is the show boring you?!
Welcome to Meet Me At The Barre!
As an artist, I adore watching other people perform. Watching others makes us stronger as performers and is beneficial to our development.
Going to the theatre is my all time favourite thing to do. In a way that only other artists can understand, it’s my safe haven. I go see shows to be reinspired and remind myself why I decided to pursue such a tough career.
I arrive half an hour before curtain to read my program, snap a quick picture of me holding said program and then I turn off my phone to enjoy a carefree night of dance and music.
I’ve never understood why the announcement saying to turn off your phone was so necessary until I saw Ain’t Too Proud in November.
A third of the way through the First Act, someone in the rows below me took out their phone and started scrolling through Instagram. I got so mad that during the applause after the number, I yelled at them to turn off their phone.
Drawing from how I felt at that moment, I decided to write this.
For starters, if you can’t manage to go without checking your phone for an hour and a half, don’t go to a show. That email, text message or Instagram post can wait until intermission so please, put your phone on airplane mode and into your bag or coat.
As a performer, seeing the light from your phone screen on your face is distracting. It pulls focus away from the storyline and makes me lose track of where I was and what I should be doing next.
It’s also disrespectful. A lot of hard work goes into creating a show not only from the performers but from the choreographer, director, stagehands and tech crew. It’s a labour of love and it’s hurtful to see that you can’t leave your phone alone long enough to allow us to show you our work.
As an audience member, it’s distracting to see the light from your screen in a dark theatre and immediately pulls my focus from the stage onto you.
I did not pay $100 to see your phone screen.
Grabbing your phone in the middle of a performance means that you simply do not care about what you’re seeing and makes me believe that you only care about yourself. You draw negative attention from everyone around you and that’s not fair to the people on and off stage.
When I asked people about this subject, many people agreed with what I had to say but there were a few who noted that it’s normal to use your phone during a company or commercial dance show for videotaping and promotional purposes. Although I don’t necessarily agree with that, if you’re going to use your phone, please keep this in mind:
If you’re using Instagram during the show, always give credit to the choreographer, the company and to the specific dancer you are videotaping or photographing. There is nothing worse than seeing a video of yourself or your choreography circulating Instagram and not getting any recognition for it.
Stay at a reasonable and respectable distance. I see some videos that are right up in people’s faces and I know that if that were me, I would not want your phone up in my personal space while I’m trying to do my job.
Don’t live stream or videotape the whole performance. There’s a reason tickets are being sold and if people can just watch the whole show by looking through their Instagram Stories, it defeats the purpose. Snap a few videos here and there but I promise you the best way to watch a show is with your own two eyes. Plus, there’s most likely a (paid) videographer there to professionally record the performance.
Do you hate when people use their phones during a performance? Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for joining me this week and see you next time!
xoxo
Penelope
