Rehearsals on Zoom + Boots on the Ground: Choreographing a Musical Remotely

Since March of 2020, colleges, schools, and theatre companies have had to get creative. We've been streaming productions, creating videos, playing shows outdoors, and in some cases, not performing at all. As various institutions have returned to in-person performances, many of us have still taken advantage of the tech skills that we began developing during the early days of the pandemic.

This fall, I have had the opportunity to choreograph a production of Footloose at a community college in a rural town about 200 miles from where I currently live. How was I able to do this with such a commute? We found a few ways to make it work.

It helped that I already had a strong relationship with this institution. I had been the head of Dance there for several years until my position was discontinued due to statewide budget cuts and the decision to eliminate nearly a dozen full-time faculty. Despite cutting its dance and technical theatre faculty, the institution has chosen to maintain its Musical Theatre degrees and programs. For them, hiring me made sense; where else were they going to get someone with an MFA, professional experience, and established connections with the students and director? I utilized these relationships by establishing a strong chain of command between the director, myself, my associate choreographer (a second-year dance major), and the assistant choreographer (another second-year dance major who happened to be cast in the role of Ethel).

Prior to the August auditions, I met with the director in person, over the phone, and on Zoom to discuss our visions for the play and casting needs. For the week of auditions, I spent a few days on campus (Trip Number One). This gave me the chance to run auditions in person and reconnect with former students as well as put faces to names (in both directions) with new students and community members who auditioned. We taped the callbacks, which helped me to remember everyone's strengths, bodies, and acting ability. The final cast list went out the day after I left town, and I began my pre-rehearsal process at home.

For me, the pre-rehearsal process includes getting to know the text and music inside and out. I work with a printed copy of the score to dissect who should be moving and when based on vocal parts, individual dancers' skills, and the plot. Fortunately, our scenic designer had supplied groundplans prior to the auditions, so I was equipped with a template on which to sketch, erase, and re-sketch basic staging plans. Using my trusty colored pencils, I created a color-coding system for the principals, supporting characters, featured dancers, and ensemble. I created many colorful diagrams of the stage that corresponded to color-coded notes in the score. For each number, I scanned all of my documents and shared them with the associate choreographer, assistant choreographer, stage manager, and director.

Trip Number Two: With my basic outlines created, and a detailed rehearsal schedule for six days planned out, I headed to campus to set rough draft versions of each number. Since space was limited at my home, I used daytime hours in the studio to experiment with movements on their feet. I met with my associate and assistant before rehearsals to set movements on them and do some trial and error before setting them on the performers. I also used this time to approve the portions of choreography that I had farmed out to my associate, including the dance breaks in "Holding Out for a Hero" and the swing dance partnering in "Still Rockin'." and Our evening rehearsals were jam-packed, but by Saturday morning we were able to stumble through about 90 percent of the choreography in the show: The opening version of "Footloose," "I Can't Stand Still," "Holding Out for a Hero," "I'm Free," "Still Rockin'," "Let's Hear it for the Boy," "Mama Says," and all but the last twenty measures of the finale version of "Footloose." I chose to wait to set the ending of the finale and a few moments at the top of the second act until we were on stage, with furniture, just to make sure everything would work with our set.

In the three weeks after Trip Number Two, I attended rehearsals on Zoom. I was able to watch run-throughs of each act and take notes, while keeping in contact with my associate and assistant on their notes and observations. The three of us kept our chain of command and decided for each note: Should I fix it on Zoom? Should the associate and assistant fix it in person? Should we wait until I'm back on campus for tech? We ran a dance brush-up rehearsal entirely on Zoom, and because today's students have become so proficient in online learning technology, we were able to fix and improve the choreography so they were performing it at a level I would give a letter grade of about B.

Trip Number Three was the week of spacing and tech. Due to our contracted designer/technical director's schedule, we started the tech process more than a week before dress rehearsals, which was a golden opportunity for me as a choreographer. Rather than waiting to space and then tech the show in what can sometimes feel like the eleventh hour, we had ample time to space the show, run it on the set, coordinate the lighting, and give the cast a chance to integrate the singing, dancing, acting, and command of the performance space. While we didn't have to hold too often to spike furniture or program lights, every time a hold was called was an opportunity for me work with whichever performers were on stage on the kind of notes that were too nuanced or complicated to work out online. And, I was able to choreograph the ending of the finale on stage, with the lighting designer nearby.

When I left town, I turned it over to my associate, my assistant, and the stage manager. While there were a few tears exchanged between myself and some of the cast members, I left with confidence that the actors would take ownership of their roles within the choreography, perhaps with more confidence than they would have had I been there through opening night.