Dancers

The irregularity of employment is the most difficult aspect of the profession. Dancers are never certain where they will be employed or under what conditions. One may wait weeks for a contract. An offer may involve travel, night hours, or weekend rehearsals. Work on a Broadway stage show may last 20 weeks, 40 weeks, or three years, or possibly the show will fold after the third performance. With rehearsals and performances, a normal workweek runs 30 hours (six hours a day maximum).

Dancing requires considerable sacrifices of both a personal and social nature. Dancing is the performing dancer’s life. The demands of practice and the need to continue lessons and to learn new routines and variations leave little time for recreational or social activities. As a career, dancing necessitates greater emphasis on self than on others; the intensive competition and the need to project oneself to get ahead leave little time for other pursuits.