How to order a dance recital

A running order is the sequence of numbers in your show. Get it right and nothing stalls backstage: no dancer is sprinting for a costume change, the show breathes instead of sagging in the middle, and the finale lands. Here is a method you can run in about an hour.

What the running order actually has to solve

• Quick changes. A dancer in two numbers needs enough time between them to change costume and get back to the wings.
• The same faces twice in a row. Audiences notice when the same dancer appears in two consecutive numbers.
• Style and level mix. Three lyrical solos in a row blur together, and beginners right after the company number look weaker than they are.
• Shape. An opener that pulls the audience in, an intermission where they expect it, a finale that sends them home.
• Practicalities. How many stage hands and quick-change helpers you actually have that night.

The constraints, in the order that matters

1. Dancer turnaround and costume changes. This is the one that causes real problems backstage.
2. Numbers that cannot move: the opening number, the intermission, the finale.
3. Style and level alternation.
4. Prop and set changes that need stage time.

A six-step method

1. Write every number down with its dancers, costume, style and level. One row per number — if you keep a spreadsheet, keep it to those columns; anything else can wait.
2. Mark the numbers that cannot move: the opening, the finale, anything with a live band or a guest.
3. Find every pair of numbers that shares a dancer, and note the costume each one wears. Those pairs are your real constraints.
4. Space the shared dancers. As a starting rule, leave at least two numbers between a dancer's appearances when a costume changes.
5. Alternate style and level so that no two consecutive numbers look and sound the same.
6. Print the order and give a copy to the stage manager, the backstage helpers and the lighting desk. Check the quick changes against the printed sheet, not the spreadsheet.

Mistakes that show up in every recital

• Alphabetical or by-class order. Convenient for the office, hard on quick changes, flat for the audience.
• Youngest first. Parents of beginners sit through the whole show, and beginners feel like a warm-up act.
• Ignoring the dancer who is in four numbers. The fourth change is where a show stalls.
• Treating the finale as whatever is left over.

Doing this in Recital Order

Recital Order is a free web tool that builds the order for you. Paste your list of numbers, and it returns three candidate running orders, names the conflicts it could not avoid in plain words, and gives you a printable sheet for the backstage team. It can also read a pasted list and fill in the dancers, costumes and styles for you.

Build a running order

Questions we get asked

What order should the dances go in?

Put the number that pulls the audience in first and the one you want them to remember last, with the intermission at the halfway point. Everything in between arranges itself around the dancers who are in the most numbers: leave at least two numbers between a dancer's appearances when a costume changes, alternate styles and levels so no two consecutive numbers look and sound the same, and treat any big set change as fixed. There is no single correct running order — only the order that survives your own quick changes.

How long should a recital be?

Most schools run 90 to 120 minutes with one intermission. Check what your venue and families expect, and plan the running order in blocks of 20 to 30 minutes.

Where should the intermission go?

After the halfway point, and after a number that ends strong. Plan the second half so the first number after the break is one the audience will enjoy.

How much time does a dancer need for a costume change?

Two numbers between appearances is a practical rule of thumb. If the dancer also changes shoes or hair, leave three.

Do I need software for this?

No. A spreadsheet and the method above work. Software helps once you have more than about twenty numbers with dancers shared between them, because at that size the clashes stop being obvious. If you would rather not build the sheet by hand, a free recital order generator works out the conflicts and prints the order for you.

What if a dancer is in several numbers?

Then that dancer sets the floor for the whole half. Give them at least two numbers between appearances and check it for every name, not just the ones you remember. The clashes hide in the middle of a half, where a solo lands between two group numbers.

How much stage time do prop and set changes need?

More than you think, and they cannot overlap with a costume change. Treat a big set move as a fixed point the way you treat the opening and the intermission: everything else arranges itself around it, and the audience gets a short number in front of the curtain while it happens.

How do I get the order to the backstage team?

Print it. One sheet per half with the number, the dancers and the costume lets the stage manager call the next three numbers without asking anyone. Keep the same order on the sheet as in the show, and hand a copy to lighting and sound too.