How to become a professional dancer hip hop

How does Hip Hop Dancer job growth stack up to other jobs across the country? By 2024, there will be a change of 600 jobs for a total of 13,600 people employed in the career nationwide. This is a 4.6% change in growth over the next ten years, giving the career a growth rate nationwide of Below Average.

Growth Rankings And Facts

What Companies Employ The Most Hip Hop Dancers

Want To Be a Hip Hop Dancer? Get Started!

Generate your free SmartPlan™ to identify colleges you like, and potential ways to save on a degree or certification program toward your career with courses, offers, and much more!

Enroll Now and Get Started

or Learn More →

How to Dance Professional Hip Hop

Posted By JBS Admin on May 4, 2020 |

Wondering how to dance professional hip hop? You’ve come to the right place. Joffrey Ballet School has trained thousands of dancers across all genres of dance – including hip hop – to become versatile professionals in the dance world. But we also recognize that this is a bit of a loaded question. Because when it comes to hip hop, even more than any other genre of dance, there’s no one way to become a professional. 

Joffrey Summer of Hip Hop from Joffrey Ballet School on Vimeo.

Truth is, top hip hop dancers can come from the street or the studio. But although professional hip hop dancers have diverse backgrounds, hip hop is similar to other professional dance careers in this way: it’s a highly competitive field with no guarantees. That means it can be a challenge to set yourself apart. But there are things you can do that will increase your chances of success. 

Hip hop is unique because of its origins and continuing status as a street dance. Hip hop isn’t like other genres of dance such as classical ballet where there is a typical career trajectory that leads to getting work in the field, or a specific background that professional hip hop dancers must have. There’s no “pointe shoes moment” – the moment when you know you’re on track to becoming a professional. 

But professional hip hop dancers do have a few things in common. Hip hop dancers who want to work regularly need to be well versed not just in hip hop but other dance styles whether its pop, house, funk, hip hop, dance hall, or any other genre. And they should have enough formal dance training to reliably follow eight count direction. Those are just for starters. 

Here are a few other tips for becoming a professional hip hop dancer.

Respect and understand the art form – Hip hop isn’t just a dance form. Hip hop is a culture, an art form that blends music, dance, street fashion, and much more. Technically, hip hop incorporates four unique art forms: DJing, MCing, breakdancing and tagging, or graffiti. It’s important to note that dance is just part of the overall culture and if you don’t understand the culture, it’s hard to “feel” the art form as a dancer. So if you want to be a professional hip hop dancer, we recommend that you spend some time studying hip hop: learn about its history and listen to the old school music from its origins through today. Watch what other dancers are doing and have done in the past, and learn from them. Developing your understanding and appreciation of hip hop culture makes you a stronger dancer and a better ambassador for the art form.

Spend some time in the studio – Although professional hip hop dancers can still come from the streets the “old school” way, those stories are becoming ever rarer. For better or worse, “New style” hip hop dancers – who learned their craft in a studio, are becoming the norm. That is because a professional dancer must be able to take direction and follow complex choreography. The ability to freestyle is key, but to perform as part of a crew or as a background dancer means that a background in the formal language of dance is important. In addition, formal dance training teaches you to develop strength and flexibility which will reduce your chances of injury and increase your longevity as a dancer. These are good things.  

Be insanely talented and athletic – Let’s face it, hip hop dancing is extremely high energy performance. You need to be incredibly athletic and strong to pull off the moves it takes to perform a street freestyle or a new style choreographed performance. Hip hop music is high energy and you must be too. Also keep in mind that because hip hop is a culture, not just a form of music or dance, many professional hip hop dancers become ambassadors for the art form and may also find work as dancers, models or actors. So take good care of your body because hip hop dancing is truly a lifestyle!

Market yourself like a professional – As in any performing arts field, applying for jobs as a hip hop dancer requires a few professional tools. These include your headshot, a resume or CV (curriculum vitae), and a dance reel. Your headshot should be recent, natural, and look like the real you, so not too much makeup. Wear a hairstyle similar to what you would wear to an audition. A dance reel is simply a video that highlights your best dance skills – popping, locking, freestyling, your work as part of a crew, highlights of a dance battle or competition. The video can be submitted on a flash drive, SD card or shared on social media. Finally, gaining representation by an agent can be incredibly helpful when it comes to finding paying work as a hip hop dancer…but it is neither a guarantee nor a requirement.

Network like crazy – Lastly – and we can’t stress this enough – when it comes to professional hip hop dancing (or any form of professional dance) it isn’t just what you know, it’s who you know. To find work professionally, you need to develop an extensive network of people who know you and your work, so that when it’s time to hire, your name is at the top of the list. Formal training – whether it’s through a local studio, a summer intensive or a pre-professional dance training program –  is a great way to start building your network. Competitions and dance crews are also a great way to gain recognition in the hip hop dance world.

Although “old school” hip hop originated as a street dance, no longer is it limited to that – especially for those who aspire to dance professionally. 

Since the development of “new style” hip hop in the late 1980s, most who aspire to dance hip hop professionally also spend a significant amount of time training in the studio, and for good reason. Formal education expands your ability to work professionally, so investing in your formal dance education is a smart choice. It allows you to dance more than just hip hop, it teaches you the choreography skills that will allow you to extend your professional longevity, and provides the skills to become an instructor capable of teaching the next generation when your performing career comes to an end. 

If you’re ready to take the next step towards dancing professional hip hop, register today for Joffrey Ballet School’s NYC Hip Hop Summer Dance intensive. The intensive includes a jam packed week of more than 75 class types, including Breaking, Freestyle, House, Jazz/Funk, Street, Locking, Pop’n, commercial dance and other forms. You’ll have the opportunity to perform in a recorded summer dance showcase and add footage to your dance reel. 

Best of all, you can network with the best in hip hop. Our instructors include hip hop stars like TRIX, season 9 finalist of So You Think You Can Dance; Andrew “Dr.Ew” Carter, who has danced with performers like Ariana Grande, J Lo, Janet Jackson, Kendrick Lamar and many other top artists; and Carlos Neto, among many others. Our artistic directors are Lisette Salgado-Lucas and David Lucas, founders of the Stomp the Ground (STG): The Ultimate Dance Competition.

If you’re looking to take the next step towards dancing hip hop professionally, contact Joffrey Ballet School today to register for an audition for our next hip hop summer dance intensive or our year round Jazz and Contemporary training program. Whether you spend a summer or a year with us, your dreams of dancing professional hip hop start here!

Digital Auditions: https://summer.joffreyballetschool.com/digital-audition/

JBS Admin (69 Posts)

Founded in 1953 by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino, Joffrey Ballet School maintains the vision of its founders to transform passionate dance students into versatile, individualistic artists able to collaborate and evolve fluidly in a fast-changing society. With an accredited dance program that offers two core areas of study – ballet and jazz/contemporary – JBS is known for its diverse curriculum and has the largest summer intensive training program in the country.

How to be a good hip hop dancer - Street Cultures

Love what you do. If you want to dance, love the dance. Maybe you want to dance so that the girls pay attention to you!? Or guys if you're a girl. In order to look good, you have to stop paying attention to how people see you from the outside, and focus solely on yourself. Put your whole soul into it. If you don’t have a heart for dancing, you will definitely give up after the first movement that doesn’t work out, because it will become stressful for you. But if you really have the desire, you will work hard on one movement until you master it.

Find information about famous dancers. There are many legendary dancers who inspire many dance lovers. It will be helpful to look at the history of how they learned to dance. This, of course, does not mean that you should try to repeat the movements of a professional. It's too difficult. But remember this: choose one favorite dancer, and when you dance, think about him/her and imagine that you are he/she. Let him/her become your invisible teacher!

Learn the movements. You can sign up for dance lessons or learn the movements yourself. A lot of people watch videos and try to replicate what they saw, but mostly it's hard to do. It is necessary that someone supervise the movements you have mastered and correct them if difficulties arise.

Learn the history of dance. Dancing is one way to express your feelings. He is handsome, full of artistry and sometimes just indescribable. There are many styles of dance, such as breakdancing, popping, tatting, locking and others. These styles fall under the hip hop category.

Dance with your friends. Practicing dancing alone can be boring. You can also borrow a couple of moves from other people. Find a nearby dance studio, gym, or just practice outside! Gather your friends, turn on the music and improvise! Even if you look weird from the outside, after hard work there is always something comforting, right? Ignore the passers-by, just practice with your friends. Who knows? Perhaps in the future you and your friends will become the best dance group in the world.

Don't give up! Perhaps your friends will say that dancing is not for you. Pay no attention to them. If it seems to you that you are not succeeding, stand in front of a mirror and look at yourself. Why not? Why do you think you can't dance? Never give up. Tell yourself: you will do it! You are either too shy or too lazy! Of course you can! Now I will learn these movements and show them who I really am. Correctly!

To the details... If you want to practice break dancing, also known as "b-boy", you first need to know what kind of style it is. They will require a lot of strength and creativity to engage. You must feel it. You may feel like the moves you want to learn are too hard and you're ready to give up, but trust yourself. There are many different moves in break dancing and you can learn any of them and then transform them into your own style.

About the peculiarities of styles… If you want to do popping, which is considered the most popular b-boy style, you need natural inclinations, because with age your body becomes less flexible. Thus, you will have to start training from a young age, or if you have the inclinations of nature. If you don't have the makings and you didn't hear about popping as a kid, then you'll have to put in a lot of effort, because popping is literally "shuddering to the music. " It can both attract attention and scare away.

Keep training. Practice every day. This does not necessarily mean a hard workout. Let's say you're practicing handstand while you're waiting for your lunch, you can practice a little. There is a minute of free time - train. Anywhere in your home. When you go somewhere, make a couple of movements, keep repeating them, because the more you practice the movements, the more naturally they come out.

Speak up. Audition! Good work on the dance. Forget everything you've learned before. You can perform on your own or with friends. Do all the learned movements to the music and the dance is ready! Listen to the reaction of the public, their advice and do better next time! Dancing on stage will inspire you even more. Be proud of your work, but don't stop, keep improving until you reach your goal!

where to study, salary, pros and cons

Author: Professional Guide

Updated December 1, 2022

Dancer is a person of art who performs rhythmic movements to music, taking part in theatrical performances, shows. The profession belongs to the type “a person is an artistic image”, it requires excellent self-discipline and, of course, talent. Children who distinguish literature, physical education, music and singing from all school subjects can become dancers. By the way, the ProfGid career guidance center has recently developed an accurate career guidance test that will tell you which professions suit you, give an opinion about your personality type and intelligence. 9Ol000

Brief description

This profession has a rich history and is closely associated with the arts. However, the success of dancers by more than 50% depends on dedication, endurance, self-discipline. A specialist can work independently, performing solo choreographic numbers, it is also worth highlighting pair and collective dances. There are a lot of types and techniques of this art direction:

• ballet;
• pop and folk dance;
• historical dance and others.

See also:

Also distinguish styles such as street jazz, hip-hop, R'n'B, contemporary dance, street dance, etc. Dancers choose the style and type of performing arts based on their physical abilities, temperament, personal preferences. On stage, they create artistic images, convey emotions, making the hearts of the audience tremble.

Features of the profession

Anyone can become a professional dancer, but it is worth starting training in childhood. Choreographers recommend giving children to dance studios at the age of 3-7 years, which will allow them to develop good posture, plasticity, stretching, a sense of rhythm and other skills necessary for professional performance. Dancers most often work in 1-2 overlapping styles, they pay special attention to training and rehearsals, maintaining excellent physical shape. A career is short, because its peak is at the age of 15-25 years, and after 30 years, most specialists change their field of activity. They can realize their talent and knowledge in other areas, working as directors, choreographers, school teachers.

Dancers independently or under the guidance of a choreographer create performances: choice of music, sequence and rhythm of movements, costumes and image, facial expressions, plasticity. Before performing the dance, they rehearse for a long time, honing their skills. Many members of this profession often travel around their home country and go abroad to give concerts. The activity is associated with certain difficulties, which leaves an imprint on the lifestyle and character of the dancer.

Pros and cons of the profession

Pros

1. Excellent physical development, because dancing strengthens the body and willpower.
2. Opportunity to work on the best scenes.
3. Talented dancers quickly achieve success.
4. The profession is interesting, active and ambitious people will like it.
5. Opportunity to earn income from various sources, because dancers work alone or in pairs, can take part in private productions, star in music videos.
6. Useful business connections in the world of art.
7. The opportunity to change the field of activity, because dancers often open schools, give private lessons, work as choreographers - the choice of directions is huge.

Cons

1. High injury rate.
2. Serious injuries can put an end to a professional career.
3. Short career period.
4. Very high competition.

See also:

Important personal qualities

Dancers have excellent plasticity, but in this profession not only technical performance is important, but also emotionality. The dancers convey the idea of ​​the performance with the help of movements, facial expressions, so they must be distinguished by well-developed artistry. Increased efficiency, resistance to physical stress and a low pain threshold are very important, because rehearsals and performances often end with sprains, dislocations and other minor injuries. Only those people who do not suffer from laziness, negligence, and excessive self-confidence ascend to the pinnacle of success.

Training for a dancer

Professional education can be obtained in various institutions:

• schools and academies of choreography;
• dance studios;
• colleges;
• universities.

There are no special requirements for the education of a dancer, the level of his skill is determined during choreographic tests. It is worth starting training at a young age in order to reach a professional level. Let's consider the most interesting directions:

• "The art of dance (by type)", implemented in choreographic colleges and schools. You can start training after grades 7-9, which depends on the requirements of the college;
• The Art of Ballet. The direction of training is open in many creative colleges, studio schools, academies. Children who have completed the 4th grade of the school are invited to study.

You can also go to study at a university, choosing a specialty related to choreography, folk dance and other areas. Primary training can be obtained in public and private schools of choreographic art, during individual lessons.

Universities

• 4 years

  90,000 ₽/year

  12 budget places

• 4 years

  158,100 ₽/year

  23 budget places

• 4 years

  65,000 ₽/year

  8 budget places

• 4 years

  200,000 ₽/year

  16 budget places

Best Primary Schools

1. Dance Quarter School.
2. School for children "Dancevaliya".
3. State 27 Dance Studio.

Best colleges and academies for dancers

1. ARB im. A. Ya. Vaganova.
2. MGAH.
3. MCU at the Moscow State Academy of Theater Arts "Gzhel".
4. School-studio (school) at GAANT them. I. Moiseeva.
5. KMTI im. G. P. Vishnevskaya.

Best universities

1. IPCC.
2. GITIS-RATI.
3. MGAH.
4. ARB them. A. Ya. Vaganova.
5. Russian State University A. N. Kosygin.
6. ISI.
7. UGAI.
8. SPbGUP.
9. AGIIK.
10. KemGIK.

See also:

Place of work

Dancers are in demand in theaters, film industry and organization of holidays and events. They can work as teachers, find vacancies in nightclubs, private groups - there are many options for employment.

Salary

There is no exact tariff rate in this segment, because everything depends on the style in which the dancer works, personal qualities, education, reputation and experience.

Learn more

• 
  How do i learn to dance
• 
  How does just dance work for ps4
• 
  How long does it take to learn shuffle dance
• 
  Beryozka dance how to
• 
  How to dance at a quinceanera
• 
  How to join world of dance
• 
  How to dance at a bar
• 
  How to dance with a guy at homecoming
• 
  How much does dance moms make
• 
  How to find a good dance studio
• 
  Learn how to tap dance beginner