Dance
Stagecraft
Written by
Rene Daveluy
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Stagecraft
Written by Rene Daveluy
Ballet is an art form that dates back hundreds of years. Its progression from court dancing to concert form gradually created a stage environment for ballet dancers and audiences to share.
A dancer’s work is a complex process that includes a variety of tools in order to give a transcending experience. A theatergoer will immediately notice an effective performer on stage. A dancer may have facility and technique as an advantage, but often, the end result fails to move the audience. That is where a dancer with good stagecraft can better succeed in creating unforgettable moments.
To understand what stagecraft is, it is useful to go back through history and brush up on the evolution of dance. Early court ballets took place in large chambers where audience members sat around the dance space. The performers created symbolic formations as they moved about. This is how choreographic patterns were born. Although the invention of stages goes back to Antiquity, today’s modern proscenium, the opening that stands in front of the curtain, came into its familiar form through a series of transformations. For example, Versailles had no theatre and so King Louis XIV assembled his subjects to watch a ballet in the palace gardens. The performers were outside, the audience looking from temporary seatings elaborately arranged to frame the action, with the palace itself visible in the background. This would later be replicated for dance in the form of the theatre surroundings.
Gradually, this separation of the audience from the performers resulted in the placement of the proscenium. It was the beginning of dance-performance, the form of entertainment as we know it today. Dance evolved into complex figures, patterns, and movements. The stages that resulted from all this allowed for the use of effects generated by clever machinery. It was the beginning of scenography design. It may also have been the origin of the use of backstage personnel or “stage hands.”
For the performer, stagecraft is, among many things, what pertains to stage applications, and for the dancer, the joining of technique, lights, acting, costume, sets and props into an expression of art. It also includes the awareness of space, understanding theatre perspective, stage rules, ensemble dancing and more.
History’s great dancers have one thing in common: they were experts in stagecraft and masters of their art form. Stagecraft is learned through a very long apprenticeship that overlaps the formation of the student in dance. A student’s formation happens over about a period of ten years. But learning to operate theory and technique as part of making a complete and fully realized performance takes longer.
The dancer who has gone through an upbringing in a ballet company, has experienced all the facets of company life (such as corps de ballet, soloist and principal levels) and has received a complete education in the
manner of approaching a performance from studio work to stage reality will become a seasoned artist. Such experiences were part of my own upbringing as a beginner. Many great performers gave me tools to use and showed me the tricks of the trade. Each individual who guided me did so because of their passion and respect for the art and a need to pass on what they had learned.
Stagecraft is a series of trade secrets that are much like the secrets of craftspeople in other disciplines. This guidance is crucial for the young dancer, who will attain much more than the instant gratification of audience applause. It will enable the young dancer to have longevity in the business, experience a full career, and pass on what has been learned with confidence and wisdom.
Today, the public is much more aware of the discipline involved in becoming a dancer. However, ballet will always retain its secrets, as it is a “hand me down art form.” One learns it from someone else. This is what most serious dance students face when they decide to be professional dancers. But this wonderful career is worth it, and the reward is a rich education through the performing arts.
Visit www.centralwestballet.org and watch “Stagecraft,” a new online documentary series.