Azlan,<P>All the companies who can't afford to lay their own floor or bring their own floor on tour would absolutely LOVE that rule. Unfortunately it doesn't exsist. Large companies who can afford it bring their own sprung floor, others, deal with whatever is on the stage and lay their marley on top of it. I've hard stories of fairly large profeessional companies touring and having to deal with soft spots, trapdoors, sunken areas, cement floors, etc etc etc. <P>Unfortunately, with the way dance companies are funded in the States, and to a certain extent Canada, corners are often cut, and very often they do affect the dancers. For instance, a company plans a tour, a sponsor backs out, and now they can't afford to bring everything they need to go on tour, what gets cut? Perhaps the sprung floor (if they bring it on tour usually), perhaps second and third cast dancers, perhaps they have to do a eight hour bus ride to teh next city instead of fly, and still perform that night. They have to cut something, or the entire tour gets called off. Very often, its the dancers who will suffer, and generally its due to lack of money. Because many companies are now union, the dancers can band together and refuse to dance if the conditions are extremly bad (theater where it's 15C). Often defined in contracts are working and performing conditions as well.<P>In terms of pyrotechnics on stage, I'd imagine the theater has to comply with city regulations of public display of pyrotechnics, which means the company has to follow the same rules and regulations. I do remember one awful show of nutcracker where the tree caught on fire in the middle of battle, and the snow king and some stage ahnds came running out with fire extinguishers. Interesting, I never thought about if the snow was flame retardant or not. Oh well, enough rambling in endless circles...<P>pidge
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