Typical HS dance plot

[Sayen]

Just curious, wondering where we stand on labor and technical expertise. What does your typical dance plot involve at the high school level?

For example, we use four trees of five lights in the wings, a simple wash from bridge positions, an overhead wash, and then a complex layout of ellipsoidals crisscrossing the stage complete with gobos. 3 high side Fresnels are located on the ends of 3 overhead electrics, and a cyc with RGB + Yellow. This is dictated to me - before I was hired the dance teacher brought in a high paid LD, and the same plot is requested yearly.

After stopping by a local community college today, I realized their plots are much simpler than the ones we use, so I'm curious what the rest of the world looks like now.

[waynehoskins]

When I lit high school dance a few years ago (usually in a crappy high school venue), here's what I did:

Two colorwashes from front. Three colors of pipe-end tail-down sides on three pipes, three colors of T3 on the cyc, a color or two of top/back. Specials as necessary, but usually not many since the venue's crap. And lastly booster blue in fronts, which I turned on as little as I could.

Oh, and an arc spot if possible .. if not, throw a booster blue in a quartz one.

In a nicer venue (this venue has an MD288 half-rack, to give you an idea of it) I'll add some breakups and a couple of top washes and Leko bax.

When I was doing this in my college days, the labor was pretty much just me, and because of the nature of the venue I used pretty much every circuit possible, including running mults across the place to put circuits in useful places. It's more work than now I'd like to do solo, but if I had some students to do the physical work, it'd be no problem.

[Footer]

We just finished up our dance concert, my first here. I hung a pretty bare bones plot, 2 colors/13 areas flat front, 2 colors from each box boom, 2 colors/14 areas of backlight, 2 colors/4 areas of high cross from each side. Of course heads/mids/shins with RGB Cyc. For what I usually do dance with this is a pretty small plot, but this is also my basic rep plot/minus the booms. After I get some infrastructer up and working in there (my 2-fer situation is bad) and some 50deg units, I will be adding a template top and a template medium cross. Hopefully some scrollers are in my future, so that should help considerably. Mac250's and technobeams just do not work for dance.

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by Sayen

...For example, we use ... 3 high side Fresnels are located on the ends of 3 overhead electrics...

This I would question, as I've found ERSs to function better in that position. But it may be a matter of limited inventory. Even in the best equipped houses, a designer must make compromises due to inventory. Which happens to be why ALL equipment for Broadway shows is rented, but that's a different topic.(Please excuse the gratuitous smiley use; I just wanted to try it.)

I'd look at the past touring plots of Jean Rosenthal or Jennifer Tipton. While the fixture choices need some updating, the basic angles do not.

Start with four booms on each side of the stage, each with a shinkicker and head-high, easily reached for manual color changes for each piece. Then add a layer of backlight, either eight fixtures (on 3E, 4E) or twelve (2E, 3E, 4E). Next frontlight, from FOH Cove, Box Booms, or Balcony Rail, in that order of preference. Probably need a few fixtures on 1E to frontlight the upstage areas. Finally an RBG (or RGBA,) cyc, preferably circuited top and bottom. Next would be pipe-end high-sides.

Those are the basics, and may be fit on 24x2.4K dimmers. Given available fixtures and control, additional colors from the same locations can be added, as well as template washes and downlight specials. If moving lights were available, I'd put them in the center of the electrics, for use as specials. The goal is to support the dancers and choreography, not (usually) to create a light show.

[WestlakeTech]

Originally Posted by Sayen

Just curious, wondering where we stand on labor and technical expertise. What does your typical dance plot involve at the high school level?

For example, we use four trees of five lights in the wings, a simple wash from bridge positions, an overhead wash, and then a complex layout of ellipsoidals crisscrossing the stage complete with gobos. 3 high side Fresnels are located on the ends of 3 overhead electrics, and a cyc with RGB + Yellow. This is dictated to me - before I was hired the dance teacher brought in a high paid LD, and the same plot is requested yearly.

After stopping by a local community college today, I realized their plots are much simpler than the ones we use, so I'm curious what the rest of the world looks like now.

Uh... It's pretty complicated. I'll post pictures in May.

[Sayen]

Originally Posted by derekleffew

I've found ERSs to function better in that position. But it may be a matter of limited inventory. Even in the best equipped houses, a designer must make compromises due to inventory. Which happens to be why ALL equipment for Broadway shows is rented, but that's a different topic.(Please excuse the gratuitous smiley use; I just wanted to try it.)

I agree with the swap in fixtures. We have the fixtures, but the dance director prefers the PARs. Actually, he doesn't know the difference, but that's another story. This is part of why I'm curious what's standard for high schools. If I had free reign to create my own plot, we have the inventory to pull off some interesting light shows to support the performance. Pure curiosity, no ulterior motive.

The goal is to support the dancers and choreography, not (usually) to create a light show.

Truer words could not be spoken. Oh, and I dig the gratuitous smiley.