5 Tips for Dance Resumés
With auditions right around the corner, we’re sharing Audition 101.
Gathering your audition materials can be stressful, especially if you have never done it before. As we head into the thick of audition season, here are a few tips for formatting dance resumés to help you have a smoother audition experience. Today, we’re sharing five resumé tips for company auditions.
Keep your resumé to one page. Unless you are a professional dancer who has danced many prestigious roles with many years of experience, there is no need for your resumé to spill onto a second page. This may surprise you, but many directors won't read your whole resumé. Choose carefully which instructors you want to name and which intensives or companies you want to include, highlighting the most important ones in an easy-to-read format.
Tailor your resumé content to your audience. With each audition, you may want to make small adjustments to your resumé to feature the parts of your background that might appeal more to that specific company. If you have trouble knowing who or what to include, pick the better-known name unless you know an instructor with a connection to the company. If you're just starting out and don’t think you have much to fill your resumé, it’s okay. We all have been there. Start by including every summer intensive you have attended and the teachers who taught you there. Include any variations you have performed or ballets you danced in the past five years (keep it recent).
Help them remember you. With so many dancers auditioning and so many resumés to sift through, make it easy for the directors to put your face and experience together. Typically, you hand in a headshot attached to your resumé, but sometimes the photos are separated from the documents. It’s a good idea to put your headshot on your resumé in addition to the attached photos (make sure it’s a current and recognizable photo of you). Because your audition photos might become separated from your resumé, it’s a good habit to write your name on the back of your photos too.
Make it easy for them to contact you. You don’t want to slip through cracks simply because they had a hard time finding your email or phone number. Put these things at the top in its own section so it’s easy for them to find.
Organize your resumé to have clear sections. To some people, this tip may seem obvious; however, the hard part is keeping your resumé organized in a visually appealing manner that doesn’t overwhelm the viewer’s eye. There is no one way to do this, so we recommend that you look up examples on the internet or use a resumé formatting tool if you struggle in this area. Also, ask a friend or mentor to look over your draft and give you feedback before you finalize it; ask them if they felt it was easy to read and digest.
Have more questions or want someone to help review your resumé? The School of Ballet 5:8 offers dancer coaching sessions where an experienced professional dancer can give you feedback and advice.