What is the average pay for a professional dancer??

Question

NOT strip dancers or whatever. I'm talking about ballerinas. Plus, does anyone know how to get a career in tap dancing without being a teacher??

Answer 1

Even stating weekly pay is not going to give you an accurate figure because no company that I know of pays their dancers for 52 weeks out of the year. A few companies might offer 52-week CONTRACTS, but that's just to have the medical benefits extend that entire time. It is very common to have just 36-week contracts (or 44-week contracts that only pay for 36 weeks), so a pay of $400/week means only $12,000 gross per year. And when you figure that the health insurance only extends for 36 weeks and you have to pay for your own insurance during the down time, hopefully you can see that you can't live off a dancer's salary without another source of income.

The U.S. Department of Labor says that median hourly earnings of dancers were $8.54 in May 2004. But they also add that annual earnings data for dancers is not available because of the wide variation in the number of hours worked and the short-term nature of many jobs. This includes dancers outside of companies who do commerical gigs, many of whom have agents and must give those agents 10% of their pay.

Basically figure that the life of a dancer is far from easy.

Answer 2

it all depends on what level of a dance company the ballet dancer is..... most corps de ballet members will make between $300-$500 per week.... that is if the company has enough funding to pay you... a lot of dancers get paid through free classes and a shoe allowance... meaning you dont have to pay for pointe shoes or other necessary shoes... as far as tap dancing career... a good place to start is cruise ships. A lot of cruise ships have "broadway type" shows. Not to mention all the great places you get to travel to.

Answer 3

depends. i had one friend who made $400 a night (about 6 hours) and i had one friend who made $2000/night (same amount of time) they were equally attractive. just depends on what club you work at and what nights of the week and if you get "regulars". the friend that made less also refused to do lap dances. that'll make you some cash quick.