DI_NewYork_MAINFrom Dance Informa.

For many dancers, New York City is the city of dreams. It’s the home of Broadway, of Lincoln Center, of the Radio City Rockettes, and of numerous opportunities and artists. Making the move to NYC, however, is a big decision. It’s a choice of taking chances, working hard amongst stiff competition and giving it your all in order to make ends meet. NYC is not for every dancer, but it does often offer great things to those who choose it.

Here, Dance Informa speaks with some NYC dancers on their decision to make the move. Together, they offer 10 reasons why or why not NYC may be a good fit for you.

1. You are a “go-getter”.

Dancers tend to already have a lot of passion and drive, but NYC, a city that itself is always on the go, requires much motivation and determination. And hard work.

“I joke that I play for team ‘no days off’,” says Emily Bufferd, producer of The Young Choreographers Festival and who teaches at the Joffrey Ballet School, Broadway Dance Center and Peridance Capezio Center. “You do have to hustle here. Every opportunity is an opportunity, no matter what.”

Bufferd moved to NYC from Highland, Florida, at the age of 18, in order to further her dance education and experiences. “You are very likely going to start at the bottom, and that’s okay,” she adds. “I think sometimes how hard you actually have to work can be shocking to a dancer who has just moved here. I recently choreographed a piece that was about how my friend and I used to cry on my couch about how we couldn’t get anyone to give us jobs. We literally showed work in shows that were in church basements for, like, four people and just kept doing it in the hopes of more and better, which eventually came. You just have to keep working at it.”

Read the full list Should You Move to New York?!