The Demands of a Professional Ballet Schedule: A Five-Season Analysis

Abstract

Periodizing rehearsal and performance schedules in professional ballet is difficult given a lack of published longitudinal data. We aimed to describe the structure of a professional ballet season, and identify factors associated with inter-dancer and inter-production variation in dance hours. Scheduling data were collected from 123 dancers over five seasons at The Royal Ballet. Linear mixed effects models were used to evaluate differences in weekly dance hours and performance counts across sexes, company ranks, and months. Random forest regressions were used to investigate factors associated with the variation in rehearsal hours across different productions. Performance congestion was observed in December, whereas total dance hours peaked between January and April. Differences in weekly dance hours were observed between company ranks (p < .001, range in means: 19.1–27.5 h·week-1). Seasonal performance counts varied across company ranks (p < .001), ranging from 28, 95% CI [22, 35] in principals, to 113, 95% CI [108, 118] in artists. Rehearsal durations were greatest in preparation for newly choreographed and longer ballets. Dancers creating roles in new ballets completed considerably more rehearsal hours than for existing ballet. These results provide a basis for the implementation of rehearsal and repertoireperiodization in professional ballet.