleased to report that the discussion was beneficial, and the team has reported progress. I saw a run today and he did a very nice job.
Tomas has a lot of natural skill and flexibility, but he lacks refinement. Little details like pointing his toes and finishing his lines are utterly overlooked.
As I do not give feedback often, I'm writing to make sure we're both on the same page about my operational concerns. I don't want him to go back into those bad habits once he boards the ship, especially since he’s made so much progress here. Please gently remind him of our expectations regarding being on time, staying present and going full out with feeling whenever there is a run. I know you'll be able to deliver this message in a courteous, productive manner as his agent. Above all, I don't want to impede his upward trajectory.
Thank you for your attention to this. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Warm regards, John Bonafide Booking and Casting Supervisor Charming Cruises
Context: A client on roster has not received an offer yet and is unhappy with our services. We’ve done the same for Phoebe as we have for all of our clients. We got her callback material together, we submitted her, we had open conversations with cruise lines as to why they were denying her. This information was relayed to her, however she disagreed with the feedback. Responses we got were that her body type wasn’t ideal, she lacked attack in her movement, and her performance wasn’t exciting enough to set her apart from other dancers. How would you respond?
Dear Jaime,
I just learned that my cast mate has received a Charming Cruises contract through your agency. We are very proud of his accomplishment!
Hearing this news has made me consider my own experience being signed to your agency. I have been signed to your roster for seven months. I have now had three different cast mates receive cruise offers through your agency, while I have received none. I share many of the same performance credits with these cast mates, and I have no insight as to why I am being consistently rejected while they are receiving offers.
Throughout our time together you have promised to find out why Costsa was not re-hiring me, what it meant when MSC said I did not "fit their brand," and what else Charming Cruises would need to see from me to hire me as a dancer. I have not received answers to any of those questions.
I signed to your agency to have someone advocate for me in front of cruise casting directors, but I feel as though I have been pushed aside in favor of newer clients. If you do not wish to advocate for me, I would like to be released from my contract with Lime as soon as possible so I can advocate for myself. Please let me know if this would be feasible.
Thank you, Phoebe
Context: Mike was scheduled to finish in mid-February and wrote to the shoreside office asking to finish his contract earlier without consulting with us.
Hey Fernando!
Sorry about not letting you guys to know about this first, that wasn't really intentional, it was more just the discussion came up naturally with the MD and from there it just occured that i talked to him first, and he insisted that i write a message where i also include LIME as CC so that the office can see it in writing.
The situation is that i'm on board with my wife who is in the photo department, and she received a job offer from a very highly regarded other photographer in Hungary where she could be a full-time assistant. This is the kind of opportunity that comes around rarely and if she says no to this then probably she will never have another opportunity like this because this is based on their good relationship that they have built up over the last few years. Now she wanted my wife to start ASAP but we kinda pushed it to the possible limits of December 8, because we felt that if we came to the ship its not really worth going back after a short time, also that this way we need to pay for our tickets.
On the other hand, the decision to go home was also based on our very poor experience here. It might only be this particular ship, because every musician who comes to the band doing a fill agrees that this is the worst ship on the fleet that they have been to. This is very largely to the MD Jim Sulton, who has been living on this ship forever. You are probably aware of that the alto player was also on this ship, who is/was with you guys, and their relationship with Jim has gotten so bad that he basically couldn't take it anymore. Also the whole company is built up in a way that the crew member feels that they come absolutely last, and have very little say in what is happening to them.
If we were on land, i would never show up for a gig for a person like Jim. Tolerating him every day is something that you just don't do, only if you are really desperate. (just one example: Jim would be there at all the parades, really, every single one of them, and recorded the whole shitshow on his phone every time, just to make it even more humiliating for us - and he would ask us every time with a smile on his face if we had enjoyed the Parade.. )
This money that we get here is nowadays not worth so much in Hungary to tolerate this sort of behaviour. I wrote about Parades, the extra sets that they gave to me, etc. There are endless trainings, usually on port days, they made me a Muster station commander (which position should never be done by a musician) so now i have to be at the green and red drills, etc, the list goes on.