Behind the curtain - cruise ship productions

How I got the nickname "Dani-Long-Legz":

Hi my name is Danielle Lee and I am a cruise ship dancer. I have been making blogs about my life at sea. On my current vessel, I get the opportunity to perform in two incredible production shows. For this week’s blog, I will be sharing a little more insight into what goes on backstage and behind the scenes of these shows we get to perform. I got the nickname “Dani-Long-Legz” from my last contract where I worked as a showgirl for Royal Caribbean Cruises, on board Spectrum of the Seas. There were multiple Danielle’s and Daniel’s so to differentiate which was which and who was who I earned the nickname “Dani-Long-Legz” since I was the tallest of the other Danelles and Dans on board and it has stuck with me ever since. 

Behind The Scenes:

Life living and working on board a cruise ship is really unique. Every day as a crew member, I get to wake up in a new place or port. It is so exciting getting to explore these amazing spots throughout the world with such incredible, talented and diverse friends and colleagues. The best part of this type of travel is I get to do it while fulfilling my dream as a dancer, not to mention getting paid! Another amazing thing about working on a cruise ship is the diversity in crew. The crew come from all over the world. I get to meet and befriend people from a variety of places and cultures all in one place. 

When it comes to running a cruise ship, there are a lot of operations to consider. There are quite a bit of things happening below deck that many people don’t know about when taking your average cruise vacation. I thought it would be intriguing to share a little more insight into what goes on backstage and behind the scenes for some of our production shows on board. 

There’s a lot of elements that go into each production show including costumes, choreography, sets, concepts, and casting. What people don’t always think about is how these shows are executed backstage. The audience gets to see us in full make-up under lights with sequins and feathers but what they don’t see is what happens as soon as we step off the stage. 

Routine On Stage and Off:

There is as much choreography and organization backstage as there is on stage. We, as dancers, have to maintain specific spacing during the shows as we execute our set choreography but there are similar elements to consider offstage and in the wings. The black curtains that frame the stage are called wings and every time we run off the stage we have to prepare for the next dance or section of the show. Each dancer will select a space to use for their changes depending on where they exit and where they have to make their next entrance. In order to help make these costume changes efficient we do something called “presets”. This means we arrange our costumes and props in a manner that make our changes as efficient as possible. 

“Presets”:

For example we will lay out pants, dresses, or skirts so when we come off the stage we can take our current costume off and easily step right into the next one. Not only that, we have to do the same thing with our gloves, headpieces, hair products, shoes, and accessories. Each costume is usually equipped with easy zippers or hook and eyes. This makes it so we can get dressed quickly. A zipper is much more efficient than a row of buttons. If we can’t do up our own costumes, we have to help one another with quick changes. This responsibility then becomes part of our routine backstage. We take note of what we have to do to ourselves to prepare for the next dance and what we have to do for others to get them ready as well. There are many changes that happen so quickly, it would be impossible to do without set help and practice.

Race Car Pit Crew:

For example in the shows I am dancing currently, I change myself and then stand prepped and ready in the wing waiting for another dancer to come off stage. As she exits, I run behind her to unzip her costume while she goes to the other side of the stage to put on her finale costume. It’s like a pit crew for a race car. We prepare ourselves, we know exactly what we need to do, and then we execute it in the amount of time necessary to get the next costume on by our next entrance. We do these shows so many times we start to know the timing and sections to the exact second. We can tell in the music exactly how much time we have and if something goes wrong we can count the number of 8’s we have to fix the issue before we will miss our next entrance. 

These habits of changing ourselves and others become part of our routine off the stage. Each show night we do the same and we become extremely efficient, eventually becoming muscle memory. When we first install a show we dedicate time just to practicing these changes so we can evaluate how to do things as efficiently and consistently as possible. We practice the dances on stage and the changes off stage to make sure the entire production runs smoothly and professionally. 

Well Oiled Machine:

The stage hands and techs backstage have similar responsibilities in transitions and execution of technical elements. It is also everyone’s responsibility to be aware of moving parts for safety and security. We all work cohesively, each crew member playing a specific role in the process. To some it may look hectic and crazy but it is all organized chaos. We all work together to create these incredible productions.