Friday, November 20, 2009
In The Wings - Dance Captain - November, 2009
American Theatre Wing: "Greg Graham, Dance Captain of Billy Elliot, talks about the ongoing task of maintaining the choreography of the show; how one becomes a dance captain; and the mix of civilian movement and tradition dance styles in this production. He is seen here teaching a tricky tap routine to new cast member David Hibbard."
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4 comments:
Maintaining a show takes a lot of time and help. I think it's great that this video highlights one of the jobs we don't always think about being so crucial to an on going process. Like the stage manager who helps people new to the process understand the show and the director's vision, the dance captain introduces and trains all of them in the choreographer's vision. It's great to see the joy this dance captain gets from helping others learn.
Without Dance Captains, the Stage Manager's job of training and putting in understudies or cast replacements would be impossible. Many SMs don't have the vocabulary or experience to be able to talk to actors and dancers with technical dance terms and the subtlety of movement. Additionally, when calling a performance over a long run, the SM is often unable to watch every dance step due to complicated cueing on musicals, so having the Dance Captain in the cast or watching performances allows for multiple levels and checks to make sure the performance is maintained.
In the Wings is a really great contribution to acknowledging those in the entertainment industry who aren't on the front page of the Times. This particular excerpt really opened my eyes to the critical role that a dance captain plays when focusing on maintaining a show. Because all of the shows I have worked on have been so short-lived (3 night to 2 week runs), I don't usually have to consider the positions that are present to assist in the maitenence of the artistic vision of the show.
Dance captains are definitely key in the list of unsung heroes of Broadway theater. Their services are vital to keeping the production fresh and alive. They are also vital in getting the choreography up on its feet. The stage manager relies heavily on the dance captain to communicate to the dancers in the appropriate vocabulary. Now for something completely different. The video interviews from the Wing are a excellent way to enlighten those not familiar with the backstage operations of a theatrical production. The one issue that I see with this is, even though the Wing is doing a great job publicizing this stuff, they also have to make sure that people access it. Because the production departments have done their job when people don't notice them, typical audiences don't even know what we do.
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