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Monday, February 29, 2016

Dance Show Notes

Before any more of these dance recitals come up, be sure to consider the following items and bring up in production meeting with director(s)/choreographer(s):

Costume colors
This can have huge bearing on what to do with the lights. If you've got a lead dancer wearing a red sequin outfit, using a bit of red in the front light will give that extra umph! so that they can really stand out.

Projections or backdrop
Some dance companies have a banner or backdrop for their competitions or recitals, others have a gobo with their logo on it, and some want an image projected. And then there are those that don't have a plan for the background at all, but never count on that being the case. Always see what they want and work around it.

Any song mashups?
Ask if they can please send names of songs within the mixes and MP3 file if possible. At a minimum, I like to have a different look per song in a mashup.

Any songs with unusual endings:
False endings? Be sure you never get caught blacking out too early! Oy, is that embarrassing.
Chopped off endings? Don't ask about it like that. But again, see if you can get the exact MP3's they'll be using in the show, and really give them a listen before show day. If you didn't know they cut off the final chorus of a song you know by heart, and you either cued it or were running lights on the fly and were saving a special effect for a special moment at the end of the song... But then the song ends and the dancers all freeze and there's nothing else happening... Yeah it's just an awkward little moment.

Any show-stopping numbers?
If all the graduating seniors get a really special lyrical dance that needs some extra emotional interest, or a musical theatre number that involves 5 of the dance classes all together and it's so humongous and crowd-pleasing, be sure it gets the attention it deserves from your lights.

List of songs in show order AND rehearsal order
The most helpful thing I've learned is to get both these lists before rehearsal start time so that at the very least, I can sit down and number each song by cue number.

Below is an example of a Show Order and Rehearsal order with the Q numbers written in. That way when I go in to cue for the rehearsal, I don't have to bother with link/loop functions or remembering what goes where, because it will all be written in. Future self thanks present self for remembering to do this.



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