Dance Lighting

Hey CB,

I am working on a dance show. I have my plot designed. But what I am struggling with is deciding which colors to put in my side lighting.

There are 3 wings, each with an 8' Pipe w/ 3' 25lb Base. each will have 3 S4 Jr. Zooms. for Shins, Mids, and Heads.

So far, I'm thinking to go with a yellow/gold for the shins, like R312. for the Mids I was thinking a white like R54, and then for the head I was thinking some Rose/Pink like R38.

I would like to hear all opinions and suggestions. I can post the rest of the plot if people are interested.

Thanks!
 
For me, it depends on the dance piece, but then again I always try to have two people that all they do is swap color between pieces. If I can't change color, and the show is modernish, L202 for shins, something lav for mids, something warm for heads.

What show/where at?
 
Its the Fall Dance show at Brookwood High School. I will not have anyone doing gel changes between pieces. I don't want to risk anything. I appreciate the help.
 
What's the mood of the dance (in an overall sense)? What type of music? With smooth Flowing classical, I would use some pale to medium saturated secondary colors. Lavender, amber and a cyan (watch out for the green saturation though), If it were modern music, I would use Pale to medium primaries. Light blue, Light red, and amber. No green (most times it never works well for dance).
 
Depends on the green though really, I've used R88 in shins with great results a few times.
 
I may actually be able to answer this question for you. Our system that we rig every year for the dance concert works with "tree" side lighting in which we hook up 3 S4's to.


It works on a hot cold system, two lights shin and the top light (on the tree) are a cold light (like a blue) and the middle light is a warm/hot color like (red)


The other side reverses this with a warm/hot light on top and shin, and a cold light in the middle.

We use 2 trees total meaning in all 6 s4's for side lighting our show.
Depending on the dance piece, we may switch out the colors to have it dominated by red rather than blue or some other crazy color

The question is, can't get reliable grips? :neutral:
It was my job as well as others during a show recently to simply have gels set next to the "tree" lighting and have the stage manager simply tell us what change is required for the next dance/number.

I've never found it difficult to replace a source four gel.


For some reason I simply can't see a great dance concert/show without changing side lighting (not during numbers but before numbers of course unless you have intelligent lighting which you said you didn't but I digress...)

If the dance is very mellow/cold fill the gels with the pattern I prescribed or one you feel is right, I would go two blues, one on top and the other shin and a blue in the center of the tree on the other side. Perhaps you could also go with a different shade of blue for the center part of the tree on the left and and the same new shade for the two top and shin on the other side.

Hope this helps at all,
Ogivol

(hey that rhymes) =)
 
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So you guys don't like changing gels in between pieces? Just pray you never have to work Battleworks dance company. 6 light positions on the booms, with 4 booms per side. The highest position was at 10ft. We had to change at least one gel during or in between the pieces. After the first number we had to change 4 of the 5 on every booms. We had ladders on every side, and had two people per wing changing gels. One person for the top 3 and one for the bottom. Otherwise it was an amazing show despite the nuisance of constant gel changes.

Anyway changing gels on booms is okay, but don't require changes on any instruments higher than 5 or 6 feet because having to use ladders is not a good idea. Also having a gel change of 20 instruments on one wing is just nuts.

To prevent annoyance and hassle always hang your instruments with the gel frame clip up. For gel changes to save time leave the clips undone, and if your clip is down, that frame isn't going to stay in the instrument obviously.
 
So you guys don't like changing gels in between pieces? Just pray you never have to work Battleworks dance company. 6 light positions on the booms, with 4 booms per side. The highest position was at 10ft. We had to change at least one gel during or in between the pieces. After the first number we had to change 4 of the 5 on every booms. We had ladders on every side, and had two people per wing changing gels. One person for the top 3 and one for the bottom. Otherwise it was an amazing show despite the nuisance of constant gel changes.

Anyway changing gels on booms is okay, but don't require changes on any instruments higher than 5 or 6 feet because having to use ladders is not a good idea. Also having a gel change of 20 instruments on one wing is just nuts.

To prevent annoyance and hassle always hang your instruments with the gel frame clip up. For gel changes to save time leave the clips undone, and if your clip is down, that frame isn't going to stay in the instrument obviously.

1st nobdy said they didn't like changing gel...in fact the general consensus was if you have the people then tailor the gel to the piece.

2nd my crew can change out 20 instruments in a wing, in under 4 minutes. And when you do dance pieces that exhaust the dancers the way we do, you need that time for them to catch a breath.

3rd I wrote a live color change last week. Which isn't all that uncommon.
 
Thank you all for your replies, but I was just simply looking for ideas of what specific gel to put in my sidelights. The styles of the pieces run the entire spectrum from Hip-hop to ballet, to Madonna. I don't have time to "train" a crew to change gel, nor are there enough students to do it, so changing gel is NOT an option, sorry.

Thanks again for all replies, I'm still interested in hearing peoples opinions of what a simple dance plot should contain color wise.
 
Michael, simply put you need to put in what gel works best for you. Every designer here is going to have a different opinion on what to put in. As was mentioned before I'd stay away from anything saturated as you don't have anyone to change it out when it doesn't work.

Some people will tell you to put the same thing in the shins on both sides of the stage, some people will tell you to vary it up.

If you want something to try, try this.

Put R05 in both SL and SR shins, L201 in the SL Mid, R33 in the SR Mid. Put R51 in one head and R54 in another.

Some of that will work for you some of it won't...but its more of a descion that has to come from you.
 
If constricted to one choice (which I was last year), my layout was R05 in the kicker, R64 Mid, and R321 Head on one side. On the opposite side of the stage I used R371 (Rosco somewhat but not exactly equivilant of L201 which is what I wanted but couldn't get in time) in the kicker, R30 or 31 (can't remember offhand which I used), and R53 Head.

Another fun trick to speed up gel changes with an unexperienced crew. I put in my gel frames upside down with only one half of the frame inside of the holder. Then simply slide the gel in behind the frame. It is much easier to grab a loose piece of gel than it is to swap frames out.
 
Personally I think Your original colors sound fine but I'd swap the heads and the shins, because you you want closer to natural light on the feet but mood light on the faces. Make it about the feet. That' s my couple of copper Lincons.
 
Personally I think Your original colors sound fine but I'd swap the heads and the shins, because you you want closer to natural light on the feet but mood light on the faces. Make it about the feet. That' s my couple of copper Lincons.

And here's what I mean about this being a personal choice.

I don't think about natural light on the feet. I think about what will work best mood wise for the piece (or pieces) regardless of whether its "natural" or "moody".

Goph's way is another way to look at layout.....

But I digress.
 

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