One specific resume challenge you may face as a dancer is articulating and quantifying your artistic achievements and unique skill sets in a way that stands out to a diverse range of employers. Our guide provides tailored strategies and actionable tips to help you clearly define your dance accomplishments and translate your performance experience into a compelling career narrative.
- [Job title] resume samples that got people hired at top companies.
- How to perfect the look-and-feel of your resume layout.
- How to showcase your achievements and skills through various resume sections.
- How you could hint to recruiters why your resume is the ideal profile for the job.
If the dance resume isn't the right one for you, take a look at other related guides we have:
The ultimate formula for your dance resume format
Our best advice on how to style your dance resume is this - first, take the time to study the job advert requirements.
The resume format you select should ultimately help you better align how your experience matches the specific role.
There are four crucial elements you need to thus take into consideration:
- How you present your experience. If you happen to have plenty of relevant expertise, select the reverse-chronological resume format to organize your experience by dates, starting with the latest.
- Don't go over the top with writing your resume. Instead, stick with a maximum of two-page format to feature what matters most about your profile.
- Headers aren't just for "decoration". The header of your resume helps recruiters allocate your contact details, portfolio, and so much more.
- The PDF format rules. It's the most common practice to submit your dance resume as a PDF so that your resume doesn't lose its layout. However, make sure the read the job well - in some instances, they might require a doc file.
Upload & Check Your Resume
Drop your resume here or choose a file. PDF & DOCX only. Max 2MB file size.
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If you failed to obtain one of the certificates, as listed in the requirements, but decide to include it on your resume, make sure to include a note somewhere that you have the "relevant training, but are planning to re-take the exams". Support this statement with the actual date you're planning to be re-examined. Always be honest on your resume.
Don't forget to include these six sections on your dance resume:
- Header and summary for your contact details and to highlight your alignment with the dance job you're applying for
- Experience section to get into specific technologies you're apt at using and personal skills to deliver successful results
- Skills section to further highlight how your profile matches the job requirements
- Education section to provide your academic background
- Achievements to mention any career highlights that may be impressive, or that you might have missed so far in other resume sections
What recruiters want to see on your resume:
- Technical skills and styles of dance (e.g., ballet, jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, tap)
- Performance experience, including the names of productions and choreographers
- Dance education and training, including schools and workshops attended
- Physical abilities and characteristics (height, build, flexibility, endurance)
- Professional affiliations and acknowledgments (awards, recognitions, membership in dance companies)
The experience section or the essence of your professional dance resume
Recruiters always have and always will appreciate well-written dance resume experience sections.
The experience section is perhaps the most crucial element of your professional presentation, as it needs to answer job requirements while showcasing your technical expertise and personality.
Create your best resume experience section yet by:
- Selecting only relevant experience items to the role you're applying for;
- Always ensure you've listed a metric to quantify your success alongside each experience item;
- Create a narrative that showcases your dance career succession: this goes to show the time and effort you've invested in the field to build your experience from the ground up;
- Within each experience bullet, consider a problem you've solved, the skills you've used, and the bigger impact this has made in the organization.
Take a look at how other real-life professionals have curated their experience with the dance samples below:
- Spearheaded dance choreography for 5 major theatre productions, aligning performance styles to narrative requirements, significantly enhancing audience engagement
- Mentored a team of 12 dancers, improving technical proficiency and overall performance standards through a rigorous training regimen
- Developed and implemented a dance-focused fitness program that increased team endurance by 40%, leading to more dynamic and demanding routines
- Designed original dance compositions for 15 corporate events, tailoring performances to enhance brand messages and client experiences
- Initiated a cross-promotional partnership with local dancewear companies, boosting both brands’ visibility and increasing merchandise sales by 20%
- Implemented an innovative digital marketing strategy using dance videos, growing our social media following by 150% within twelve months
- Organized and executed dance workshops for over 200 participants, focusing on cultural dance education and fostering diversity in the arts community
- Collaborated with international dance troupes to create fusion pieces that were showcased in multiple festivals, earning critical acclaim
- Raised the annual performance attendance by 25% through targeted community outreach and engagement
- Performed lead roles in 10 dance videos that reached a combined viewership of over 2 million on YouTube, driving awareness for the studio
- Managed a dance blog that attracted 5K monthly visitors, becoming a trusted source of information on local dance events and classes
- Devised a collaboration with local musicians for live dance performances, blending dance and live music to critical success
- Created a comprehensive strength and agility training program, leading to a 30% reduction in dance-related injuries among the company members
- Established a successful audition and selection process, resulting in the recruitment of high-caliber talent that enhanced company performances
- Fostered a culture of continuous improvement by organizing quarterly peer review sessions and dance technique workshops
- Directed 20+ dance video projects from conception to release, achieving an average of 300,000 views per video across various platforms
- Implemented a costume design and management system, resulting in streamlined performances and a 15% budget saving on wardrobe costs
- Launched a competitive dance team that triumphed in regional competitions for 3 consecutive years, bolstering the academy's reputation
- Pioneered an international dance exchange program, establishing partnerships with 5 overseas dance schools and enriching the curriculum with diverse styles
- Secured grant funding for the development of a new contemporary dance piece, which was performed across 10 cities to critical acclaim
- Tracked and analyzed class attendance data, adopting a data-driven approach to improve student retention rates by 20%
- Coordinated the end-to-end production of a successful dance theater piece, which sold out for its 4-week run and was nominated for regional awards
- Formulated a dancer wellness program that included nutrition, mental health support, and physical therapy, leading to enhanced performance longevity
- Expanded the dance center's community programs by 35% through initiatives designed to make dance accessible to underprivileged children
- Led the digital transformation of the studio's class booking system, increasing online enrollments by 50% and improving customer satisfaction rates
- Crafted a yearly performance review system for the dance instructors, which was crucial in the professional development of the staff
- Initiated and organized an annual dance festival that became a staple in the local arts calendar, with attendance growing by 30% each year
- Choreographed and directed virtual reality dance experiences, integrating cutting-edge technology to expand the studio's service offerings
- Tripled the studio's online subscriber base through the creation of a subscription-based series of interactive dance tutorials
- Developed a partnership with fitness tech brands to provide wearable devices for performance tracking, enhancing dancers' techniques and pace of learning
Quantifying impact on your resume
- Include the percentage by which you increased sales or productivity in your previous roles to demonstrate your direct impact on company growth.
- List the amount of money you saved the company through cost-cutting measures, showcasing your financial acumen.
- Specify the number of employees you managed, to highlight your leadership and team management skills.
- Detail the size of the budgets you have overseen to illustrate your financial responsibility and trustworthiness.
- Mention the number of projects you successfully completed to show your capability in project management and delivery.
- Reference the customer satisfaction scores or ratings you achieved to validate your focus on customer service and quality outcomes.
- State the exact number of new clients or accounts you secured to underscore your effectiveness in sales or business development.
- Document the measurable efficiency improvements you implemented, like reduced cycle time or increased throughput.
Action verbs for your dance resume
No experience, no problem: writing your dance resume
You're quite set on the dance role of your dreams and think your application may add further value to your potential employers. Yet, you have no work experience . Here's how you can curate your resume to substitute your lack of experience:
- Don't list every single role you've had so far, but focus on ones that would align with the job you're applying for
- Include any valid experience in the field - whether it's at research or intern level
- Highlight the soft skills you'd bring about - those personality traits that have an added value to your application
- Focus on your education and certifications, if they make sense for the role.
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If the certificate you've obtained is especially vital for the industry or company, include it as part of your name within the resume headline.
Creating your dance resume skills section: balancing hard skills and soft skills
Recruiters hiring for dance roles are always keen on hiring candidates with relevant technical and people talents. Hard skills or technical ones are quite beneficial for the industry - as they refer to your competency with particular software and technologies. Meanwhile, your soft (or people) skills are quite crucial to yours and the company's professional growth as they detail how you'd cooperate and interact in your potential environment. Here's how to describe your hard and soft skill set in your dance resume:
- Consider what the key job requirements are and list those towards the top of your skills section.
- Think of individual, specific skills that help you stand out amongst competitors, and detail how they've helped you succeed in the past.
- Look to the future of the industry and list all software/technologies which are forward-facing.
- Create a separate, technical skills section to supplement your experience and further align with the dance job advert. Find the perfect balance between your resume hard and soft skills with our two lists.
Top skills for your dance resume:
Choreography
Ballet Technique
Modern Dance
Jazz Dance
Hip-Hop Dance
Tap Dance
Contemporary Dance
Improvisation
Dance Theory
Physical Conditioning
Creativity
Teamwork
Adaptability
Communication
Time Management
Self-discipline
Perseverance
Attention to Detail
Confidence
Physical Stamina
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Bold the names of educational institutions and certifying bodies for emphasis.
Dance-specific certifications and education for your resume
Place emphasis on your resume education section . It can suggest a plethora of skills and experiences that are apt for the role.
- Feature only higher-level qualifications, with details about the institution and tenure.
- If your degree is in progress, state your projected graduation date.
- Think about excluding degrees that don't fit the job's context.
- Elaborate on your education if it accentuates your accomplishments in a research-driven setting.
On the other hand, showcasing your unique and applicable industry know-how can be a literal walk in the park, even if you don't have a lot of work experience.
Include your accreditation in the certification and education sections as so:
- Important industry certificates should be listed towards the top of your resume in a separate section
- If your accreditation is really noteworthy, you could include it in the top one-third of your resume following your name or in the header, summary, or objective
- Potentially include details about your certificates or degrees (within the description) to show further alignment to the role with the skills you've attained
- The more recent your professional certificate is, the more prominence it should have within your certification sections. This shows recruiters you have recent knowledge and expertise
At the end of the day, both the education and certification sections hint at the initial and continuous progress you've made in the field.
And, honestly - that's important for any company.
Below, discover some of the most recent and popular Dance certificates to make your resume even more prominent in the applicant pool:
The top 5 certifications for your dance resume:
- Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (CBTS) - Royal Academy of Dance (RAD)
- Certified Dance Education Specialist (CDES) - Dance Educators of America (DEA)
- National Dance Teaching Certificate (NDTC) - National Dance Education Organization (NDEO)
- Acrobatic Arts Certified Teacher (AACT) - Acrobatic Arts
- Certified Ballroom Dance Teacher (CBDT) - Dance Vision International Dance Association (DVIDA)
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Listing your relevant degrees or certificates on your dance resume is a win-win situation. Not only does it hint at your technical capabilities in the industry, but an array of soft skills, like perseverance, adaptability, and motivation.
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Choosing between a dance resume summary or objective
Many may argue that, in recent times, the dance resume summary or objective has become completely obsolete.
But the reality is different as both of these resume sections provide you with an opportunity to :
- integrate dance-vital keywords
- showcase your accomplishments
- answer why you're applying for this particular role.
The difference (between the summary and the objective) is that the:
- Resume objective puts your career goals in a more prominent position.
- Resume summary focuses more on career milestones.
We recommend you select the summary if you happen to have plenty of experience you'd like to spotlight from the very start of your dance resume.
Meanwhile, the objective is ideal for those candidates who'd like to further prove their suitability for the role with their goals and soft skills.
We've featured some industry professional dance resume samples to the best resume summary and objective structures:
Resume summaries for a dance job
- Seasoned professional ballerina with over 15 years gracing stages across Europe, bringing a rich portfolio of roles from classical to contemporary ballet. A master of precise technique, I performed principal roles in over 200 productions, showcasing exceptional emotional expressiveness and storytelling ability.
- Award-winning hip-hop choreographer with a decade of experience innovating in urban dance, integrating multimedia elements to create groundbreaking performances. Renowned for choreographing viral routines for top music artists and leading edge-setting dance crews to national victories.
- Highly motivated former software engineer eager to transfer problem-solving skills to creative choreography, underscoring a passion for synchronized group dynamics and compelling storytelling through dance after 2 years of self-directed dance studies and community theater involvement.
- Dynamic marketing executive with 8 years at a Fortune 500 company, seeking to pivot to dance production management. Brings a proven track record of strategic branding initiatives and an MBA in Arts Management, along with a lifelong dedication to ballet as an amateur dancer.
- Aspiring dance instructor with robust health and fitness background eager to leverage a BA in Physical Education to help others achieve their dance and performance goals. Committed to creating an engaging learning environment that fosters the development of each dancer's unique style.
- Recent performing arts graduate with specialized training in modern dance, seeking entry-level opportunities to apply vigorous academic and practical preparation. Fueled by an eagerness to collaborate in diverse productions and a determination to master various dance genres.
What else can you add to your dance resume
What most candidates don't realize is that their dance resumes should be tailored both for the job and their own skillset and personality.
To achieve this balance between professional and personal traits, you can add various other sections across your resume.
Your potential employers may be impressed by your:
- Awards - spotlight any industry-specific achievements and recognitions that have paved your path to success;
- Languages - dedicate some space on your dance resume to list your multilingual capabilities, alongside your proficiency level;
- Publications - with links and descriptions to both professional and academic ones, relevant to the role;
- Your prioritization framework - include a "My Time" pie chart, that shows how you spend your at-work and free time, would serve to further backup your organization skill set.
Key takeaways
- The layout of your resume should take into consideration your professional background while integrating vital sections and design elements;
- Highlight your most pertinent achievements for the role all through different sections;
- Be very specific when selecting your certifications, hard skills, and soft skills to showcase the best of your talents;
- Include within the top one-third of your dance resume a header and summary to help recruiters understand your experience and allocate your contact details. A skills box is optional, but it will help you align your expertise with the role;
- Detail the full extent of your professional experience with specific bullets that focus on tasks, actions, and outcomes.
