Background Statement
I am a musical theatre performer proficient in singing, dancing and acting. My origins are primarily based in ballet, as I trained professionally in this field, however I did train in other styles of dance (tap, jazz, contemporary & national) singing and acting professionally, before fully focusing on classical at fourteen. There were many factors that affected my decision to fully transition into musical theatre. I realised that while I enjoy ballet, my time participating in workshops after graduating solidified my desire to transition to musical theatre. My experience in collaborative works before coming to ICP has been limited due to working as an instrument of the choreographer in prior collaborative spaces.
Line of Enquiry
Since starting my journey in musical theatre I have come to realise it has greater opportunities for collaboration amongst performers, such as the role of dance captain which I feel I have recently taken on unofficially. I believe the role of dance captain is a logical next step for myself in the practice of collaboration. I realised this from participating in many of the exercises within ICP and working on the performance project with my fellow MA students. My strengths lie in learning choreography, applying technique and nuances, and adapting quickly to any alterations in a given piece. From understanding this, I took guidance from Jo Butterworth’s (2018) Didactic-Democratic framework, seen below.
(Butterworth, 2018: 90)
Combining this framework with the collaborative work I felt most confident with, I understood that my specific role was best suited to dance captain. This is an interesting role for me to delve into, however first stepping into the role was daunting as I am most experienced with Process 1 (from the framework) but I wanted to develop my role in collaboration as a performer for more interpretive expression.
Documentation
During the last few weeks, I have participated in workshops and projects where I found I was able to both interpret and contribute to aid the creative process. Below are key events that demonstrate when I was able to fully realise my position as dance captain and how I executed the role in different situations, and showing the progression of this process throughout.
ICP Week 3: Micro- Workshops
At the beginning of the third week, we participated in a workshop where we each created our own micro-workshop that demonstrated our particular practice and how we would use it in collaborative settings. I decided I would teach my group the choreography from the beginning of the Jellicle Ball from the musical, Cats. I started by breaking down each step and how it would emulate a cats movement, or modelling the step for physical reference, for example one of the steps required a specific arm position, that I likened to strumming a guitar. This was the first instance of beginning to realise my position as dance captain because I had noticed
I was implementing many of the techniques a dance captain would use to ensure members of the ensemble were executing the choreography correctly. I also took the time to explain to my group the importance of how the movement can influence characterisation and story. I emphasised that, although you may feel awkward attempting the choreography during rehearsal, if you do so with the aim of embodying the character you have been given, this will aid in the overall performance quality and make it feel real to an audience. We made notes outlining this ideology in the image above, linking my ideas to those of other workshops in my group.
New Work Lab Week 4- Learning a New Song For Performance Project
In the New Work Lab session of week 4, we presented a newly composed song that would be performed at the end of our performance project. Although this was not specifically a dance based piece, I believe I incorporated some of the skills of a dance captain whilst learning this song. Before learning the piece, the writer, Jason explained what his intentions were for the song and how he wanted them to be delivered. I took this time to make as many notes (mentally) as I could, not only for myself but for anyone else who would later require a reminder of the writers intentions, or if anyone needed clarification on various aspects of the songs story-telling & themes. This proved useful when one of my fellow Company students expressed confusion over the intention of the piece. I then had a discussion with them relaying Jason’s intention, slightly altering my phrasing of the explanation so that my colleague could fully understand what the task was and how they were supposed to perform the song. I also used the style of the piece and these intentions to assist in creating my characterisation, and for anyone else who felt they needed it when we set the blocking for the piece. I felt this would make it easier for the director and for my fellow performers as they would have some assistance, making the piece feel more collaborative overall.
ICP Seminar Week 4- In Depth Discussion of Jo Butterworth Framework
During an ICP seminar, we did an in depth analysis of the Jo Butterworth Didactic-Democratic model and applied it to our own role as collaborators within our practice. We achieved this through discussion with other members of the MA cohort, relating each of the processes with scenarios we have personally experienced in our specific fields. It was through this discussion that I realised process 3 was akin to the work I had done for the micro-workshop and in the work I had been doing for the performance project. I had met the skills of replication during the micro-workshop, replicating the choreography from Jellicle Ball and teaching it as accurately as possible. I also concluded that I had met the criteria of the dancer skills within process 3 for the performance project. I used divergence by aiding the choreographer with any sections where the choreography needed alteration or adapting to better suit the ensemble’s skill set. Replication came from learning the choreography as shown by the choreographer, whereas content development occurred when I would ask the choreographer questions about about how they wanted the step performing (i.e. checking if a foot is flexed in a kick, clarifying the coordination & orientation of arms on a travelling step, the position of heads on a specific count of music etc.) content creation happened during the first week of working together as a group on the choreography by developing the material to get an idea of what the choreographer wanted the piece to look like and I took an active role in suggesting & implementing many movement ideas based on the brief the choreographer had prefaced before we started the workshop. This all came to head as I was linking both the micro-workshop and performance project to this particular process, and through discussion with the ensemble cast, I realised that I had informally embraced the role of dance captain.
Performance Project Week 6- Embracing the Dance Captain Role
During weeks 5 and 6 I had fully stepped into the role of dance captain actively collaborating with the choreographer of the piece, while acting as a go-between for the choreographer and ensemble to ensure that the choreographer’s instructions were clear, and ensuring the ensemble’s concerns or struggles were raised with the choreographer, rectifying struggles myself when possible to streamline workflow. In the video linked above, I (positioned right) am going through a section of choreography within the piece for the performance project. I have slowed down the tempo of the piece because the ensemble were unsure of what lyrics they were supposed to be singing at that point of the routine, and what movement correlated with which particular lyric. I was leading for the ensemble member next to me to mark, to help them learn the choreography in real time, and have a more solid understanding of it. The choreographer is recording the video and saying the lyrics off camera, as they were confident that I knew the choreography (with the adaptations we had just made) and the lyrics well enough to demonstrate the piece. This was then sent to the rest of the ensemble to have as reference and have someone they could approach for any details they wanted clarifying.
Research/ Analysis
Cassie Abate (2022) describes the role of a dance captain as follows:
It is the job of the dance captain to uphold the choreographic vision both in accuracy and intention. A strong dance captain is detail-oriented and organized… the dance captain is making sure that all the performers are executing the movement precisely. They are looking for timing and counts, proper arm placement, correct footing, and accurate spacing onstage (Abate, 2022: 124).
After researching, I felt this description perfectly fit the level of collaboration I was using to participate in many of the tasks. However, I discovered the role I had assumed was not as in depth as it is for professional shows, as there are many articles that highlight dance captains experiencing a lot of collaboration, not only with the choreographer and ensemble, but the director, assistant director and stage manager as well. The dance captain is expected to keep track of every role as well as their own, take extensive notes, organise rehearsals, replace cast members if any cast is missing and observe the show to ensure the choreography and spacing is being upheld (Scheps, 2018)(Duran, 2024). Although, I felt comfortable in my position and how I was contributing to the groups collaborative efforts, I now know from my research that I can further develop this role, and to truly understand this I need to further push myself outside of my comfort zone. This could create barriers in terms of collaborating, because if I withhold communication between other creative members it could create animosity between us or could misconstrue instructions between myself and the ensemble. It would also cause added pressure for the choreographer because if they are not present at any of the rehearsals, the responsibility would pass onto me to maintain any streams of communication and take notes of what has transpired in those sessions to relay to the choreographer, so by staying at my current stage of development as a dance captain this would not take place and could make rehearsals more difficult for everyone involved.
Conclusion
I have found my process and experience of collaboration to be a slow and steady one, trying to find my confidence with it. Once I found a role I felt confident in, collaboration became easier to participate in. Now that I have discovered where my strengths lie in collaboration, I wanted to discover if I was fulfilling my role in a professional capacity, and if not, what I need to do to improve. After researching, I understand the next steps I must take to become fully collaborative as a dance captain and I feel the best place to begin with this is to actively take notes during future workshops and rehearsals. Also, by having more open communication with other members of the cohort during these sessions to play a more active role within the groups overall collaboration. I have also discovered within my research that this practice could develop my career later on, by having the opportunities to work closely with choreographers and directors, it could advance my career to the position of assistant choreographer which would emulate process 4 of Butterworth’s (2018) framework and increase my collaborative experience. I believe it may take a long time to gain this level of experience and networking before moving to assistant choreographer, as I would need to implement the skills I have learnt as dance captain during my training in a professional setting. Then I would need to consistently work at this level and network with other creatives, establishing my reliability and experience before moving onto the next step.
Bibliography
Butterworth, J. (2018) ‘Too Many Cooks?*’, in. Routledge, p. 90.
Abate, C. (2022) The Art and Practice of Musical Theatre Choreography. London: Methuen Drama.
Scheps, L. (2018) What it takes to be a musical’s Dance Captain, Dance Spirit. Available at: https://dancespirit.com/ins-and-outs-of-dance-captain/#gsc.tab=0 (Accessed: 05 November 2025).
Duran, C. (2024) Step Into a Dance Captain Career With These Tips, What is a dance captain? jobs, salary, and duties | backstage. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/dance-captain-job-explained-77026/ (Accessed: 05 November 2025).
