Pricing issues relating to contemporary dance audiences in Sheffield

The limited quantity of published literature on the demand for the performing arts in the subsidized sector has concluded that those art forms which have been investigated tend to have price inelastic demand. This research uses the findings of 1172 responses from contemporary dance attenders in Sheffield to establish their willingness to pay more for their tickets. About 25% of the Sheffield sample were prepared to pay more for their tickets, which is a much lower figure than 65-87% found in the study of other art forms. The key findings emerging from this research are: first, that price elasticity of demand is likely to be a function of the product; and, second, even for a given performance there are likely to be different price elasticities of demand within different segments of the audience. The paper concludes by suggesting that making the assumption that an art form and its audiences are homogeneous is an oversimplification of the evidence.