Salary
Average Salary: $30,720
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,283,000
Dancer salaries are all over the map. When you first start, you'll likely be working for the big goose egg. We don't mean that literally; though if you are ever employed by a giant goose egg, please let us know. We like weird stories. What we're saying is that many dancers start working for zero, zilch, nada. You've got to break in that leotard working with small companies that pay nothing at all.
Your first paying gigs probably won't actually pay that much either. Small companies that can scrape up the dough usually fork over somewhere around fifteen bucks an hour. With these gigs, you're definitely going to have to work a side job on top of everything else.
Dancers in off-Broadway productions and regional theaters usually earn around $300 a week on the low end and $700 a week on the high end. Then there's the cruise ship option, where dancers generally make about $400 a week starting out; but hey, you get to see the world, right? Well, at least the tourist-crammed seaports of the world.
Things do get a bit better when you're dancing with the big boys. The Actor's Equity Association insist that dancers on Broadway make at least $1,700 a week. Keep in mind, folks, that's for eight—count 'em—eight performances a week. Also, the average tiny one bedroom apartment in NYC is around $2,700 a month. (Yeah, it's not Des Moines.)
Experienced ensemble members in the top dog dance companies make around $1,500 dollars a week (source). If you've got what it takes to be a featured dancer in one of those companies, you make anywhere between $3,000 and $5,000 a week, which might be enough to keep you in fresh leotards...but nobody's ever going to call you money bags.