Most people come to us about three weeks before the show. The set list is half decided, the stage plan is a sketch on someone’s phone, and the question is always the same: how many dancers do we need?
It is the wrong first question, and we will get to why. But the instinct behind it is right. A live show with dancers on it reads completely differently from the back of a venue, and once you have seen the difference you stop wanting to go back.
This is how the process actually runs on our side, so you know what to prepare and when.
What backup dancers do on a live stage
On a concert stage, dancers carry the parts of the song the artist cannot carry alone. The singer is on a mic, tied to a monitor mix and often to a mic stand. Everything happening in the two metres around them, the shape of the chorus, the moment the lights drop, the reason the crowd in the back row looks up from their phones, that is choreography.
There is also a practical function that never gets talked about. Dancers cover transitions. Costume changes, guitar swaps, the forty seconds where the band is retuning and the artist is off stage. A crew that can hold a stage for forty seconds is worth more than an extra song.
For television the job changes again. Camera positions dictate everything, marks are tighter, and a move that reads beautifully to a live room can disappear entirely on a wide shot. We learned most of what we know about this working on Sky’s Gangs of Milan, where the choreography had to survive editing.
Decide the show before you decide the number
Back to the headcount question. Four dancers on a club stage is a wall of people. Four dancers on an outdoor festival stage is nearly invisible. The number is an output, not an input.
What determines it: the width and depth of the stage, how many songs the dancers appear in, whether they are on for full tracks or for hits and exits, and whether there are costume changes that need bodies rotating off stage. Tell us the venue and the set list and the number answers itself.
We work the same way for corporate stages and brand events, which usually have less depth and a much lower ceiling than a music venue. You can see the range of formats on our live shows page.
The brief we need before we can quote anything
You will get a faster and more accurate answer if you send these five things in the first email:
- The tracks the dancers appear in, with links. Studio versions are fine, but if there is a live arrangement that runs longer, we need that one.
- Stage dimensions, including depth and whether there are risers, and a photo of the venue if you have one.
- Date of the show and the dates you can give us for rehearsal.
- Whether it is being filmed, and by how many cameras.
- Any styling direction, or a reference video of a look you like.
The one that changes the answer most is the rehearsal window. Choreography for three songs is not hard. Choreography for three songs learned by five people who have never danced together, cleaned to the point where they hit the same frame at the same time, needs real hours in a room.
Rehearsals happen twice, and both matter
The first block is studio work. We build the choreography, teach it, and clean it. That happens on our time and it is where the material is actually made.
The second block is the one organisers forget to schedule: the run on the actual stage, in the actual shoes, with the actual lighting. Things break here. A move that worked on a sprung studio floor slides on a wet outdoor deck. A spacing that was comfortable in rehearsal puts someone in front of the drum riser. The monitor mix on stage is not the mix the dancers learned to.
Ask your production for a stage rehearsal slot before you book anything else. Thirty minutes is usually enough if the crew already knows the material. Zero minutes is a gamble.
The stage decides what the choreography can be
We adapt the material to the room rather than the other way round, because the alternative is a crew doing a version of the piece with the good parts removed.
Low ceilings rule out anything airborne. Narrow stages push the work into lines and level changes instead of travelling. Wet or slick surfaces change footwear, which changes what is safe to attempt at all. If the artist moves unpredictably, and plenty do, the choreography has to leave them a lane.
Send a photo of the stage. It answers more questions than a paragraph describing it.
Music, timecode and the click
If the show runs to timecode, say so early. Dancing to a click is a different skill from dancing to a room, and the crew needs to rehearse against the same playback the band is using.
If the arrangement is live and loose, the choreography needs anchor points instead of counts: the drum fill, the vocal entry, the moment the guitar comes in. We build to those. Working on Piero Pelù’s shows taught us how much a rock arrangement can move on any given night, and choreography that only works to a fixed count does not survive that.
Paperwork, and who is responsible for it
For shows in Italy there are two obligations that sit with the organiser, not with the crew, and they surprise people every season.
The first is SIAE. Any public performance of protected music requires a permit, filed in advance, with a set list.
The second is agibilità, the social security registration for performers handled by INPS under what used to be ENPALS. Every performer on that stage has to be covered for that date. If the dancers arrive through an agency, the agency handles their side, but the organiser is the one an inspection speaks to.
We raise this in the first conversation because it has a lead time. Discovering it the week of the show is a bad week.
How we work
Unreal is a hip hop and street dance crew before it is anything else. That is the vocabulary we are strongest in, and it is what artists working in that space come to us for.
The shows behind us include work with Piero Pelù, with Alborosie, and the Sky production Gangs of Milan. Different rooms, different demands. Footage from those and others is on our portfolio and video pages.
The practical part: one point of contact through the whole job, choreography built for your stage rather than pulled off a shelf, and a crew that has done enough load-ins to know when to stay out of the road crew’s way.
Common questions
How far in advance should we book?
Six to eight weeks is comfortable for a show with original choreography. Three weeks is workable if the set list is locked and the rehearsal dates are real. Under two weeks depends entirely on what else is in the calendar.
Can the same crew work a music video shoot?
Yes, and it is usually the better option when a tour and a video sit close together, because the material carries over. Shoot days run on a different clock, though. We wrote about that in hiring dancers for a music video.
Do you provide costumes?
We handle styling for the crew and work to whatever direction you or the artist’s stylist gives us. If a specific look needs to be built, that is a separate line and needs its own lead time.
What if the artist changes the set list late?
It happens on nearly every tour. Dropping a song is easy. Adding one in the last week means new material, which means rehearsal hours that may not exist. Tell us as soon as you know.
What moves the quote?
Crew size, how much original choreography is involved, rehearsal hours, travel and accommodation, and how many show dates are in the run. We broke this down in more detail in what a dancer costs for an event.
Where to start
Send us the set list, the stage photo, the date, and the rehearsal dates you can offer. We will come back with a crew size, a rehearsal plan, and what we would do with the songs.
Get in touch here, or look at the show formats we run if you are still deciding what shape the performance should take.