Is dancing something that you love doing? Do you love going to dance classes or just dancing in general and wonder how you could do it for a living?
Well it's certainly possible. There are many ways you can become a professional dancer. The routes vary depending on what type of dancer you want to be.
One thing's for sure, attending a full-time dance college for 2 or 3 years will give you the most options. It will give you a lot of skills which will also be transferable and help you whatever route in the dance world you decide to go down.
There are a lot of dance colleges around so it's best to do your research and decide whether you want to stay local or are willing to relocate in order to go for the dance school of your choice.
Every dance college is different and they have different specialities. If you're sure you want to go down a certain path then by all means specialise but if you're unsure you're best going to a college that'll give you a good all round training in jazz dance, ballet, tap and other styles.
If you're sure that ballet is what you want to do or contemporary for example then it really would be wise to go to a dance college that specialises in this as not only will you get the best teachers in that style but also probably the best training that'll be more focussed.
There are other routes into becoming a professional dancer as well. For example if belly-dance is your passion as far as I know there aren't many full-time belly dance schools and employers rarely ask for a sheet showing your belly dance qualifications! You'll still need to do your training by going to classes and learning the skills to a high standard but you won't necessarily need to have gone to a dance college.
Hip-hop dance is another field that is popular. You don't necessarily need to have gone to dance college in order to get work as a hip-hop dancer but there are some very complex choreographies and it definitely needs regular training. Many hip-hop dancers do go to dance college because there's a lot of crossover with hip-hop and other dance styles such as jazz.
If you want to be a club dancer then it is possible to get work in clubs by natural dance talent. I think being an entertainer is as important as anything but some clubs will only hire professionally trained dancers.
So whatever type of dancing you want to do, do some research and find out what qualifications you need (if any), then do whatever it takes and work hard to be the best you can.
Gel Man writes for
Dance Gel, a dance portal and directory that answers many of dancers most pressing questions and features the latest news in the world of dance.
