The Scoop on Dance Resumes

Each job I apply to only seems tedious because I know it means digging out the old resume and fixing it up yet again. In the performing arts you cannot have just a plain old normal job resume with an objective. Here's what you will need to do.

Start with your name in large letters in the center of the page. About 20-36 font. Different casting agents find that the easiest to read and have told me not to print anything on the resume smaller than a 10 pt font.

Put your contact info next. Don't bother with your home address. Put your cell phone number and email address that you check a couple times a day. You never know when someone will call or email you, so make sure you check messages. Don't assume the voicemails will always show up right away on your phone. I've checked my voicemail and realized the number never showed up on my phone, but there was a message from a casting director.
At the top of the page list your Height, Hair Color, Eye Color, and weight. Typically place a colon after each one. For example.

Height: 5'7" (then hit tab a few times) Hair Color: Strawberry Blonde

On the next line you would put:

Weight: 120 (right underneath "Height" and then) Eye Color: Blue (underneath "Hair Color").

Make sure the columns are lined up throughout your resume. Don't put your age because then people won't be as open to the possible ages you may be able to portray. If you do want to put an age range keep it within a 5 year time frame.

Once you have the basic info you will then need to choose categories. These can be performance, training, choreography, or anything else you think may be a possible heading. If you need to, and I would even suggest if you have done enough things, make separate performance and choreography resumes. Put the headings in bold letters, capitals, or italics to emphasize that they are headings. After the heading in a smaller font, or just not in bold list your credentials. Start with the most impressive credits because some people will never read the entire resume. If your training is amazing and you are fresh out of school then list your amazing training first. If you have mostly just performance experience add that. I usually list things chronologically because my jobs tend to get better and better. Never list dates though, so if you have something more impressive it may not hurt to list things out of chronological order.

These categories typically have three columns to them. List the part you had, the show or name of organization or company, and place you performed or went to school. For instance:

Titania Midsummer Nights Dream City Ballet.

Dancer Summer Under the Stars Rockland Modern Dance Company

Keep the columns lined up, but don't use fancy bullets. Too many font styles and sizes can get distracting.

When you are listing your training name the school, the city, and what you studied. If you studied under any well-known teachers list their names with the styles they taught. Make sure you check the spellings of everyone's names! A sample might be:
City Ballet Rockland Ballet-Karen Koff

Don't list too many things, five or six is usually enough. Ten is about the limit. Chances are when you have that many things to list some of them are not too impressive and don't really need to be on there. If you have college shows on there, there is no need to list dance recitals from high school. Unless they were a well known Nutcracker or something.

At the very bottom of a performance resume once all your credentials are listed people want to know what other special skills you have. Just put "Special Skills" or "Other Skills" in the same bold or italic font as your other headings. Then list any other experience you may have. This could range from gymnastics to foreign languages spoken to unicycling, to backstage experience. Anything fun or unique that you might be able to add to a performance. Just make sure it's something you really do. You may be asked to make those famous monkey sounds you claim to make, or they may just start speaking to you in Lithuanian. You never know. Always be honest on a resume. Never lie because you never know what the directors know or who they will talk to in the future.

The last thing you want to do is to check over the resume. Make sure the facts are correct, the places, and names are spelled correctly. Have a couple people proofread it as well. Then you're ready to print it out. Regular computer paper is fine. You may need to trim the paper down to fit your 8x10 headshot. If you don't need a headshot then you are all set! Good luck and break a leg!