How do you become a back up dancer?

How to become a professional ballet dancer?

• im 13 years old and i want to be a professional ballet dancer. can someone telll me how much an average ballet dancer makes a year. also could you you please tell me some of the most well known ballet companys. i was thinking about moving to nyc in high school to train at the nyc ballet company and then become a professional dancer there. please help

• Answer:

  Artemis gave a very good answer, except that you would be hard pressed to find a tiny studio apartment for that low a price. One bedroom apartments (nothing fancy) would be closer to $3000 a month on the upper west side anywhere remotely near Lincoln Center. SAB which is NYCB's feeder school and the JKO school (ABT's feeder school) are highly selective. So is BAE which has dancers in both NYCB and ABT. If you haven't been training at age 7 to around 11 the latest and training at a top ballet academy, this isn't going to happen for you. Again as Artemis said you need a ballet body and only 2% of the population has one. It is much more than being thin and the right height. You didn't state what if any training you have had. If you don't know the names of top ballet companies, one can only surmise that you haven't done any summer intensives or train at a top ballet academy. At your age, dancers on track to become professional ballet dancers are taking around 20 hours of technique classes a week year round not counting rehearsals and have been doing so for years. They will be increasing that amount within the next couple of years and at age 15 or 16 they will be ready to apprentice with a ballet company. If you haven't had much dance or have only had recreational dance which would be graded ballet, recital school and competition dance, then you will not be prepared. Even dancers who have started at the right age, have the ballet body and the right training, most wont make professional. NYCB only chooses a scant few each year to apprentice with the company from SAB. Some dancers trained there do go on to other top companies, others to smaller regional companies and others don't get work at all. Last year NYCB laid of 11 corps de ballet dancers. This year more were laid off. Some of those dancers cannot find work. This is your competition. Dancers with great training and creds are not finding work because there are so few jobs. It is pointless to discuss how much a ballet dancer makes. It is dependent on where they dance, their rank in the company and how long they have danced there. Principal dancers in NYCB make about $2400 a week during performance weeks and $2100 a week during rehearsal weeks. That is top pay for ballet anywhere. Corps de ballet make a great deal less. Some regional ballet companies don't pay enough to live on and dancers take second jobs. Apprentices often just get shoes and travel expenses. There is no reason you cannot dance for the joy of dance. Ballet can always be a part of your life. If you have had some training and want to become more serious perhaps you can think about concert contemporary dance. That is often the route ballet dancers take if they cannot make it into a ballet company. If you think you have the body and facility, then you cannot wait another minute. You have only a slim chance of getting a ballet academy to train you at your age if you have high arches with a top bump, perfect turnout from your hip rotators not knees or ankles, long stretchy achilles tendons, long legs, arms and neck, short torso, slightly hyper-extended knees, small round head and tons of natural facility. Good luck.