Dance Resume Template
A dance resume has to do two jobs at once. For an audition it is a credits document, read in seconds for the companies, choreographers and repertory you have performed. For a teaching, rehearsal-direction or arts-administration job it is a normal employment document that a studio, school district or arts organisation will process like any other application. This dance resume template keeps both readable: performance credits in a scannable list, teaching and production work written as experience, and technique named in the terms a director uses in a call.
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Directors scan a dance resume for three things in order: the styles you are trained in, the work you have performed and the names attached to it. Everything else — the teaching, the production work, the day job that pays the rent — is read afterwards and only if the first three hold up. That is why this template separates performance credits from employment instead of blending them into one chronological list, and why the technique block is written as concrete styles and levels rather than as a claim about versatility.
What a dance resume template needs to hold
- Technique with levels. The styles you are trained in, with a plain indication of level — pointe work, partnering, advanced tap — because casting depends on what you can be asked to do on day one.
- Performance credits. The production, the role or part, the company or choreographer, the venue and the year, in a consistent format.
- Training history. Conservatory or degree programs, summer intensives, syllabus examinations and the teachers a director would recognise.
- Teaching and rehearsal work. Classes taught, ages and levels, syllabi you have run and students you have prepared for auditions or assessments.
- Choreographic work. Original pieces with the length, cast size and where they were staged, if you want to be considered for creation and staging roles.
- Production awareness. Costume and quick-change experience, tech rehearsals and touring logistics are evidence that you understand how a show actually runs.
Section order for a dance resume
- Header: name, performing identity (dancer, teaching artist, choreographer), city, contact details and links to reel or performance footage.
- Technique and training: styles, levels, conservatory programs and intensives, kept in the top quarter.
- Performance credits: a compact list, newest first, with production, role, company and year.
- Experience: company contracts, tours, teaching posts and rehearsal direction, written as employment with dates.
- Choreography: original works with length, cast size and staging history.
- Education: degree or diploma, plus any syllabus qualifications you hold.
Dance resume example
Example resume
A working dancer's resume in this template: technique and teaching skills in the sidebar, company seasons and contracts in the experience column, and original choreography held in a projects block. Switch layouts in the builder and export PDF or DOCX — free, no account needed.
Showing 3 of 15 free templates — open the builder to browse every layout. All 15 are free.
Writing the performance credits list
Keep every credit to one line and use the same field order throughout: production, role or part, company or choreographer, venue if it carries weight, then the year. A director reading thirty of these should be able to compare them without re-reading the format. Understudy and cover work belongs on the list — mark it clearly rather than leaving it out, because covering a role is a different job and casting directors know it. If a credit was a workshop, a reading or a single festival performance, say so instead of presenting it as a full season.
Showing teaching and rehearsal work
- Name the levels and ages. “Contemporary, ages 12–18, graded levels 3–5” tells a studio director where you can be scheduled without a trial period.
- Describe programs you built. A performance track, a syllabus, a showcase season or an audition-preparation block is curriculum work, and studios hire for it.
- Include the administrative layer. Attendance records, progress notes, parent communication and recital logistics are the parts of a teaching job nobody else wants to do.
- Keep the teaching resume and the audition resume separate. A studio wants the employment history first; an audition panel wants credits first. The same template holds both versions — only the order changes.
- State your own rehearsal practices. Injury-aware warm-ups, conditioning and recovery routines signal that you can sustain a contract, not just a callback.
ATS notes for dance resumes
- Write credits as text, not as an image of a programme or a screenshot from a review; artwork is invisible to a parser and unreadable on a phone.
- Keep dates in month and year where the contract ran longer than a few weeks, and use the year alone only for single-run credits.
- Use standard section headings — Experience, Education, Skills — alongside the credits list, so an arts organisation's HR system can map the document to its fields.
- Put the contact block and the links in the body of the page rather than in a page header, which many systems skip.
- Name styles and qualifications exactly as the posting does: “contemporary”, “ballet (pointe)”, “RAD Intermediate” — a filter matches terms, not intentions.
Common dance resume mistakes
- Listing styles without levels, so a director cannot tell whether ballet means a barre class or pointe work.
- Blending every credit, class and commercial job into one chronological list where the performance work disappears.
- Using a photo-led layout for a teaching application that will be processed by a school district's portal.
- Leaving out understudy, swing and cover work because the role was not performed on opening night.
- Writing choreography as “created new work” with no length, cast size or venue, which makes the piece impossible to judge.
- Letting the credits page grow past the relevant decade; older work can be compressed to a single line per production.
The layout above is one of the templates ShitResume ships, and the document behind it keeps technique, credits and employment in a single readable order. ShitResume runs in the browser and keeps the resume on your device, so a file with your performance history and contact details is never uploaded anywhere. Every layout, PDF and DOCX export is free, and you can start without an account.
Skills and keywords for this role
Use the terms that genuinely describe your work — an interviewer will ask about anything you list.
- Technique: contemporary, ballet (pointe), jazz, hip-hop, tap, partnering, improvisation
- Performance: repertory staging, new works, touring, commercial and film work, floor work
- Teaching: open classes, graded syllabi, teen performance tracks, audition preparation
- Choreography: original works, rehearsal direction, staging, music editing, notation
- Production: costume fittings and quick changes, lighting calls, tech rehearsals, touring logistics
- Business: self-taping, audition reels, contract review, scheduling, injury-aware warm-ups
Frequently asked questions
Should a dance resume be one page?
One page is the norm for auditions, where the panel reads credits in under a minute. A teaching or arts-administration application can run to two pages once class planning, curriculum and production work are included. Keep the credits list one page regardless, and use a second page only for employment history.
What belongs on a dance resume besides performance credits?
Training and syllabus qualifications, teaching posts with the ages and levels you handled, choreographic work with its length and cast size, and production experience such as fittings, quick changes and tech rehearsals. Together they show a director that you can be cast, scheduled and trusted in a rehearsal room.
Do I need a headshot and a reel link on a dance resume?
Links to footage are the more useful addition — keep them in the contact block so they survive printing and parsing. A headshot is common for audition submissions and should be a separate file rather than an image inside the document, because an embedded photo can upset an ATS or an HR portal.
How should I list intensives and summer programs?
Group them under training rather than mixing them into credits, with the program name, the year and the faculty or focus where it is recognised. One line each is enough; a director is looking for the names and the styles covered, not for a paragraph about the experience.
How do I handle a short contract or a touring season?
Give it its own entry with the contract dates in month and year, the cities or the tour name, and the number of performances where you know it. A clearly dated three-month tour reads as professional work; a vague line about travel reads as a gap.
Can I use one resume for auditions and for teaching jobs?
Yes, with the order changed. The audition version leads with technique and credits; the teaching version leads with employment and class experience. Both fit the same template, and the builder lets you duplicate and retarget a resume without starting from scratch.