“A dancer is expected to embody the vision of dance,” says Jeff Kaplan. “They’re expected to take movement so they are the personification of that art on stage. Particularly in modern dance, choreographers tend to see themselves as facilitators, so they might take a group of dancers and say, ‘OK, I’d like you to journal a little. And then from what you write, we’re going to take out moments, next we’re going to take up verbs, we’re going to take out nouns, and lastly, we’re going to turn them into shapes. Now, you go over there and create eight accounts and we’re going to look at it and glue it together.”

He goes on to explain that in the ballet world it’s still more traditional for the choreographer to tell the dancers what to do. The choreographer is in charge of creating the original work. This is even taught in online performing arts education.

So unlike other performing arts, like a play, you are creating what you perform. Unlike a symphony orchestra, where you get sheet music, the content doesn’t exist yet. So in dance, the day-to-day work happens in the studio. It happens collaboratively. And you’re working as a team to create and perform something new from the knowledge with performing arts education.

One thing covered in performing arts education is the different types of dance. So, what are some of the different genres of dance? For this type of thing, it helps to speak in very broad categories, just to let people know what ballpark you’re talking about. And perhaps the form of dance that most people might have heard of is ballet. Ballet emerged out of the courts of Europe, and it’s certainly strange to think of a modern-day president doing plies and tendus. But it did, in fact, start in the courts of France, as the nobles would dance with each other and spread gossip while they were dancing.

It was all about seeing and being seen, and it was also a form of exercise. It became codified in places like France, which was the cultural capital of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. But ballet is a very codified form of movement in which there are five possible positions of the feet—each of which has a name and both a correct and incorrect way of doing it. You learn those sequences, and you find that it favors a certain type of body. You need to have a certain rotation from the hips, and you have to have a certain type of flexibility, and your feet even need to point a certain way.

Another form of dance is jazz dance, which emerged in America corresponding with jazz music, although it has departed since then and is more presentational. Jazz dance is also more entertainment-focused. It lends itself very well to musical theater. It emerged, in many ways, as a synthesis of Afrocentric dance forms and African dance forms, as well as Irish sensibilities of rhythm and even a relationship with tap dance.

With jazz dance, you move parts of your body independently at different rhythms, and it’s also very much character-driven. There are names of steps with jazz dance, as well. There are famous choreographers and styles of jazz, ranging from very lyrical and resembling ballet, to others that seem much more urban.

As for hip hop dance and related forms such as krump, pop-locking, and others come out of the experience of youths in American cities, and that typically has a very strong relationship with popular music, culture, and fashion.

Another is modern dance, and it emerged out of trends in America, as well as Europe in places like Germany. Modern dance is very much a rejection of ballet, in which it asks why we only need five positions of the feet. It asks why we need to wear shoes, why we need to dance to music, or certain kinds of music. If you were to imagine that you were born on a desert island and nobody had ever taught you how to dance, how would you dance? It’s very much about finding the patterns and finding your own movement preferences. Modern dance also tends to be very much influenced by the choreographer—influenced by the way that they move, as well as the influences that they have.

So, those are a few of the more well-known dance genres, what they entail, and how they originated. You can learn much more about dance and other performing arts-related topics by exploring the world of online performing arts education.

Scott Illingworth shares with us that in moving from audience to participant as a performing arts director, the period of time you have with a script is a unique and individual, and only you can utilize it for insight and productivity. For a director, the journey is similar to that of an actor at the beginning of a production. This is because, in many ways, the director is the audience until the viewers can be present. It’s important to start, bit by bit, from the place of what the story is about and what the audience needs to understand. What are the critical events? What are the significant moments?

From a performing arts education perspective, a director will question how the audience is going to experience the story based on their level of insight. It’s hard to recapture that initial impression if you don’t make notes and think about the meaning during your first time through a script. But once you’ve done that, it’s a director’s job to help the rest of the team— that includes designers, actors and technical staff—to begin to construct a shared view of the world in that story.

Sometimes the created world of the plot is clearly obvious from the text. But many playwrights don’t have such specific information in their text about what the world should look like or how the viewers should perceive it. So, it’s important that you collaborate with other team members like designers to ensure that you work together to build this imaginary world you’re inviting the actors into as part of the process.

He says, “Another thing that directors don’t always think about is something that I’ll often refer to as ‘the machine of the play.'” He thinks that a really well-written play or well-written film script is like an incredibly intricate machine. All the pieces perform certain functions. They’re all meant to communicate particular ideas along the way. The lines are specific. They’re chosen to take the audience on the journey of this story. So, like any complicated machine, if one of the pieces is out of place, if it’s not doing its job quite right or if it doesn’t fit properly with the other elements, that’s something the audience will experience really quickly. An online performing arts education can help directors become familiar with this approach to reading a script before production begins.

While working on a play, it’s important that the director apply this constant process of zooming back out to see if the machine in its entirety is still working. Then, you will zoom back in to tinker with specific elements, whatever they are, that are not working correctly. Sometimes it’s about working with an actor or actors on a scene. Other times, it’s about rethinking something you thought was understood at the beginning but have grown to understand differently over the course of the process. Presenting a successful big picture on the stage or in film begins with the director’s minute examination of the script.

A musical director in a theatrical show, in a Broadway show, or in a musical is the person who is the head of the show’s music department. So, a musical director is a person who is in control of how the music is expressed. The musical director typically teaches the music, and music on a page is one thing, but music inside bodies is another thing.

First of all, what is the story? The musical director should have a very clear idea of the story, and that idea should be something where they are in collaboration and conversation with the writers, assuming they’re alive and present. They should certainly be in communication with the director who is in control of the entire production in a musical theater piece. Typically, the choreographer and lighting designer are also involved in these conversations.

You’re all creating this big animal together that takes a lot of people to put together. There’s music. There are costumes. There’s hair. There’s movement. There’s acting. There’s figuring out where on stage things happen. What’s the best way for someone to sing? How should they pronounce this word? What word should they hit? What syllables should they hit in a particular melody?

How should that melody come out? Should it be loud or soft? Should it have vibrato or not have vibrato? All of these questions are ones that are inside the musical director’s province.

Additionally, the musical director is also sometimes playing the show, playing the piano, playing the guitar. If there’s a band, typically, the musical director is integrating the band—controlling how the band sounds and how they sound with the actors. And when I say how it sounds, in larger shows, there will be someone who takes the music that they’re given, whether it’s written down or not, and they will orchestrate it. They will decide what instruments are going to play. They’ll decide how things are arranged.

If you have an interest in pursuing a career as a musical director, or any career in the performing arts, consider exploring online performing arts education. Obtaining a solid performing arts education will help equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to reach many of your goals.

There are many valuable lessons found in online performing arts education. Based on his experience in performing arts, Gianni Downs tells us, “There are three major stage configurations. There is the proscenium stage, which is essentially what you might think of as a theater. A lot of the Broadway houses are proscenium stages. You might see musicals produced on a proscenium stage.” These are set up so that the audience is on one side, and the action is happening on another side, often with a frame around the action. That is the proscenium arch itself. This is a very common type of theater and is very useful for hiding scene changes. Musicals spend a lot of time in proscenium stages.

“A proscenium is an arch,” says Jeff Kaplan, who has years of performing arts education. “Next time that you’re in a theater, look at the shape above the curtain. It makes a picture frame. So, the idea is that you’re looking into a diorama. You’re looking into a world. And traditionally, the performers are inside that world, and you and the audience are on the outside. That forms the fourth wall, but that’s not the only way that you can do it.”

Gianni Downs picks up from there. “Another common theater-type is the 3/4 thrust. You’ll see a lot of regional theaters and off-Broadway theaters will use a 3/4 thrust stage. This is where the action will project into the audience, making a horseshoe shape of the audience. So, the audience sits on 3/4 of the sides of the action of the play.” This is often more used for straight plays or more intimate plays. A very famous 3/4 thrust is the Guthrie Theater, and it might provide a good reference for what that looks like.

Jeff Kaplan then finishes, “There’s theater-in-the-round, which is pretty much what it sounds like. The audience is on all sides, or maybe 3/4. Arena Stage in Baltimore is a very famous example of that.” Circle in the Square in New York is largely a theater-in-the-round. That’s a fascinating experience in which there’s no front where you’re all inside of this world. It’s like a virtual-reality theater.

Typically, a producer is somebody who’s leading the ship. When you’re the producer, in many cases, you’re both everyone’s friend and everyone’s enemy. You’re also the person signing their paychecks. Sometimes, you may even be their therapist. Being a producer can look many different ways.

Particularly in the world of the independent theater industry, because the budgets are smaller and it tends to involve renting a space, it’s inevitably going to be a smaller creative team. As a producer, you’ll need people to do a bit more than they expect to be doing, and it’s only because you want to get the show running. Because of this, though, you have to be flexible, and be able to avoid getting stuck in a rigid space.

As a producer, you tend to be the one that everybody looks to. Personally, I have been a part of productions where I haven’t necessarily attended every rehearsal, because I haven’t needed to; there’s a director that was hired, and there’s an entire creative team. However, I’m there at auditions, I’m there at the first rehearsal, and I make myself available.

I don’t find the need to be micromanaging at every rehearsal, though, because I’m not a micromanager. Because I know this about myself, I know I don’t need to attend every one, but I do make a point to let people know that I’m available for whatever comes up. When stuff does happen, it isn’t the time for a meltdown—as the producer, nobody cares about your feelings. You need to fix it. You need to get it going, and make it work.

To learn more about the world of being a producer, both standard performing arts education and online performing arts education can be very beneficial as a starting point.

A scenic designer needs to have several different skills. You can think of a designer as a Jack or Jane of all trades. You have to know a little bit about color theory. You have to know a little bit about how to draw as well as art and architectural history. You have to know how buildings are constructed. These are all things that you can learn on the fly, but it’s a good idea to practice them as you’re starting out. I recommend that everyone aspiring to be a scenic designer take some drawing classes. Doing that alone will help propel you toward a career in theater design more quickly.

One you’ve developed some basic skills, you’re going to need to learn how to draft. You can do so using a pencil or pen, but most people will be using AutoCAD or Vectorworks or some other CAD drafting program. Fortunately, these are technology skills that are actually quite easy to learn. In fact, you might start with a program like SketchUp and import something that you designed there into another program so that you can turn it into a more clear drawing. This way, it will be easier to understand when you give it to others.

You might also need to learn how to paint digitally. Oftentimes, I will choose to work in different programs. For example, I’ll do my drafting in Vectorworks; then, I will do my painting in Photoshop. After that, I’ll combine the two and make a 3-D model with either Vectorworks or SketchUp. From there, I’ll make a walkthrough of my set so that a director and the actors can see what it will look like from various points in the house or even on stage.

I’ve had 3-D models used to sell products. I’ve had 3-D models used in film. I’ve even had to create 3-D models to be used in projection work behind live theater as well. As a theater designer, you never stop learning because technology changes all the time, and your ability to communicate with other people needs to adapt as well.

To learn more about the world of theater design and the performing arts, consider getting started with online performing arts education. This form of performing arts education allows you to gain valuable experience and learn from the comfort of your own home.

One of the questions that always comes up is, “How can I have a sustainable life in the theater?” This is a key question. It is key not only because it allows us as artists to engage in the work that we do, but also because it supports our livelihood.

Sometimes I’ll meet the parent of a young student considering pursuing a performing arts education, and that parent will turn to me and say, “Well, my kid wants to go into theater, but we all know that they’re not going to make any money, and they’re going to starve, and I don’t want them to go through that.” They add, “And we all know theater doesn’t really matter. We all know that it’s just kind of decoration.”

Well, they’re talking to the wrong person, because I go a little bit over the top on this. Number one, the idea that theater doesn’t matter is altogether wrong. It’s just wrong. The theater is not only an important art field because I’m involved in it, and I care about it, so I think it’s important. Actually, history has proven it a vital space for community discourse and for the investigating of ideas in a community.

Further proof is that if you think of any really stringent political dictatorship in the history of the world, one of the first things that they will do is either get rid of all the art forms or try to control them. Trust me — if the performing arts didn’t matter, they would expend no time on even being concerned about them.

But they do matter. They matter because they change history, because they change thought, because they change opinion, because they change our minds and our hearts, and because they bring a community into a conversation. And so, to me, theater is essential. The fundamental idea driving the heart of theater is that artists either will celebrate those beliefs, or integrate those beliefs, and that is what drives our work.

What’s interesting is that when we integrate those beliefs, it actually creates the society’s new beliefs. And that begins to create a cycle of how societies really begin to understand themselves, understand their beliefs, and understand how they function.

So, to me, theater is a vibrant space not only for what really is the sustainability of a community, but also for the health of a community. And that becomes a really, important thing. So there we are — theater is important.

Studying theater is important, too. Your online performing arts education can be the start of an ongoing conversation that leads you to play a role in shaping society’s beliefs.

I do a lot of research about the time and the place when I start a new piece of material or undertake a new character. I feel so lucky that I live close to the Met because I can go and look at paintings. Especially with “Hamilton,” I can see paintings from that time, see how they make me feel. I can feel what women are saying within those paintings, within those portraits, because that’s all we have from that time. The research process is half online performing arts education and half real-world experiences and feelings applied to your character.

I try to look as much as I can to people that know more than me about the time period, about all of the facts, to get to the truth. Then, I have to really look into myself and see what my subtext is. What is underneath all of those facts? Is there an accent? Where is she from? When was she born? What’s underneath all of those things?

Sometimes a character can be very relatable to my own life, like Nina Rosario. I felt so connected to that character, because I’m the first one in my family to go to college. I always did things not just for myself, but with the notion that I was doing something more for my family and my community. That was a big part of my upbringing.

Nina was so much like that, and she took a lot of the weight of the world on her shoulders. I understood where she was coming from. I knew what her intention was, and I knew what her truth was, because it was just part of me. So, I had to bring that to the performance, which can be the hardest part, being vulnerable, being open to whatever’s going to happen.

I’m not robotic. I like to go in and breathe with the other actors and see where they are that night and what they’re giving me, and see how that moves me, how that moves my character, and see what I give them back. You can learn a lot from a performing arts education and also learn a lot from your fellow actors and their processes and performances.

It’s a very organic feeling every night, and I love that. I wouldn’t want it any other way. When you have an acting partner that also works that way, it’s just magic. The basic way that I try to build a character is really from the ground up and through honesty and through my truth.

Back a long time ago, the idea of blocking was pretty straightforward. It was really about stage picture. You stand there. Or I stand here. Or you sit on this line. Or I stand on this line. There are moments when making specific movements across the stage or movements on the set are prescribed in a precise way that we need you to do this now because of something that happens in the script.

But the truth is that much of what happens in blocking is a collaboration between actor and director. It is the exploration of the actor’s actions and needs in a given moment in a scene. It’s easy to take for granted something as simple as walking across a room or where you stand in a space. But the following simple examples may help you understand how meaningful blocking can be in the performing arts.

So, if you picture a fairly traditional theater with the audience on one side and the stage on the other, you can then imagine an actor standing in the middle of that space, facing the audience, in a stance that means something, right? This person is alone. Depending on how big the space is, we experience something about the scale of a human being in this space. We might think about how that person is or isn’t like us as an audience member.

Now, turn that person away from you so that they’re facing away. That’s right; they’re facing upstage. Suddenly, I lose all sorts of information. I can’t see that person’s face or expressions. As an audience member, I’ve lost information, but I’ve gained potential interest. You might not be aware of these perceptions unless you have a performing arts education.

Now, what if that person extends their arms really wide, opens their chest up, but I can’t see their face? You can imagine that any one of those choices makes a big difference to how we experience whatever that person says in that moment. But it can be challenging to interpret that person’s stance, movements, and gestures without the help of facial expressions.

It becomes even more exciting and complicated when you have multiple characters onstage. If I have two actors very far downstage, very close to the audience, huddled together, whispering to each other, my experience as an audience member is going to be one of tremendous intimacy.

But if I keep one of those actors very close and send another far away upstage, it’s going to change my relationship with one of them with whom I have a much closer, intimate relationship to that other person who is much further away. I might begin to have an empathic response to the person who’s closer compared to the one who’s more distant.

As an actor, it’s valuable to understand that your audience is experiencing, particularly in theater, your work as a kind of three-dimensional sculpture that’s constantly changing shape. As a director, it’s important to understand that everywhere that bodies are in space communicates something to your audience, as you might learn from an online performing arts education. So, it’s better for that communication to be intentional rather than accidental.