Career Opportunities in Dance

In India, dance is an age-old tradition. This vast sub-continent has given birth to varied forms of dancing, each shaped by the influences of a particular period and environment. Dance careers are rigorous and demanding, requiring years of training, discipline, and dedication. Dance professionals must be versatile with a broad base of experiences in dance and related fields. Experience acquired through extracurricular performances, teaching, and choreography opportunities is encouraged to enhance practical training, development, and career opportunities.

Career opportunities in dance include, professional dancer; professional choreographer; artistic director; university/college faculty; studio owner and faculty; conservatory or school faculty; dance critic; dance therapist; dance somatics specialist; arts manager; lighting designer; costume designer; sound designer; theatre technician; production crew; producer; fashion coordinator; special events coordinator; makeup artist; and musical theatre director. Indian dance is an extremely intricate art requiring skill, hard work and discipline. All Indian dances portray some expression of life and almost every dance posture has a specific meaning. Dance themes are derived from mythology, folklore, legends and classical literature.

Eligibility and Course details :

Training in Dance and related courses are a plenty in India. A student who aspire a career in Dance must earn a Bachelor’s degree in Arts (Dance) or any other certificate course in any private or government dance schools.

Basic eligibility criteria:

10th / +2 (Higher Secondary students) with any group as the majors are eligible for these programs.

Course Duration:

Training in this field is available at a number of schools and institutes all over India. These courses are offered at the levels of Diploma, U.G and P.G. The course duration for these courses are 1) Diploma in Dance is around two years.2) B.A (Dance) is around three years and 3) P.G (Dance) is offered as a two year program in various universities.

Course Offering Institutions :

Almost all the universities and institutes involving Arts offer Bachelors degree in Dance and its related fields. Some of these institutes are:

In India:

• Punjab University
• Sree Sankaracharya University
• Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune
• Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya
• Bangalore University
• Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad
• Andhra University
• Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
• Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata
• Indira Kala Sangit Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh

Remuneration :

The initial salary for a dancer may be a little low compared to other fields involving technical aspects, but once on gaining experience and knowledge the salary can be hefty. The salary for a fresher can be from Rs.8,000/- to Rs.2,000/- for and increases with the persons experience and knowledge. If any person joins in film industry they can earn averagely Rs.1000/- per day.