Employment Trends

What are the statistics and chances of success?

The creative industries as a whole contribute over £70 billion per year to the UK economy however employment trends in dance fluctuate annually and unfortunately hourly pay for individuals differ based on location even if it is the same job. Below infers why this is, along with statistics to support it.

What increases dance/choreographer employment?

Popular projects like Big Dance and shows such as Strictly Come Dancing that advertise the world of dance through media, are critical in inspiring people to pick up dancing. This is inferred by the 8.8% increase of employed dancers over a 2 year span (2011-2013), meaning at that time, creative industries were the fastest growing sector in the UK.

What decreases dance/choreographer employment?

Unfortunately in dance, an increase in dancers one year doesn't mean that many will be employed the next. This means that if schools don't deliver ongoing opportunities week in, week out, dance will rapidly become less popular and a downward trend of employment will be seen. Unless there is a solid universal offer for all young people in every neighborhood, dance is likely to remain marginal. Even if employment wasn't to decrease, dance is a sector that is split between a few ‘superstar’ artists, and a long tail of low paid practitioners.

What are the participation statistics for dancers?

40,000 people are involved in dance to some extent however only 14,500 of those in that workforce, as recorded by the Government census, earn a living as a dancer or choreographer. This conveys the fact that participation can be relatively high, but only one third of people gain any success from the participation.

In schools, around 12,000 students take GCSE dance annually but only 2,000 take A Level. These figures are likely due to the fact that many schools don't offer Dance at GCSE or A-Level and those that offer both sometimes cant run the A-Level course if not enough students want to participate. That in combination with lack of support for the performing arts from some schools definitely reduces participation from students and so decreases the potential participation they could've had as adults. Following A-Levels, based on results from 2012/13 there's more fulltime dancers that participate in higher education (4,650).

What is the pay?

In 2016, there were 20,400 dancers and choreographer jobs in the UK and the median hourly wage for choreographers was £23.19 and for dancers in that year was £13.74 However that is just an average and each person, despite the fact that they are all dancers or choreographers will be paid at a very different rate. The lowest 10 percent earned less than £8.69, and the highest 10 percent earned more than £33.34 and this is largely based upon location for example you will earn more money per year if you are a dancer in London rather than near Lancashire. In some areas it can be especially low which means an estimated amount of 40% of those that work in dance earn £5,000-£20,000 per year, and almost 25% earn less than £5,000 per year. Referring back to the 20,400 of dancers in 2016, this means over 13,000 of dancers earn less than two thirds of the average annual earnings for the UK.