Salary and Outlook
According to the US Department of Labor, there are 6,300 people employed as choreographers in
the United States.
The median annual salary is $42,700.
Entry level employees earn approximately $22,150 per year and senior employees earn approximately $78,030
per year.
Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime, 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.