Will choreographers be replaced by AI?
Updated
Choreographers score 37 of 100 for AI exposure. The largest share of their task time, 75%, is work AI speeds up while they stay in charge. The other 25% stays with people.
- 75% AI helps
- 25% Needs a person
Moderate exposure
Lower than 50% of the 923 occupations we scored.
Task by task
We graded 18 tasks, listed here from most to least exposed. AI can't do any of them end to end yet. It speeds up 14 and leaves 4 to people.
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Read and study story lines and musical scores to determine how to translate ideas and moods into dance movements. AI can analyze story lines and scores, translating to movement stays creative. | 55% AI helps |
| Manage dance schools, or assist in their management. Scheduling, billing, and admin tasks automatable, staff leadership stays human. | 55% AI helps |
| Develop ideas for creating dances, keeping notes and sketches to record influences. AI can organize notes, mood boards and generate sketch concepts. | 50% AI helps |
| Record dance movements and their technical aspects, using a technical understanding of the patterns and formations of choreography. AI can draft notation and describe recorded movement from video. | 45% AI helps |
| Choose the music, sound effects, or spoken narrative to accompany a dance. AI music and sound tools speed selection, but artistic choice stays human. | 45% AI helps |
| Seek influences from other art forms, such as theatre, the visual arts, and architecture. AI can gather and summarize references across arts for research. | 40% AI helps |
| Design sets, lighting, costumes, and other artistic elements of productions, in collaboration with cast members. Image AI helps visualize sets, lighting and costume concepts. | 40% AI helps |
| Coordinate production music with music directors. Scheduling and music cue correspondence assisted, coordination stays human. | 35% AI helps |
| Restage traditional dances and works in dance companies' repertoires, developing new interpretations. Archive research and video references aided, new interpretation stays creative. | 35% AI helps |
| Direct and stage dance presentations for various forms of entertainment. Staging planning aided by AI, but live stage direction stays human. | 25% AI helps |
Show the other 8 tasks
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Design dances for individual dancers, dance companies, musical theatre, opera, fashion shows, film, television productions, and special events, and for dancers ranging from beginners to professionals. AI can suggest concepts, but dances are built with bodies in studio. | 25% AI helps |
| Audition performers for one or more dance parts. Audition logistics and forms automatable, live evaluation stays human. | 25% AI helps |
| Experiment with different types of dancers, steps, dances, and placements, testing ideas informally to get feedback from dancers. Informal testing happens physically with dancers, limited AI help. | 20% AI helps |
| Assess students' dancing abilities to determine where improvement or change is needed. Written assessments can be drafted, but observation is in person. | 20% AI helps |
| Direct rehearsals to instruct dancers in dance steps and in techniques to achieve desired effects. Live physical demonstration and correction of dancers in rehearsal. | 15% Needs a person |
| Teach students, dancers, and other performers about rhythm and interpretive movement. Teaching rhythm and movement relies on demonstration and live feedback. | 12% Needs a person |
| Advise dancers on standing and moving properly, teaching correct dance techniques to help prevent injuries. Hands on body alignment and injury prevention needs physical presence. | 8% Needs a person |
| Train, exercise, and attend dance classes to maintain high levels of technical proficiency, physical ability, and physical fitness. Personal physical training and class attendance is inherently physical. | 5% Needs a person |
How choreographers compare
All occupations (923)
Arts, design, entertainment, sports and media (40)
Pay and outlook in the US
- Median pay
- $55,310 a year, May 2025
- People employed
- 2,860 in the US, May 2025
- Projected change in jobs
- +3.1% from 2024 to 2034
Skills to build
- Rehearse live dancers and correct their alignment in the studio
- Record rehearsals on video to review movement and notation
- Build rehearsal decks and stage plans in Microsoft PowerPoint
- Track dancer bookings and contracts in Salesforce software
- Set production budgets and schedules in Microsoft Excel
- Pitch productions to venues through Email software and Word proposals
Safer roles nearby
5 related occupations with lower scores.
Questions about choreographers and AI
Will AI replace choreographers?
Partly. About 3 in 10 working hours of a choreographer go to tasks AI can already do, mostly reading story lines and scores and organizing notes and sketches. Movement itself stays with people, since choreographers test steps on live dancers and shape the work in rehearsal.
Which choreographer tasks is AI taking over?
Research and admin work come first. Reading story lines and musical scores scores 55 on exposure, because AI can analyze text and music structure and suggest how mood maps to movement. Managing dance schools also scores 55, since scheduling, billing and admin are automatable.
Which choreographer tasks stay human?
Rehearsal direction stays with people. Directing rehearsals scores 15 on exposure, and advising dancers on alignment scores 8, because correction depends on a person watching and adjusting bodies in the room. Assessing dancers in person also keeps choreographers central to the work.
How can choreographers stay valuable?
Spend more hours on the studio work that stays with people. Correct dancers and test steps live in rehearsal, then move admin into Microsoft Excel and Salesforce software to save time. Review recorded rehearsal footage and build production decks in Microsoft PowerPoint to keep the creative choices visible.
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