Understanding Roles in a Dance Company/Production
Students gain understanding of the various roles, departments and tasks involved in professional contemporary dance performance, through role-play and connections to real-life examples from Rambert.
To prepare the lesson, look through the Rambert team list and create a flashcard (with a departmental description, if needed) for each department or role you would like students to learn about.
Costume department
For example:
Designs, creates and maintains costumes for performances
At the beginning of the class, distribute these cards among students, grouping them as needed so that there is a student or group of students for each flashcard. Explain that they will be role playing as this person/department for the next part of the lesson.
Share the following brief for an imaginary upcoming performance season:
You work for a contemporary dance company, with studios and offices in a purpose-built building. The company performs a wide range of contemporary dance repertoire, and tours nationally and internationally. It receives funding from the Arts Council as well as private donors, and is well-known and well-respected in the UK. Like most arts organisations, it works to a tight budget and works hard to build and sustain audiences and funding. In addition to company performances, the company has a big commitment to community engagement and educational programming. It values diversity, inclusion and sustainability while pushing artistic boundaries and taking creative risks.
The company has an important upcoming season with a UK national tour followed by a week-long season at a major venue in London. The programme will consist of three pieces: one piece well-known and loved by UK audiences; one piece by a choreographer well-known in the US but new to UK audiences; and one new piece by an up-and-coming young choreographer. Theatres need to be full, artistic standards need to be high, and the company’s values are important in everything they do.
Task
Ask each student/group to discuss and present to the class on the following questions:
- What jobs will your department be doing to help prepare for the performance season?
- What is the timeline for each of these jobs, so that you will be prepared for a performance date in six months’ time?
- What other departments will you need to work with?
- Encourage students to “visit” other departments to ensure that their timelines are accurate and all jobs are covered!
Share the following situation:
It is two weeks to go until the opening night at the first venue. All press releases have been sent, all programmes sent to print, and all rehearsal and travel schedules confirmed with the performers and venues. The choreographer of the new piece suffers an unexpected family emergency abroad and is unable to complete the new piece. It will need to be replaced on the programme by another existing piece of repertoire.
Ask students to discuss within their departments:
What are some ways your department could support the success of the performances?
Then watch the Behind the Scenes video tour of Rambert and/or Rambert team interviews to deepen students’ insights.
Discuss the tasks and expertise of each department as a class, connecting and comparing the role playing they have already done to the video(s) they have just watched.
- What aspects of which jobs/departments were surprising or unexpected?
- What conversations did you find yourselves having within and between departments?
- Does this change your perspective or understanding of what goes into a live performance? If so, how?