There are all kinds of education jobs including dance education jobs. You could teach all different styles of dance to all different age groups. Whom you teach and what style you teach will greatly depend on you and your experience. What you teach could depend on how many hours you want to work. If you are teaching groups of young girl’s ballet, for example, then classes won’t be nearly as long or as strenuous as if you are training a professional dance group. You will be responsible for teaching your students different styles. You will also be responsible for helping them train their bodies and keep them in good physical shape. This could take several hours a day if you are teaching a professional dance group.
There are no set education requirements for those seeking a music education job in dance. Though degrees are offered from various universities, and some are very desirable, they are rarely required. The most important qualification to obtain in the field of choreography is experience. Some people have a lot of natural talent and may still be very good even if they started learning dance later in life. Most really successful dancers begin very young, however. Girls often begin between the ages of five and eight when they begin taking ballet classes.
Training is valuable when you are younger because your body is still flexible and learning. You will be more able to learn to discipline your body in difficult maneuvers if you are this flexible and are still teachable. Dancing is a hugely competitive field and every advantage you can gain will be useful. If you ultimately seek a teaching career in dance, then you will have to work a long time as a professional dancer yourself.
In addition to lengthy training, you will need to be self-disciplined, competitive, but also a team player. Most dancers work in groups and work with managers, choreographers, teams, etc. So, while a lot of hard work is required individually to stay competitive, it is also very important to get along well with the group and to be able to work well with them.
Most dancers begin with classical training and then build on that foundation. Once you have your basic skills, if you discover a passion for a certain type of dance like folk, flamenco, salsa, ballet, etc. then you can pursue that passion and focus on a particular style. This could become very useful later if you decide to pursue a teaching career. Then you will have a solid base to offer your students and can even offer them your specialty training in your area of focus.
The growth rate for choreographers is expected to grow more slowly than the average occupation from 2006–2016. As stated before, it is a highly competitive field. Once dancers decide to not compete professionally any more, some of them decide to teach while others pursue a completely different occupation, but enough remain to make the field competitive, and the demand for them is usually not very high, depending on the area. Jobs for choreographers are only expected to increase by 2 percent over the decade.
In 2006 the median annual earnings for choreographers were about $34,500. The middle 50 percent of choreographers earned between about $22,000 and $50,000 per year. However, on the low end earnings were less than $15,700, and the highest were about $65,000.
The field of dance is a hard area, but if you are passionate about it you could really succeed. As a choreographer you could even find the next new talent and help individuals also find their passion for expressing themselves through movement. Though it is a hard field it can be a very rewarding one.
