When most people thing of a dancer they think of the drunken chicks at the club backing their behinds into another girl on the dance floor. If you are really off the hook you think about the exotic club downtown and if you are your father you think about the Broadway musical.

However, there are a lot of opportunities for dancers in the music business today. More than likely this is more so than at any point in the history of pop music. I mean have you sat down and reviewed the music videos on television lately? There is very little footage of the singer generally and they focus on the dancers strutting their stuff.

In fact if you check out a lot of pop music and hip-hop music concerts these days and actually take the time to do a count, there is often a lot more dancers on the stage than there are musicians on the stage. I don’t know, nothing against dancers but when I go to see a concert I go to hear music and see musicians, but then again I am old school and there is a new batch of talent coming up and it is time for me to gracefully bow out from center stage.

Granted if you are at a show and there are dancers up there it does make the entire thing much less static and it allows you to keep your eyes as entertained as your ears are being entertained. The right choreography on a number can actually enhance the devil out of a number and the wrong moves can stagnate it quickly.

So how does a dancer get her - pardon the pun - foot in the door here and get started being hired to work in the videos and live productions? It requires - another pun here - some fancy footwork to accomplish this feat.

The first thing you need to do is find the work and if there is no work available in your area, you have to make a demand for what you are doing. Places like myMusicCircle have areas where dancers can look for work and check for people looking for dancers. It can be a great place to network and find opportunities.

You need to keep your eyes and ears open because in this crazy music business, you just never know where the next gig is going to come from.