Lines
by Kyle Froman
Dancing in a line sounds easier than it actually is. Though formations are as important to a ballet as the steps, it is easy for dancers to get wrapped up in their own performances and forget the big picture. When ballets are set onstage, the ballet mistress normally uses a system of “Tape and Dots.” The flooring that covers our stage is called Marley. It is rolled out in sheets and taped to the next piece. Because of this, there is tape running the width of the stage. There are also white dots running perpendicular to the tape that separate the stage into eighths. With all these markers, a kind of grid takes shape. Dancers learn this language of “Tape and Dots” very quickly. You know what it means if you belong on the “outside dots” and “upstage of the tape in the second wing.”
Ballet is live theater and since no two shows are the same, dancers have to know how to line up with other dancers. As a rule, dancers line up behind the most downstage person, even if that person is wrong. When dancing in a line side by side, across the width of the stage, the centermost dancers set the line. Since turning your head to look around the stage is out of the question, dancers “feel” their relationship to other dancers using peripheral vision. This is when having eyes on the sides of your head would really be helpful.
Dancers also make lines with their bodies. When I began taking pictures of the Company, what really stood out was the geometry of ballet. In the formations, I expected to see angles and lines, but seeing these different shapes in the bodies of the dancers was thrilling, especially when they were in line, making lines.
There is definitely a sense of mathematics to ballet. My favorite ballet to dance is Symphony in Three Movements, and watching it is just as exciting. The Stravinsky music is constantly changing. You count six 8’s, then five 3’s, then one 6, and one 9. The formations are constantly changing also--from lines, to circles, to diagonals. The dancers are dressed only in leotards and tights, so you just see different angles everywhere. That ballet is very mathematical to me.
Steps and formations are what give each ballet its own shape. They, along with music, lighting, sets, and costumes, are what make each ballet unique. They come together to create a different world for each piece.
