Moving to a big city does not guarantee you any work as a dancer but it can give you a lot more opportunities and auditions and castings. Many of the biggest auditions take place only in the big cities like LA and New York.
Something you may want to consider before you move is the cost of doing so. Many of the larger cities are a lot more expensive to live in than your typical small town, with prices more expensive for everything from a pint of milk to renting a room.
If you move to another city it'll often be necessary to do non-dance related jobs in order to pay all your bills while you get settled. If you have any friends living there already and can find a good deal on a room then that can help a lot.
If you dream of dancing on TV for your favourite artists then relocating to the main cities is your best bet. Some dance agencies will only take on people who live in the same sort of area that the town is based. Whereas with other dance agencies they're not fussed about where you live, you'll be travelling long journeys to get to auditions and the cost of travelling to these may make it cheaper just to live in the city anyway.
Do you really want to be travelling the whole day just to go to an audition? And remember when you go to an audition you'll be in competition with other dancers. Travelling to get to a job where you've got the part isn't as bad although there's still the travel to contend with.
A sensible option may also be to audition for agencies before moving to a new city and only relocating if you get onto some of these agencies. The downfall to this approach is that there will also be many open auditions in the big cities as well which you'll miss out on unless you travel there each time.
If you want to make the most out of your dance career and give it your all then a move to the large cities is really essential. It may not be that bad where you live, ultimately you have to ask yourself whether you're getting enough opportunities where you are.
If you are then it's not so bad staying put as you'll probably have a lot more competition if you move to a 'dancing' town like LA not to mention stronger dancers. If however you need more opportunities and want to reach the top, start looking at a map and planning your journey to the big city!
Ryan Heddik has enjoyed a successful dance career dancing on TV numerous times and is the author of the groundbreaking e-book The book teaches aspiring dancers the exact process they can follow to find work in music videos with tried and tested principles that actually work. Find out more about it at