Some readers will remember the uproar that erupted in April last year, after numerous professional dancers took to social media to complain of a callout sent by the director of a Kylie Minogue music video. Filmmaker Dimitri Basil had requested dancers to appear in a crowd shot, specifying that the work was unpaid.

Despite claiming that the shoot for the Aussie superstar’s latest video had a “limited budget”, many dancers were offended by the assumption that they should work for “exposure”. Eventually, the ruckus was cleared up, with Minogue herself tweeting that the shoot was a success and all dancers involved were paid.

However, whether the reportedly dozens of Australian dancers who were recently charged up to $40 to audition for what they thought was a place as a backup dancer for US R&B singer Ciara’s Australian tour will receive compensation remains to be seen. In fact, no one’s quite sure what’s even going on.

On the surface, the auditions appear to be a scam – professional dance networks across Australia issued callouts for dancers to attend auditions to be a part of Ciara’s tour. According to one callout for the Sydney audition, booking via pre-sale cost $30 and paying on the door ran participants $40.

“With this tour we are holding a workshop and audition to give local dancers the opportunity to perform with a world class artist in their own home town,” one callout read. “Ciara is held very highly in the dance community and dancers all around the world would love the chance to dance with her on stage.”

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“There will be a 60-90 minute workshop followed by an audition with the opportunity to win two positions to be Ciara’s back up dancers for the same city the audition is held in; this means two winners per state from each audition process.” The auditions claimed to be organised by tour promoter Urban Authority Entertainment.

The auditions reportedly saw a turnout of over a hundred dancers in four cities. However, when a dancer named Marko Panzic tweeted at Ciara, asking if the auditions were legitimate, the singer replied, “FALSE.” She later added, “There was never an audition held by me or anyone from my team. That audition is fraudulent!”

However, according to a statement from TRiPLe8FuNk Entertainment — a Melbourne-based arts and entertainment company — on behalf of the organisers of the dance workshops and auditions that were recently held in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, the auditions were legitimate just not entirely on the level.

“We, the organisers, were approached by Urban Authority Entertainment (UAE) to help them with organising dance workshops and auditions in each city on Ciara’s Australian tour. UAE informed us that the purpose of these auditions was to find backup dancers that would perform with Ciara in each of those cities,” TRiPLe8FuNk write.

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“Our involvement was limited to the workshops and auditions. Everything related to audition fees and the dancers’ performance with Ciara after the auditions was the responsibility of UAE,” they continue.”

“Unfortunately, we have since been informed by UAE that there was miscommunication between the tour agencies responsible for bringing the tour to Australia, and that the dancers who were chosen to be backup dancers for Ciara will now be her support acts in each respective city.”

“In light of this development, we have requested that UAE provide a full refund to all dancers who attended the workshops. UAE have agreed to this refund. Information regarding the refund will be provided publicly by UAE on Monday, 2 March 2015.”

Despite the statement, many of the participants still have questions. Namely, why did Ciara herself claim the auditions were fraudulent? “We have the same question,” TRiPLe8FuNk write. “As mentioned in the press release, it was UAE’s responsibility to organize all that side of things.”

It’s not the first bout of controversy to hit Ciara’s Australia-New Zealand tour. As Tone Deaf reported last week, Kiwi fans were irate after the singer arrived at her Christchurch show an hour after she was scheduled to finish and then proceeded to play for just 10 minutes, with the promoter refusing to refund general admission tickets.

Editorial Note: This article originally stated that the auditions were a partnership between MAS Presents and Urban Authority Entertainment (UAE). However, Tone Deaf has since been informed that MAS Presents was at no point partnered with UAE. UAE contacted MAS Presents, among other dance companies in Australia, to organise the auditions.

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