This is a tremendous undertaking Pas.....I worked with as many as 500 - but never 900!<P>Only 8-10 volunteers? Wow - we used to have many more than that, for half as many dancers. Are these dancers all ages? The really young ones need a lot more volunteers.<P>I am surprised you are still coherent - LOL. How many teachers do you have? Do you have people to check the costumes over? The shoes? <P>Do you have a problem getting the audience to sit still for 40 dances? <P>Do you charge for tickets? or a recital fee? That might help to purchase professional backstage technical help.<P>I wish you lots of luck with this. When is it?<P>

Pas, you have my sympathy. . .and my utmost respect.<P>Basheva, 40 dances is not much; I've lit recitals with 50 or 60 dances.<BR>

I suspect 40 dances would go quickly if they are short pieces and the change between them is managed appropriately. Traffic cops backstage....with flashlights looking like they are landing jumbo jets....<P>Jeff, 50 or 60. Lemme guess<P>Cue 1 - Lights up<BR>Cue 2 - Lights out<BR>Cue 3 - Lights up<BR>Cue 4 - Lights out<P>repeat...ad nauseum

40 dances for a recital is not much - I agree - but the question is can one get the parents/friends to sit still? There was often a problem with that. Lots of coming and going - rude though it is.

Babs, it's more like:<P>Q11 - lights up (dance #1)<BR>Q12 - lights down<P>Q21 - lights up (dance #2)<BR>Q22 - lights down<P>Q31. . . .<p>[This message has been edited by salzberg (edited May 14, 2001).]

Oh Jeff! You stopped just when it was getting interesting.

Trust me, Stuart; it <I>never</I> gets interesting.

I will try to answer all your questions Basheva.<P>We have 2 backstage moms per class for all classes (expect 2-3 teens classes that work as runners). The 8-10 runner escort the classes to the backstage area and relieve the backstage moms to sit in their reserved area in the auditorium. We also have parents sign up to be ushers (one per door into the auditorium). And a "crew" of dads to help with props/scenery.<P>Am I still coherent?? sometime I dont think I am..lol<P>We have 8-10 teachers. 5 of us have 3/4 of the classes.<P>I do all the costume orders and it is the resposibility of each teacher to try them on in class and let me know of problems. Do you mean checkover/fit or the way they are sewn (straps etc?) They wear the same shoes to class and usualy any problems are fixed there. I have spray painted tan tap shoes black at dress rehearsal to have the right color tap shoes for the show.<P>Our "recitals" are 20 dances this year, 7 shows semi idenical. We have an acting class that has an original script written to tie the dances together and make it more of a "show". The company show is 40 dances and it is a wonderful show of our performing company. We have 3 tap companies, 5 jazz, and each jazz company is REQUIRED to be in ballet classes/dances. Technique classes are seperate classes and also required. The parents/friend that come to this show know it is long but the caliber of dancing is high so we havent had complains on length. The parents of "non company" kids do love that each "recital" is around 1 1/2 hours. We have 26 "young" (under 5 yr old) classes we have them backstage through the show.<P>We charge a recital fee of $25 per child and they get 2 free tickets. The perfroming company get no free tickets but also have class dances are in the recital which they do get 2 free tickets for. Recital tickets are $4 and performing company is .. gees.. $10 I think, will check. I agree there SHOULD be money to pay for a professional lighting designer, but I was shot down when I suggested it. We do have a new 10,000 sf building that we are trying to upfit (as I was reminded).<P>We have all 8 shows the first weekend in June. Rehearsals are the last 3 days of May.<P>Each dance has only 10 minutes onstage to stage and rehearse the dances. It seam like we are running bare minimum on time each year. Last year we has 8 min per dance and couldnt start until 4:00 each day (after school and after school activites, auditiruim was at a middle school) The city built 2 new auditoriums BUT we could only get it for 6 days total! (or so I was told by our business manager)<P>I believe she has the best interest of the studio at heart, but I have caught her stretching the truth to save money more than once!<P>OK this is too long.. better run.<p>[This message has been edited by Pas (edited May 16, 2001).]

I know I'm going to be slaughtered for this, but I'd like to say that one doesn't have to be "union" to be professional, although perhaps it's not a good idea politically to try to bring non-union personnel into a union house. I've found that sometimes "union" personnel are very careful to not go beyond what their union requires them to do, whereas non-union personnel seem more interested in the end quality of the production than anything else. Perhaps they're foolish to do so, but it's more in line with how many in the dance world approach their work. Of course, there are also consummate professionals carrying union cards too (and truly everyone deserves decent pay), but I remember one of the best TDs I've ever come across saying the union was in his house regularly trying to persuade him to go union and he couldn't think of a good reason why he should. <BR>

Amy - you bring up a good point. Having worked with both union and non-union types, I'll just say there are good and bad eggs in both worlds. It also depends on what your focus is. It seems if you want decent rigging jobs you need to affiliate with the union, but if you want decent costume jobs there is no need to be in the union.<P>From the other end, if a venue is a union house, you do not have a choice whether you can use union or non-union technicians, you just hope you get hard working competent workers either way.<P>I noticed a marked anti-union bias in the non-profit regional theater world when I was working as a dresser there. Once I got to opera though, the bias had reversed. In dance, it seems people are just happy to find anyone.

Finshed the shows last night. Things went well over all. I did see meny possible problems crop up during the show. Having the info from here helped me greatly, thank you to you all. <P>Tech Rehearsal.. The time was fine for setting what we needed to do. Except for the fact that our lighting coordinator was 1 hour late and noone else showed up from out staff. I was at a preschool graduation for my child and delegated this out to him. I guess I know now that I can't count on him. The house staff educated us on what we need to do next time.<P>Lighting.. our lighting cooridnator rubbed the house technicians the wrong way, he also called the show and there was more than one tense moment between them. (It didn't help that our coordinator showed up 5 minutes before the curtain of the second show!)<P>Sound.. no problems here! We had each show burned into 2 CD's and the only lag time here was between CD changes.<P>Props.. First show our acting director was putting all the props and scenery out for the actors and we ran 30 minutes over "ideal" time and 15 mins over our "max" time. Next morning we assigned 6 of our "crew" to place all scenery and props and our acting director just oversaw placement of them. We then ran within 10 mins of our "ideal" time.<P>The auditorium has four seperate stage areas. 2200 seats in one, 1200 seats in second, 600 seats in 3rd and a smaller area that I am unsure of seating. We had the 600 seat house and sold out all but one show. Next year, bigger house or more shows?!<P>They had a large production in the largest house two of the three days we were having ours shows. Our citys Convention Center is diretly across the street and there were high school graduations all three days. Parking was horrible, which I am sure we will hear complaints about.<P>Just wanted you all to know that I survived with most of my sanity and to thank you for your input on topic!<p>[This message has been edited by Pas (edited June 04, 2001).]

I'm glad it went well!<P>Re: bigger house vs more shows:<P>More shows = more work and more expense; I'd go for the bigger house, if you can.<P>------------------<BR>Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer<BR>"Shang-a-lang, feel the <I>sturm und drang</I> in the air!"<BR>Online portfolio: <A HREF="http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg" TARGET=_blank>http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg</A> <P><BR>

We also have an additional classroom now. So our fall schedule has more classes. We pride ourselves in short (1 1/2 -1 3/4 hr) shows as apposed to mega shows(3+ hour). I believe we have to discuss this at our next staff meeting and find the best option. <P>We have discussed it the past making a smaller show for the babie, but they received the most applause. One 4 yr old sang and projected the entire song NY, NY! It was adorable!<P>thanks again to you all for your help!

Being an hour late, and not showing up for call can CERTAINLY rub a crew the wrong way.<P>Glad to hear it went well!