The tips below will show you what it takes to be a backup dancer for music artists and bands. It shows you the skills that will help you from the initial stages of auditioning through to actually getting booked for the job. Follow these tips and be ahead of the pack.



1. Talent: That's right talent is one of the most important things. Spend all the time you can perfecting your skills, going to dance classes and be the best you can. It'll help you!

2. Belief: No dancer achieved great success without believing in their talent. Believing in yourself whether you've been praised or just turned down for 5 auditions in a row.

3. Persistence: A lot of dancers will leave the race for backup dancer jobs because they're not tough enough to be rejected so many times. It takes persistence because directors are always looking for different things on different jobs.

4. Image: Image is not a skill but creating a 'sellable image' for yourself is. Your image needs to look good whatever it is, and something that people can look at and say 'Yes I could see that dancer in this video.'

5. Dedication: Dedication is needed to keep up practise whether times are thick or thin.

6. Stamina: Music videos can be long days. You can be filming from early in the morning till late at night. Days of 12 hours or more aren't uncommon. The plus side is you'll usually be well paid.

7. Patience: There can be a lot of waiting around any time you are filming whether it is a film, television show or music video. It takes patience because naturally as a dancer you want to be dancing. Often waiting around can take it out of you more than actually dancing itself.

8. Professionalism: Getting on with the job at hand with minimal fuss. Dancers that bicker or complain a lot aren't fun for the crew or artist involved to have around.

9. Personality: A likeable personality or natural charm can work wonders. Some people can just seem to get on with everyone and are always great fun to have around. Not surprisingly they get booked often.

10. Good contact: Staying in touch with agents, returning phone calls about jobs and rehearsals, being easy to get in contact with. This makes it easier to get booked and much simpler for the people who you're working with.