To Pencil or Not To Pencil

Dancers Network convokes London’s main commercial agencies to discuss issues associated with the controversial practice

The problems are salient, but the solutions aren’t yet within reach.

Such was the impression that stuck with me as I left Dancers Network’s first post-pandemic in-person meeting at Equity’s offices in central London last month. The reunion gathered a dozen talent agents and key industry representatives, alongside members of the Network.

Article by ALICE TCHERNOOKOVA // Images EMILY COOPER

The main topic of the day was pencilling and the many issues it causes for dancers, who often end up being put on hold for months with no guarantee of a job or of any form of compensation at the end of the process.

The topic is heavy, Dancers Network co-founder and director LiLi Hodge expressed as she kicked off the meeting, and justified a standalone debate.“It's about changing the narrative of what pencilling means: we really should not be getting pencilled until it's 99% sure,” she said. “There doesn't seem to be consideration for how much an artist gives up in order to do a job. Dancers can't pay rent on empty promises and ever-changing work dates. It's about having that mutual respect between the client and the dancer.”

Over time, the meaning of the word “pencil” has been lost, leaving it open to interpretation and making it a blurry, often conflictual concept between talent agents and dancers.

“At the moment, things feel very uneven as there's no cost on the side of the client to keep dancers hanging for that potential work and never release them, while dancers sometimes hear through grapevine that they didn’t get the job,” said LiLi. “Although a pencil isn’t contractually binding, it's seen as unprofessional not to keep yourself free. At the same time, clients can release pencils at any point with no consequence whatsoever.”

The crux of the issue is the absence of a legal status for the practice of “pencilling”, which means its definition is very fluid and can create confusion among artists.

"Being pencilled has no contractual status: it means nothing, and the term needs to go,” said Hilary Hadley, a representative from Equity. “If in people's minds it means they're going to get the job, that’s a mistake, because it has no status. An availability check is better, as that doesn't get into your mind that you’re likely to book the job.”

If a pencil isn’t contractually binding for agents and production companies, it shouldn’t be for talent either. However, this principle doesn’t always seem to apply.

“The upsetting bit is dancers feeling that if they get jobs on top of a pencil, they would be thought badly of,” Hilary said. “Artists shouldn’t feel any obligation when they are under a pencil.”

Although several agents argued this wasn’t their expectation and that dancers only needed communicate their intentions with them, dancers present on the day said their day-to-day experience did not always reflect that.

“I don't think saying it's just about communication is quite on the money, because there is an assumption that the pencil takes priority until further notice,” said Zoonation’s Shannelle ‘Tali’ Fergus. “When you take on people, there is a need to agree on the definition of what a pencil is within the agency, as it varies from one to another. That is necessary because it gets scary for talent.”

The fact that dancers may be afraid to discuss work-related issues with their agent is a core problem that affects many areas of their professional life. There is also the question of the psychological challenge that long-term uncertainty can represent, and the toll that months of waiting for something that may never happen takes on someone’s mental health.

Dancer Michael Naylor, for instance, spoke of the struggle he faced when he was pencilled for a film for several months and only had the job confirmed four days before it started, for a period of eight weeks of work.

“There's so many people involved, so many different pencils, and not one person is organising the calendar, not one person is helping you decide what job you should or shouldn't take," said Aicha Mckenzie from AMCK. "That's another thing for dancers: it's not just about whether they were on pencil first. It's also a matter of what’s best for their career – financially, emotionally, everything else.”

Proposed solutions

To minimise these troubles, Dancers Network proposed to impose a time-limit on the length that clients can keep dancers pencilled for. Past that period, the client would be liable to pay a fee to retain talent.

“After a casting, audition or availability check, the client could either confirm the talent straightaway or pencil them for up to 48 hours,” said LiLi. “After that time, a holding fee or deposit could be put in place. This would give clarity to dancers and free them up for other work, and would disincentivise clients from keeping people on pencil for excessive periods.”

Having the guarantee of a minimum fee for long-term pencils would not only help out dancers financially – it would make them more accountable and committed to the job.  

“Keeping it as an availability check and then having nothing in between until confirmation doesn't quite work – a holding system is necessary,” Tali agreed. “There's a timing cycle for that depending on when the job is. The holding fee could work if a production company comes to one agent for all the talent but could be more difficult if it’s spread out across a dozen.”

As helpful as those measures would be for dancers, several agents raised issues with their implementation.

“From a commercial point of view, the 48-hour timeframe is unrealistic, as things have to go through so many different channels before they can be confirmed,” said Maxine Dunkley from Atmosphere Faces. “Asking for talent to be confirmed immediately on the casting day is never going to happen. What the director thinks is a perfect fit might not be the same as what the advertising agency or the client think. They need to hold their own meetings and agree between themselves, which does take a bit of time.”

Another question is how high the holding fee should be. Several participants on the day agreed that it should not be nominal, but should rather be representative of the remuneration offered for the job.

“Getting a fee out of production companies is going to be very difficult, but there should be a maximum period that talent can be held for – potentially proportional to the length of the job they are being pencilled for,” suggested Ian Jeanes from Mass Talent. “The issue is, dancers aren't going to hold a pencil for a £50 holding fee over a £20,000 commercial.”

Equally, a production company may think £50 is a small price to pay for holding talent over a long period of time. 

“If the fee is nominal it's not going to do anything as it’s not enough of a penalty. This is about changing the culture, having timeframes, limiting the amount of people that can be pencilled for a job, managing expectations, and education on the fact that being pencilled doesn't mean you've got the job,” said Aicha. “It also means that if I do have somebody on pencil, I am expecting them to communicate if they intend to take on another opportunity. The dramas mostly happen when that’s not the case.”

The practice of mass-pencilling – which refers to situations where a client or production company pencils way more people than they intend to book – also needs to be tackled, several participants agreed.

“Sometimes they try to hold almost an entire casting rather than doing a shortlist of who they actually want,” said Maxine. “That’s an issue, and it needs to stop. There should be a maximum amount of people they can pencil so it makes it more wirorthwhile for the talent.”

A way to tackle this problem would be to impose timeframes for clients/producers to progressively reduce the number of pencils, until they get to their final shortlist. This would also be a win for agencies, who could use their talent for other submissions as opposed to holding them on pencils unnecessarily.

“Being able to cut down that shortlist periodically over time to the point where you've narrowed it down close to the number you're looking for, would be great,” suggested dancer Abz Kareem. “Then there's that balance of the dancer not missing out on other opportunities, the agents not having to respond to endless queries from talent about pencils, and casting teams being pushed to make decisions without having to confirm just yet.”

Having more transparency from productions – and where applicable, from agents – on the total amount of people being pencilled for a role would also help dancers make more informed decisions on whether they should to hold on, based on the likelihood of their getting the job.

Moving forward

Beyond practical solutions, it is truly about changing culture within the commercial industry and fostering transparency, trust, and smooth communication between talent and agents.

“Ultimately, it’s not about coming up with processes and numerical values – it’s about redefining what pencilling means,” said LiLi. “A pencil should mean the client is serious about booking the talent, but there’s still a bit of communication and moving parts that they need to manoeuvre.”

Most attendees on the day agreed that having a universal definition of the word “pencil” was what was most needed at this stage.

“We're speaking about this as one problem but there’s multiple parts to it.” said Christie Lee Manning, House of Jazz company owner. “If we’re going to use that word, everyone – the production, the agent, the dancers – needs to understand what it means. Dancers are treating it like a confirmation half the time, but there's no unification and respect for its definition.”

It was commonly agreed that providing a list of the issues that pencilling creates would help to tackle them one by one. A list of potential remedies for each of these would then be drawn to select the most efficient one. Most agents on the day expressed their preference for putting time caps on pencils, as opposed to requesting holding fees from productions – a solution that many described as impracticable.

“There's power in the time management of a pencil. It seems like something that could be consistent across the board,” suggested Jerry Reeve from Kutes. “If I put someone on pencil for two weeks, the production company would know it and we would manage communication around that. This would help dancers' mental health as they would know whether it's serious or not.”

Outstanding questions at the end of the meeting included: what do we mean by the term “pencil”? What status does it have? Is there a way for everybody to agree on a definition, or is it to simply drop the term as it evidently creates confusion?

“It's about changing the way you operate and think, and the culture,” Hilary concluded. “It's very positive that we've had this meeting today, but is one conversation going to change everything? Will there be some further steps to gather more thoughts and reach a consensus on the best way forward?”

Equity said it would facilitate another in-person meeting in three-months’ time, with the conversation likely to bring pencilling issues back to the fore, alongside other concerns.