7 Things to Keep in Mind When Setting Recital-Stage Lighting

There are a lot of balls in the air when you’re planning a student performance. Between creating choreography and choosing costumes, one element that can easily get overlooked is stage lighting. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert lighting designer yourself—whether your theater provides a crew or you bring outside help, most of the time you’ll be able to collaborate with someone who knows all the technical ins and outs. Still, here are seven things to keep in mind to make sure you show off your students in their best, well, light. 

Focus on Your Overall Vision

Unless you’re comfortable with lighting-design concepts and technology, and incredibly well-versed in the latest lighting techniques, it’s usually more productive to talk to the lighting designer about broader concepts like color, emotion, and setting your general vision, rather than specific technical things you want the lights to do, says Derek Keifer, lighting supervisor and production manager at Jacob’s Pillow. “What emotion do you want to convey? What is the setting? And how physical versus nonphysical is the space you’re in? Is there a journey that takes place?” he asks, listing helpful questions to consider. 

“I always have a starting point in mind, but I trust that that lighting designer is definitely going to know more and is probably going to make it everything I didn’t know I wanted,” says Valerie Gonzalez, director of Lake Forest Dance Academy in Illinois. She likes to share a particular feeling she’s trying to get across. “I’ll always try to say something like, ‘Oh, the feeling you get when you watch the movie You’ve Got Mail, or the feeling you get when you look at a starry night.’ ”  

Think About What the Light Is Lighting

Keifer says one of the most important things to consider is exactly what you want illuminated—or not. “Do you want to see the floor? Or do you want to see the dancers floating over a black space?” Also consider options like silhouettes or spotlights, and if you want sharp or softer edges. 

Consider the Costumes

Don’t forget that stage lighting doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it interacts with everything else onstage. “For example, if you have green elements in the costumes, and you’re under red light, that green is going to turn black,” Keifer says. “Or if it’s a red costume in red light against a red cyc, it’s all just going to wash out and disappear.” Be sure to bring the costumes and any sets or props into the conversation at the very beginning of your collaboration with a lighting designer.

Simplicity Can Be Powerful

Many student pieces are only a few minutes long. In this case, you don’t need a whole bunch of lighting cues to keep the audience’s interest. “A couple of quality looks go way further than trying to make every movement a different look,” Keifer says. 

Keep Photosensitivity in Mind

Certain kinds of stage lighting can be hazardous for people with photosensitivity, which can include those with epilepsy, autism, vertigo, or migraines. Strobe lights are a common trigger, but sometimes even a certain color or intense brightness can cause problems. So Heather McNew, a studio owner and co-founder of EpiArts Alliance, suggests studio owners reach out to families ahead of performances to ask if any students (or loved ones who may attend the show) have any photosensitivity you might be able to accommodate. 

For instance, for her daughter Anzli, who has epilepsy, McNew says that allowing her to wear glasses or skip tech rehearsal if the show is the same day can make a world of difference. EpiArts also offers a guide for lighting designers with technical elements that can minimize photosensitive reactions. “These are just little accommodations that can be made to make it easier on the kiddos,” she says. 

Take the Time to Teach Your Students About the Lighting 

The idea of “finding your light” doesn’t always come naturally to students who don’t have much performance experience. “A lot of times when you’re teaching kids the choreography, you’re not teaching them about the lighting and silhouette and shadows,” Gonzalez says. But once you have your lighting set, she recommends setting aside time to explain exactly how things like sidelighting or footlights will impact what the audience sees. 

Stay Flexible 

Depending on the capabilities of your performance venue, your lighting options might be limited. “Not every idea might be possible in the exact way it is in your mind,” Keifer says. “Be willing to have that negotiation, asking what is possible.” 

Gonzalez says that it can help to take your ego out of the equation, even if you’re disappointed that what you’d envisioned won’t work out. “I try not to get super stuck in anything because, just like with choreography, whether it’s the amount of dancers that you have or the amount of time that you have to rehearse, this is just another circumstance that creates what that final product is,” she says. Embracing what you do have to work with will always lead to a better result. 

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