Choreographers
US occupation · SOC 27-2032
Job titles people report: Ballet Director, Choreographer, Dance Director, Dance Maker, Musical Choreographer, Opera Choreographer
Pay and outlook
- Median annual wage, May 2025
- $55,310
- Half earn more, half earn less
- Middle half earn
- $41,600 – $75,710
- 25th to 75th percentile
- People employed, May 2025
- 2,860
- Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
- Projected change, 2025–35
- +3.1%
- Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)
- Openings a year (projected)
- 600
- New jobs plus replacing people who leave
- Typical education to enter
- High school diploma or equivalent
- BLS
- All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
- Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
- Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.
What the work involves
Create new dance routines. Rehearse performance of routines. May direct and stage presentations.
Main tasks
- Direct rehearsals to instruct dancers in dance steps and in techniques to achieve desired effects.
- Advise dancers on standing and moving properly, teaching correct dance techniques to help prevent injuries.
- Teach students, dancers, and other performers about rhythm and interpretive movement.
- Record dance movements and their technical aspects, using a technical understanding of the patterns and formations of choreography.
- Direct and stage dance presentations for various forms of entertainment.
- Choose the music, sound effects, or spoken narrative to accompany a dance.
- Experiment with different types of dancers, steps, dances, and placements, testing ideas informally to get feedback from dancers.
- Seek influences from other art forms, such as theatre, the visual arts, and architecture.
Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter (BLS)
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Work experience in a related job: 5 years or more
- Training once hired: long-term on-the-job training
- O*NET Job Zone 3
- Medium preparation
- Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Interests it suits
The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.
- Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression
- Social: helping, teaching and caring for people
- Enterprising: leading, persuading and making business decisions
Fields of study that lead here
From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 5 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.
Visual & Performing Arts
- Dance, General
- Ballet
- Dance, Other
- Musical Theatre
- Theatre and Dance
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Visual & Performing Arts at the Major step.
Where many students take visual & performing arts
- Savannah College of Art and DesignSavannah, GA · 42% of degrees · 15,243 undergraduates
- Southern New Hampshire UniversityManchester, NH · 4% of degrees · 163,164 undergraduates
- University of Central FloridaOrlando, FL · 8% of degrees · 59,146 undergraduates
- New York UniversityNew York, NY · 16% of degrees · 28,663 undergraduates
- The New SchoolNew York, NY · 68% of degrees · 6,563 undergraduates
- Berklee College of MusicBoston, MA · 57% of degrees · 7,468 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Related careers
Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.
- Music Directors and Composers
$73,710 median · +1.2% projected
- Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary
$78,620 median · +2.2% projected
- Art Directors
$114,850 median · +4.2% projected
- Producers and Directors
$90,360 median · +4% projected
- Self-Enrichment Teachers
$46,800 median · +3.5% projected
- Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators
$55,490 median · -2.9% projected
Sources
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0
Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk