>The Number One question is what type of role are you playing?  The type of make-up you'll need depends on the part.

This is a dance production, i.e. there is no plot and no characters.I will perform in a ballet act doing some chanees, echapees, etc.and in jazz dance parts with contemporary popular music.

The emphasis is on body movements, rythm and fun. Face is not the primary expression "tool".

So there will be three stage appearances of about 4 minutes each.The first one is ballet with slow waltz music. And costumes are "practice uniforms".The second is hard, almost techno music with costumes aluding to machines (black and sliver).The third is soft modern music with soft movements and half the group will wear pink and half white tee-shirts (and black tights).In all three acts the group will have up to 10 people on stage and everyone is pretty well visible to the audience.

>Now the Number Two question is how large is the stage, theatre and distance from the audience?

Stage is something like 8 by 8 meters, the first row of seats will be some 5 or 6 meters away, and therre are 350 seats in 19 rows.

>Then the Number Three question is about the lighting.

Bright white, violet and three intensities of red.

>And finally, the Number Four question is about the performance.

The performance is "semi-private", that is the majority of audience will be friends and relatives of the performers, but htere will also be people from other dance studios, some local administration people, media etc. The tckets are not sold on the box office.

The members of the studio (and performes in the production) are adultswho practice ballet, jazz and social dance as a hobby.However, they love it very much and do it tremendously seriously.Great effort has been put in designing and rehearsing choreographiesand we want to do everything the best we can.Every act has different costumes. They had to be inexpensive, but we believe they will do the effect.

We do not seek elaborated hair and make-up,but would not like them to reduce the rest of the effort.

>The real use of make-up is express your face, especially the eyes, so the male danseurs can "act" out the emotions of the dance.  But if your

Although there are no acting parts, the dance is emootional and expression of the face should follow our moves. The face should be visible, and should send the (overall) message.

performance is more for fun than emotion, a minimal make-up will do.>In most school recitals, the performance is for the kids, not the adults.  The adults are included to be the King sitting on his throne while the kids dance, or the pirates that swing swords until the boys conquer them, etc.  You may need more to let the moms and grandparents enjoy the kid's performance than draw attention to yourself.

The idea of this production is twofold: one is to give our dancers the experience of the real stage and real performance: the effort, the trouble, the anticipation, the excitement and the "glory".

The second is to show to the audience our passion for dance and the beauty of it. To motivate them to join us, to support us and above all to understand us.

We strive to make it a pleasant and inspiring experience for our audience.

My questions and doubts are comming from information I was able to collect in this forum and other places on the net which led me to believe that if we would use absolutely no make-up, the stage light would "wash-out" our faces and we would be "invisible", ghosts, faceless people. I was afraid this would ruin the expression (and impression) we want to make.

Further, I understood that applying the "street" make-up would not do, because (due to lighting) stage make-up has to be "exaggerated" but we do not have the clue how and how much.

joy-of-dance

>balletboy