Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 4,600 people employed as choreographers in the United States. The median annual salary is $43,700. Entry level employees earn approximately $21,180 per year and senior employees earn approximately $101,250 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime pay, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Coordinate production music with music directors.
• Design sets, lighting, costumes, and other artistic elements of productions, in collaboration with cast members.
• Manage dance schools, or assist in their management.
• Restage traditional dances and works in dance companies' repertoires, developing new interpretations.
• Record dance movements and their technical aspects, using a technical understanding of the patterns and formations of choreography.
• Assess students' dancing abilities to determine where improvement or change is needed.
• Direct rehearsals to instruct dancers in how to use dance steps, and in techniques to achieve desired effects.
• Teach students, dancers, and other performers about rhythm and interpretive movement.
• Choose the music, sound effects, or spoken narrative to accompany a dance.
• Advise dancers on how to stand and move properly, teaching correct dance techniques to help prevent injuries.
• Design dances for individual dancers, dance companies, musical theatre, opera, fashion shows, film, television productions, and special events, and for dancers ranging from beginners to professionals.
• Seek influences from other art forms such as theatre, the visual arts, and architecture.
• Experiment with different types of dancers, steps, dances, and placements, testing ideas informally to get feedback from dancers.
• Train, exercise, and attend dance classes to maintain high levels of technical proficiency, physical ability, and physical fitness.
• Develop ideas for creating dances, keeping notes and sketches to record influences.
• Read and study story lines and musical scores to determine how to translate ideas and moods into dance movements.
• Direct and stage dance presentations for various forms of entertainment.
• Audition performers for one or more dance parts.

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