Elastic/Bungee for "Marionette" dancers

[PjB]

Puppeteer here- I would have been surprised if the choreographer went for it. Tying dancers to a batten or other fixed structure would limit their mobility too much for great staging. How about if each of them have their own control system like a real marionette? Affix one sturdy rod running from a harness on their backs up to an airplane type control (T bar or other of designer’s choosing) and run the elastic/bungee combos down to their limbs from there?

 

[PjB]

Puppeteer here- I would have been surprised if the choreographer went for it. Tying dancers to a batten or other fixed structure would limit their mobility too much for great staging. How about if each of them have their own control system like a real marionette? Affix one sturdy rod running from a harness on their backs up to an airplane type control (T bar or other of designer’s choosing) and run the elastic/bungee combos down to their limbs from there?

This is a costume from Oriental Trading. Shows the basic idea of a "free floating" control. Invisible puppeteers at work! Here the control is attached to the head but I think if you do a rod up the back you'll be able to get better tension. Marionette Costume

 

[KyMask]

We are doing Chicago this spring. For "They both reached for the gun" we are thinking about having the backup dancers all being Marionettes on bungie cord. I'm thinking a set of lines that hang from a batten, Fly them in, actors slip on some sort of a wrist strap. Then we raise it back out a foot to put some tension on the lines, and the actors dance. Scene over we fly the whole thing out. It would look really cool.

Has anyone done anything like this before? Any suggestions on what sort of elastic material to use for the lines in order to keep this low budget? I can get something like this cheap enough, but I am afraid that true bungee will be to strong. I don't want the dancers to be struggling to pull on the lines. We want it to give and flex easily so they can easily move. Any suggestions beyond just buy some and see how it works? Thanks!

I'd suggest tubes of lycra. It is easily stretched, goes back to original size, and extremely light. And you can do colors.