Stage Managing for Ballet

I asked a friend and colleague, Helen Moreau, who has Stage Managed for several Ballet Companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Orlando Ballet, The Washington Ballet, and is currently the Production Stage Manager at Nashville Ballet, to write about the nuances of being a Stage Manager for a ballet production and what a typical production might look like.

Nuances of Working With Ballet Dancers

Dancers are elite athletes. Girls start training from around the age of ten to strengthen their ankles enough to stand on pointe. Pointe shoes are basically made of paper mache and are custom to each dancer. A pair of pointe shoes can run you between $80 – $180, depending on the brand or style. Men lift the ladies over their heads, sometimes with one hand. I have seen toenails fall off, ankles sprained, and shoes flung off feet because dancers put their all into their craft. Artistic directors, leaders of dance companies worldwide, are retired dancers who want to continue to share their passion with the next generation of dancers and audiences. Their dedication to their art makes me passionate about being a dance stage manager and inspires me to do my best every day.

Each day starts the same way, with a technique class. Dancers take a technique class for about 90 minutes. Ballet class includes time to stretch at the barre to warm up the muscles and combinations of leaps, turns, and jumps in center stage. Having class every day allows the dancers to keep improving their skills, even as professionals. It doesn’t matter if a dancer only has a one-hour rehearsal or a full performance; keeping their bodies warm and in tip-top shape is imperative.

Because dancers are athletes working at a very high level, it’s important that they are provided with appropriate services to make sure they continue to stay healthy. Many companies have physical therapy or massage services on-site several days a week. Having these amenities available to the dancers is crucial to their overall well-being, especially when they use their bodies to their limits during long performance runs or deep in the trenches of rehearsals.

Pre-Production and the Division of Duties

A core team of production staff at a ballet company typically includes a director of production, stage manager, technical director or head carpenter, wardrobe supervisor, head electrician, head props, and assistant stage manager. A company may have any combination of these people or not have some positions, leaving other team members to pick up duties not typically in their wheelhouse. Many dance companies will hire their production team for the entire season or even full-time. Because they are doing multiple full-length productions each year, keeping the same team for consistency and time’s sake makes sense.

Many ballets are remounts owned by another company elsewhere in the country. A company rarely commissions a new set of scenery or costumes unless it’s a world premiere. When a company wants to mount a specific production, it will rent from the first company. Because you will be performing someone else’s choreography, their intellectual property, your company will likely be hiring either the choreographer themselves or a trusted stager to “set” the piece on the dancers. They will very likely be involved in the tech process to make sure the artistic vision is true to the original. Along with the rental of sets, props, and costumes comes the paperwork for everything one may need to remount this production, including calling script, cue lists, deck running sheets, lineset schedules, and ground plans.

Once pre-production starts for a show, the production team goes through all of the paperwork that comes with the show. Something like a lineset schedule must be adjusted for whatever venue you are performing in. But a call script will likely not need to be modified. Taking the time to parse through all the rental materials allows the production team to learn the show’s specific nuances. I like to take the existing paperwork with me into a rehearsal to give me a better understanding of the running paperwork we will later be distributing to the crew. This also helps me get a good idea of what could be clarified further with some edits.

Rehearsals

The artistic team dictates the daily rehearsal schedule. This team comprises an artistic director, associate or assistant director, rehearsal directors/ballet masters, and stagers. These people know the choreography of the ballet inside and out and will be teaching to all the casts, and there is almost always more than one rehearsal room running at the same time. The SM team sets up props or costumes for the day and tests any technology needed, including speaker systems or television, so everyone is prepared for a successful day.

Artistic staff is in charge of rehearsals, and stage management is there to support their needs. Supporting rehearsals looks different for every process. Some rehearsal directors want a stage manager in every rehearsal, and some don’t want to see stage management until a run-through. There’s no right or wrong way to do that; it’s a personal preference. But as a stage manager, I want to make myself available to the artistic team as much as possible, even if I’m not physically in the room. Sometimes, making myself present in the rehearsal process is as simple as taking a moment to poke my head into a rehearsal check-in during a break or letting the stager know I’m just a text away while working on paperwork.

By the end of the day, it’s time to pack up the rehearsal rooms and reset them for another class. Many dance companies are affiliated with schools, and the studios need to be turned around quickly for evening classes. All props are put away, and costumes are taken back to the shop for the evening so no one touches anything they aren’t supposed to. The next day we do it all again.

Load-In and Technical Rehearsals

Load-in for a typical story ballet is more like a touring production than a regional or Broadway show. The first day, typically Monday, consists of loading in all scenery, props, and lighting. This includes bringing a special floor called a “sprung floor.” A “sprung floor” is a two-layered floor spaced out by foam blocks that allow for some absorption during giant leaps and take some pressure off of the dancer’s joints. Loading in the floor alone can take two to four hours. After loading in as much as possible, the team can start to focus all the lighting instruments. The following day is all lighting, cueing, and wardrobe load-in. The artistic staff begins to get involved to get their eyes on the large technical elements. On Wednesday, the dancers hit the stage for the first time. Depending on the show, there can be up to 2 full runs of the show with or without the orchestra. The artistic team wants to get as many groups of dancers onstage as possible because there are typically two or more full casts. Because of this, the stage manager has to be very receptive to notes on the fly and between runs to try and improve the call and cues as quickly as possible. Thursday is opening night, as well as another run-through in the afternoon. Load-in and tech can be very fast and furious. Finding the balance between getting as many runs in and ensuring the crew has adequate rehearsal time can be tricky because time is so tight. Having a detailed schedule and backups for when it changes is the best tool a dance stage manager can have going into tech for a big ballet.

Another thing that can be tricky about a tech process that is so short is communicating technical needs with artistic staff. From a young age, dancers are taught to communicate with their bodies, not their words. It makes sense, right? No one speaks in a ballet, so why spend time on words when their movement is what portrays the story? Someone who is so well versed in non-verbal communication makes a wonderfully emotional performer or artistic leader but can be somewhat frustrating to work with during a tech process as a stage manager. Stage Managers are so used to being clear communicators. We spend all day talking with other team members about what needs to happen when and how we can make everything the most efficient it can be. But, when it comes to collaborating with an artistic director or choreographer who spent 20+ years in a dance studio not talking, there can be a disconnect of sorts. Understanding the artistic vision and meaning of the piece gives us, as stage managers, great insight into how we can best support the ballet from a technical standpoint. We can become a translator of sorts between the artistic team and the production staff when we have a robust understanding of what the dancers and designers are trying to convey.

Performances

There is no “script” for ballet, as there are no words. There are two main ways that a stage manager will call a dance performance. One way is to call off a musical score, much like an opera stage manager. Another way is to notate the movement in something called “dance tracking.” This can be done by drawing all the different formations or by describing the movement with words. For a story ballet like Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, having the full score to communicate with the orchestra most efficiently can be useful. It can also be helpful to know exactly where you are in the music if there is a particularly complicated sequence of cues. If you’re working on a contemporary piece, there isn’t always a musical score available so it’s up to the stage manager to create a document format that notates the movement, the timing, and cues. Personally, I use both methods. Sometimes I will go back and forth between a score and dance notation in the same show. Everyone and every show is different, so it’s important to go through the trial and error process to find what works best for you.

As I mentioned before, ballet productions have multiple full casts. Because of this, the call is never quite the same from night to night. Like everyone is right-handed or left-handed, dancers are right or left-side dominant. Some are excellent turners and have fabulous leaps. Dancers in leading roles may have different solo versions (variations or divertissements) to showcase their strengths. Having the information on how each principal dancer performs their variation is critical when calling spotlight cues for ballet. As a bonus, it keeps the spotlight operator on their toes when the leading character enters from a different wing every night!

Archive and Wrap-Up

As the show wraps up, or in the days following its closing, it is critical to update all paperwork for the final version of the production. The ballet community is small, and stage managers often use their connections to reach out for the most updated version of various paperwork, such as a calling script that the rental company may not have. Even if it’s a production that a company already owns rights to and often produces, for example, The Nutcracker, it’s important to keep detailed records of all the paperwork for the next group of technicians to reference.

At the core, a ballet stage manager needs to straddle the artistic and technical world and fill in the gaps that are sometimes unapparent. Our ability to bridge the gaps between artistic direction and technical execution is essential to the success of realizing a dance production. The result is beautiful and inspiring when there is a symbiotic relationship between dancers, technicians, and the artistic staff. Ballet is a unique art form that requires a unique approach, but while there are extra challenges to stage managing dance that you may not encounter during a play or musical, I find it worth the adventure and extra work for the final product.

Also by Bryan Runion:

Phases of Production: The Rehearsal Process as a Stage Manager

Building a Successful Stage Management Team