Wednesday, April 17, 2013

STAGE LIGHTING FOR DANCE PERFORMANCES - PART TWO


Some useful vocabulary for you to use is:

Boom: a vertical pipe used to hang lighting instruments, often at the side of the stage in the middle of heavily-travelled wings
Borders:  overhead masking piece of fabric above the stage that hides the lighting rig and flown scenery
Cyc:  a curved or straight (usually) white backdrop at the rear of the stage
Followspot:  these are moveable lights that are usually used to highlight a soloist or important performer
Fresnel lights:  to wash light over an area of the stage.  The resulting beam of light is wide and soft-edged, creating soft shadows, and is commonly used for back light, top light, and side light.
Gel:  a sheet of plastic or glass used to colour stage lights
Gobo:  a cutout pattern inserted into the light beam to create a lit pattern on the stage or backdrop
Intelligent lights (or Moving lights):  as the name implies these are lights that are not fixed in their illumination.  They give quite a modern look to the lighting design and can have chases and other functions programmed
LEDS:  LED lights are used in stage lighting and they have been revolutionary in that they use less power and they can change colour without climbing up a ladder to change the gel
Legs:  long, narrow curtains hung at the sides of the stage to mask the offstage space and frame the audience’s view
Par Can lights:  are used when a substantial amount of flat lighting is required for a scene
Performance Space:  space in which the dancing happens (ie the stage area)
State (Lighting state):  one configuration of lights to be used during a section of a production.  So a show is made up of many lighting states and each one is assigned a cue.
Wing Space:  amount of offstage room needed for exits and entrances (and for holding props and performers)

Some things to keep in mind:
·         Do not illuminate your dancers in the same colour light as their costumes as they tend to ‘disappear’ into the background
·         The use of a hazer or smoke machine greatly enhances the look of the lighting design
·         Some pieces of equipment that are useful for making dance concerts look interesting are strobe machines, UV lights, molefays (blinders), moving lights with their ability to change position, colour, gobos, aperture and focus, mirror balls, ripple machines, lasers, projected images, pyrotechnics (pyrotechnics require a certified operator)
·         Don’t forget about lighting the cyc.  There’s nothing worse than a cyc that is only lit with ugly ‘bounce off’ light from the stage surface.
·         Don’t forget to use your front of house lights that are located on the lighting bars in front of the proscenium.  These will give some light to your dancer’s faces.
·         I always use a higher intensity of light on younger dance students as some of them are afraid of low light and their parents are less interested in how great the lighting is and more interested in just being able to see their son or daughter. 
·         Actually I would say you have to be highly creative to make your lighting stand out at a dance concert for this reason.  When it comes to concerts all parents are just interested in seeing their child.

This is, by no means, a complete guide to lighting but just a quick start to concert lighting.  If you have any tips in this area feel free to comment. Have fun with your next concert and don’t be afraid to experiment.
Until next time,
TDT

2 comments:

  1. I applied to dance avademy which educates dance teachers and this blog really helps me a lot! So thank you :)

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    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Emma. I hope your application for The Dance Academy goes well!

    ReplyDelete