Dance
Whilst the Theatre Green Book Productions guidance can easily be applied to dance shows, there are some dance-specific things to consider. These may pose particular challenges or opportunities when making a greener production.
If you have any suggestions of other dance-specific challenges, or solutions you have found, please email us.
Costume
Dance costumes often involve more elasticated fabric than theatre plays, and often require more costumes because of muliple performers for each role.
Consider the impact of costume ‘additions’ such as underwear, shoes and tights which can often have a high impact on a dance production’s potential to be greener. Perhaps consider researching for more sustainable alternatives such as Imperfect Pointes tights.
Rep Performances
Don’t underestimate the inheritant sustainability that rep shows often have. Can you bring back popular productions?
Heating the stage
Dance requires the stage to be a higher temperature for the performers’ safety (although bear in mind that with hotter summers it may be a case of cooling down the stage).
Try to avoid red rads as much as possible. Can you keep the space warmer by limited the amount of time the doors are open during the get-in?
Shoes
Dancers get through a lot of shoes. Some suppliers offer recycling so it is worth asking your supplier what options they have. If you regularly throw away barely-used shoes, can you donate them to a local dance school?
Floor tape
Dance shows often need to lay dance floors, especially when touring. A particular issue is that this can requite using PVC or gaffer tape. Can you speak to your tape suppliers about more sustainable alternatives? Share any findings you have with the wider dance community.
Some suggestions from various companies so far include: reusing the tape on boxes when you leave the venue, or making a ball out of the used tape (if not reusable) and using as a football with your team, to at least raise awareness of the amount being used.
One idea you could try is touring larger pieces of dance floor, by welding them together. This makes the pieces more unwieldy, but means you need less tape to join them together.