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This resource offers a quick guide to what you may experience at a ballet rehearsal.

A working rehearsal is the last time the dancers, artistic director, musicians, and stage technicians work together before a performance. It is a critical time for solving problems.

Working rehearsals are rarely open to the public. You have the unusual opportunity to watch professional dancers working hard to solve problems, get used to being on a new stage, and perfect their performance.

During the rehearsal, you may hear the artistic director give corrections to the dancers about spacing, technique, and dramatic interpretation. Since stages in different theaters are often different sizes, dancers sometimes need to make changes in spacing—adjusting their distance from other dancers, the size of their movements, or the location of their entrances and exits.

Rehearsals also provide a last chance to ensure that the dancers execute their steps properly, with the appropriate timing and energy, and that they move exactly as the choreographer planned. Usually, dancers perform full-out just as they will in the performance. If dancers have injuries, however, or if a show is particularly demanding, they may mark steps in order to save their strength.

Finally, a working rehearsal provides an opportunity to solve problems with music, scenery, lighting, and costumes. Many people are hard at work backstage making sure that the performance will run smoothly.

Since it’s a rehearsal, the company may start and stop the ballet at various times. Watch carefully during these breaks and think about the full elements of a production—from story line to choreography—practice, practice, practice—and finally, performance. Is there something in your life that matches or is similar to this process?

Here are some specific things you can watch for during the performance:

• The expressive quality of the dancing—how the dancers express emotions like anger, surprise, or affection through actions instead of words 
• The technical skill of the dancers—how a dancer’s athleticism (the strength needed for spins, leaps, lifts, and to move en pointe) makes it seem like they defy gravity
• How the movements relate to the music—listen closely for whether the music seems inspired by certain cultures or classical music eras, and how the dancing connects with the music’s features (like the dynamics, rhythm, and tempo) 
• What the choreography suggests about characterization—how details like gestures, speed, and energy communicate a character’s motivations 
• The partnering—such as how one dancer provides support to another to allow them to sustain balance and execute steps they could not perform alone
• How the movements, costumes, make-up, lighting, and sets help tell a story, suggest different moods or themes, or keep the focus on pure movement
• What do you think the ballet is about? Is there a story with characters? Or is this ballet more abstract?

Read our Ballet Basics resource as a quick guide about the history and features of the artform.

Here are some prompts to reflect on and try after you see the performance:

• “Seeing a ballet” means more than simply watching dancers dance. A ballet is a total theatrical production with all parts working together, from the sets and costumes, to the lighting, to the music and choreography. After you go to the performance, think about how the program has changed your perception of ballet.
• The dancers use gestures to communicate parts of the story. Because ballet doesn’t use language like spoken word in theater, or lyrics in opera, the movement has to tell the whole story. Think about an example where a dancer’s gesture “spoke” to you or told you something you didn’t know.
• Not everyone has been trained as a dancer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to express ourselves through movement. With a friend or on your own, imagine that you have to communicate to someone that you’d like them to sit down and try on a shoe. Can you do that through movement without any words? What if the shoe doesn’t fit? What if it does?
• Story ballets were generally based off well-known fairy tales, fables, and folklores (like The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, and Swan Lake). Think of a well-known story you especially enjoy—anything from the “Three Little Pigs” to Spider-Man. Either by yourself or with a group of classmates or friends, tell your story through movement using choreography and/or pantomime. Like a game of charades, communicate your tale without speaking. If you choose to present your work to your class or family, see if they can guess the story you’ve chosen to tell.