Professional dancers and actors are the migrant laborers of the arts world; they move where the work is. And at no other time is that movement so pronounced as in the summer. Actors flee en masse for summer stock theaters that dot the Northeast, and dancers flock to the city, where “summer intensives” attract the best choreographers for one- and two-week workshops.

The low-key and relaxed acting classes in the summer are ideal for the curious but easily intimidated inner thespian. Dancers, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of timidity. They will get the opportunity to be in the same halls – practically sharing sweat – with some of the finest choreographers in the country and even dance under their tutelage.

For anyone who acted in the high school play or vicariously experienced a few moments of deluded grandeur while watching the HBO series “Unscripted” (which follows the hard knock lives of aspiring Hollywood stars),a summer acting class may be the palliative for unrealized dreams.

Fortunately for the timid among us, students at many of the city’s acting schools – including the Herbert Berghof Studio and Circle in the Square Theatre School – leave for the summer. In the void, come beginners of all walks of life, as well as freshly minted college acting grads who have come to the city, like so many before them, seeking stardom. At the school, classes will prep them for their first auditions. The result is a less stressful experience, said an actor who works at the Herbert Berghof Studio, Frank Glacken. Like many schools, the studio (www.hbstudio.org) offers a summer intensive for more advanced students as well as single classes for beginners. For those too scared to participate, backseat thespians can “audit” classes for a mere $10.

While the program is professionally oriented at Circle in the Square Theatre School (www.circlesquare.org), the seven-week acting workshop can be an immersive life-changing experience for the previously uncommitted.

“Its quite an eye-opener for a lot of people who don’t have a lot of experience,” the director of Circle in the Square Theatre School, Colin O’Leary, said. “It gives them a glimpse of what it entails for someone in the craft to learn the craft.”

Most schools offer individual classes that cover the three basic fundamentals of the actor’s craft: acting, speech or voice, and movement techniques. Beginners can learn what it takes to embody a range of emotions and develop a character; others can sign up for stage combat, physical acting, yoga, Alexander technique, and even Pilates. And for those looking for a skill that is as useful in the black box as it is hailing a city cab, there is voice projection.

For those interested in a purely recreational pursuit, there are improvisational theater classes that offer unadulterated fun, free from the drama of actors trying to make it in the cutthroat industry. At improv, almost everyone is an amateur.

“Lord knows, in the grand scheme of things there are about five people who do improv professionally and they all work for “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” the executive and artistic director for Gotham City Improv (www.gothamcityimprov.com), Brad Barton, said.

The group, which practices at a studio at 158 W. 23rd St., offers a four-level program, with classes once a week on weekdays between 6:30 and 9:30. Its 10-week spring semester started last week and a summer session likely will launch in the beginning of July, Mr. Barton said. For the skeptical, the group offers a free improv class at the beginning of each 10-week session.

“I tell people it’s recess for adults,” said another improv instructor, John Swift, who teaches at Quick Thinking Improv (www.quickthinkingimprov.com). The group rehearses at Cap 21 Studios, which is part of New York University’s Tisch School. As with most schools, there are options for all levels of interest. A 10-class package costs $250 for those who pre-pay and a sample class costs $20. For the summer, Mr. Swift is offering a four-week workshop open to all levels that will culminate in a performance. The workshop’s cost, $150, includes two tickets to the show that culminates the course.

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While those coaxing their inner actor out may find a stress-free environment in the absence of the hard-core professionals who leave for summer stock theaters, the summer brings an intensity to the dance scene matched only by the seasonal heat that fills studios.

More important, however, is the density of talent that fills the studio when star choreographers show up to teach summer intensives, where aspiring dancers are looking to get noticed.

If this sounds like a little too much, relax. Almost every studio offers the antidote to such intensity in the form of open classes – from jazz and hip hop to Pilates and yoga – where students can go with no commitment and remain blissfully anonymous and out of the limelight.

“You go, you leave,” Colin Mysliwiec, who is a repertory understudy with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, said. “You can get away with not knowing what’s going on.”

The summer treat for the novice, may come after class at, for instance, the Dance Space Center in SoHo, where you can watch the intensives taught by such choreographers as Ezra Caldwell, Maija Garcia, and Oliver Steele, among other internationally- known teachers, with many such sessions culminating in a performance.

“We’re one of the few studios where your recreational mom who loves to dance, dances next to someone really famous,” the marketing director of the Dance Space Center, Dave Ganulin, said. “It’s a cool environment.”

The Dance Space Center is moving to new digs downtown after May 18. Mr. Ganulin said that $1.4 million in grants from the city helped fund the $3.8 million renovation of its new 25,000-square foot studios, which, he said, will be the largest cultural institution downtown.

The Broadway Dance Center at midtown is considered the jazz hub of the city. It also offers open classes as well as “Absolute Beginner Workshops,” which will resume starting September 18.

At Peridance Center at 4th Ave between 12th and 13th Streets, the most popular open classes are ballet and hip-hop. The big draw for dancers are the one-week intensives – for more advanced students – that feature both established and up-and-coming choreographers. The one-week programs occur throughout the summer. Ms. Mysliwiec, who has been dancing in the city for five years and knows the ins-and-outs of every studio, said Peridance is the “it” place to be.

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which recently opened a 77,000-square-foot building at 55th Street and Ninth Avenue, began offering classes for beginners at its Ailey Extension, a school that launched April 4. There, fans of the late choreographer can take classes in “Horton,” Ailey’s signature style named after the teacher who introduced him to dance, Lester Horton. Students can learn the techniques Ailey used in his best-known piece, “Revelations.”

Through this class and others like it, “people can get a taste and see how the dancer’s body is created,” the director of Ailey Extension, Yvette Campbell, said. “It’s for people interested in moving without being intimidated by being in a class with some of the best dancers in the world.”

For those interested in dancing with a partner this summer, the school offers four-week courses in ballroom, salsa, and Argentine tango. Courses are $80 per person and meet once a week.

Of course, what’s summer without a salsa party? Be it at Central Park’s Summer Stage or the salsa bands that play on the steps of Bryant Park each summer, salsa dancing – as well as swing and tango – is a social asset. Enter Dance Manhattan Studios, which hosts a free 45-minute lesson every Sunday at 6 p.m. during the summer at Pier 25 off Chambers Street. There on the Hudson River, dancers can heat up the dance floor as the sun sets. Every week offers a new theme, from tango to salsa. Opening night is July 10.The studio also offers crash courses for the prospective bride and groom, as well as an open house on the fourth Friday of every month. Fun is the watchword of this studio.

For those looking for the most informal venues, the treasure trove of all classes can be found on the online community, www.craigslist.com.