a little confused here, this may sound stupid but i'm really curious...
should a ballet makeup match our skin (eye,hair,etc) or our costume colour?

say, i have olive skin and dark brown hair and eyes and i'll be wearing a blue costume on stage. so, should i stick with the warm tones for my eyes, or something blueish instead?
and must the lipstick always be a bright red?

thanks

<small>[ 14 May 2004, 06:13 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

In answer to your last question, I never wore bright red lipstick onstage (or anywhere else). Unless it was appropriate for a particular character, I always had an aversion to looking obviously made up from the audience, so I wore makeup that let my features be clearly visible from a distance but still looked natural. I also have a strong conviction that the only people who look really good in bright red lipstick are those with light skin and very dark hair and eyes. Since I don't fall into that category, I wore reddish-brown lipstick.

I think the makeup has to be appropriate to the role (i.e. Swan Lake versus Don Quixote), to the lighting, and the distance of the audience from the dancer.

In a close up situation the makeup would be lighter, in a situation where the audience is further away, the makeup would be more intense.

Concerning the colors you use for your eyes, if you don't have someone designing the makeup for you, I'd go with using colors that complement your own coloring, unless you're trying to emphasize the color of your costume. Unless you're doing extreme makeup, I'm not sure that the color of eyeshadow you use is really going to be noticeable anyway. When I go to San Francisco Ballet performances, even if I see the dancers very close up, I haven't been aware of eyeshadow color, just lipstick.

When I was in college, a makeup artist was brought in one year for the Nutcracker. She designed the makeup for the snowflakes and the flowers. Everyone was used to doing his/her own makeup, so she met with a lot of resistance -- an over-my-dead-body attitude from some people. But of course, she won out. She'd created a sort of frosty, icy look for the snowflakes, and while I don't think it was extreme enough to have been memorable on one person, it did create a noticeable effect in a stageful of dancers.

Here's from a special project of Adventures in Motion Pictures led by Lara Hartley for Critical Dance that people might find interesting:

<img src="http://www.criticaldance.com/amp-la2001/T_adam_makeup_1.jpg" alt="" />
It's all in the Mascara
Car Men in makeup. more

So why weren't any of the guys in the photos using mascara, hmm? (Nice website!)

wow, thanks so much for all the replies.
they truly help

thanks again...

Behind the Scenes - The Make-Up Artist
Name: R Stephen Weber
From The Stage

Place of work:It depends on the gig. Last year I was on location here in San Francisco doing Twisted. Before that I was in Los Angeles working on TV shows such as Star Trek - Voyager, Star Trek - Deep Space Nine.

Position: Make-up artist

How did you get started? I started out as a dancer in New York City and after I was injured I decided to pursue make-up and hair.

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