Choreographer Salary & Career: Pay, Commercial Day Rates & How to Break In
$900 – $2,500 / Day on Commercials
In this episode, we talk with New York-based choreographer and director Mandie Rapoza, associate choreographer of the Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along and movement director on national campaigns for Samsung with Jaden Smith and the NFL. She explains what choreographers and movement directors do, how she moved from performing to making the work, what each kind of job pays, and why she now puts an AI clause in her contracts.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- What a choreographer, associate choreographer, and movement director each do
- How a three-month training trip to New York turned into a career
- What she learned shadowing Casey Nicholaw on Broadway’s Tuck Everlasting
- What choreographers earn, from unpaid early work to Broadway and commercial rates
- How she landed a Samsung commercial with Jaden Smith and an NFL campaign
- Who owns a dance, and why she bars producers from feeding her work into AI
- How dancers train, and how they get by between contracts
How much can you earn?
Choreographing pays better than performing, but the money depends on the job. Theater tends to pay by the week or by the project, commercials pay by the day, and the first work you make may pay nothing at all. Here are the numbers Mandie shared from her own career:
Starting out as a choreographer: $0, while you make your own work so you have something to show
Developmental work: about $200–$600 per day
Associate choreographer on Broadway: about $2,000–$3,000 per week
Regional musical: about $4,000–$11,000 per project, depending on the size of the house and if it’s a union contract
Commercials: about $900–$2,500 per day
SDC Foundation observership: about $2,000 for roughly three months when she did it; she believes it’s now closer to $6,000
First paid performing job: £10 per show, playing a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at age eight
You may also like:
Check out more creative jobs →
FAQ
What does a choreographer do?
A choreographer creates the movement for a production, such as a musical, a play, a dance piece, or a commercial. Mandie Rapoza starts with the script, talks through the director’s concept, and maps out visual patterns across the show before she works with performers. An associate choreographer takes choreography someone else created and maintains its integrity in a show.
What is a movement director, and how is that different from a choreographer?
A movement director shapes how actors move when the work isn’t really dance. On the New York production of the Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol, Mandie is part of a movement team that restages movement already created for the show, which she describes as an extension of the actors. In commercials, a movement director may guide stars or everyday people who have never been in front of a camera..
Do commercials pay more than theater?
Yes, according to Mandie. In her experience, commercial day rates start around $900 and can reach $2,500. She got her Samsung job after working on the Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along, when a producer from the company that filmed the show asked her to be movement director.
Who hires a choreographer?
In theater, the producer hires the director, and the director usually reaches out to the choreographer. Mandie says many of her jobs now come through referrals, and she works with an agent on negotiations.
How do you become a choreographer?
Mandie trained for three years at Performers College near London, studying commercial hip-hop, tap, contemporary, modern dance, ballet, and musical theater. She performed professionally, then moved into choreography, making her own work at first for no pay. She also credits an SDC Foundation observership, which let her follow Casey Nicholaw from the first day of rehearsal through opening night of Tuck Everlasting on Broadway.
Do choreographers have to be in a union?
Mandie is a member of SDC, the union for stage directors and choreographers, and says members can’t take non-union jobs. She hasn’t found that limiting so far, because the union has a contract for most kinds of work. Choreographer and associate jobs are covered, but assistant jobs generally aren’t.
Who owns a choreographer’s work, and can AI use it?
It varies by project. When Mandie works for a producer on a piece she didn’t originate, the contract generally gives the producer the rights. She now adds an AI clause that bars them from feeding her work into AI engines to generate more work or ideas. She doesn’t use AI to create dances and still writes with pen and paper.
How do choreographers make money between jobs?
Mandie calls side jobs crucial to surviving in the industry. For many years she worked as a personal trainer, often returning the day after a contract ended, though she hasn’t needed to for the last two years. Her advice is to choose a side job you enjoy if you want to last in this business.
This show first aired on November 2026