Someone in the Students' Questions Forum brought up the often considered question of how dancers look on stage. Many people believe that people on stage look weightier than they might be in person. This is also true in photography, which of course has light as a component.<P>A question for our lighting designers - is it a attribute of how the dancer/performer is lit? Does that have anything to do with that visual perception? Does light - or can light - alter the rotundity, height, weightiness of the performer on stage?<P>ok - in other words is it the light that makes a dancer look heavier on stage than the dancer really is?

Yes.<P>Dance lighting usually features lots of side light. Side light accentuates the shape of the body (which is why we use it).

Color of costume in relationship to the light can also contribute to this phenomenon. White unitards are deadly to a dancers self-esteem. Not only are all flaws there for the world to see, but they glow.

I think there's also the reality, not just in dance, that people look larger onstage. I've been shocked a number of times when I meet an actor backstage after a performance.