The first time I ever turned them on I fell in love. The way these lights eased across the dancer’s body and defined every aspect of their musculature was stunning. The full, yet severe, look they gave to these people was a quality I knew I could never get enough of.
Of course we see this quality of light regularly outside of a stage. A sunrise or sunset has, at the most magical moment, this quality of light pouring over our faces as we stare into the ever shifting sky. Our faces light up in myriad colors like the shifting sky itself.
I am talking here of the head high sidelight.
Not only is this angle of light utterly beautiful at an aesthetic level, it is one of the most practical and useful angles a lighting designer has in his tool box.
The beauty comes in large part from the fact that this angle of light shows off an object to its most sculptural. Unless we are dealing with a totally flat surface, like a plastic box, Head Highs are going to show off nearly any bump or fold the object has to offer. At the same time, it fills in the figure enough that you get the sense of a completely lit object. This becomes especially useful when dealing with a performer’s face.
This combination of lending sculptural dimensionality and fully illuminating faces is one of the great aspects of sidelight in general. Head High Sidelight is especially nice because it can do so with a dramatic intensity not possible with other lighting angles. High Sidelight tends to be a bit softer and lower angles, like Shins, tend to be a little too severe for most applications. Head Highs, however, have an almost universal appeal.
At a practical level they are invaluable. One can fully light a rather large volume of performance space with very few lights since a single Head High will cross the entire stage, whereas a High Sidelight will only cover partway across a stage. Because of this, an entire stage can be lit with as few as eight to twelve lighting instruments. Hopefully we are never limited in this way. However, many touring dance companies will encounter such limitations, often due to time constraints, and can effectively light an entire evening of dances with just a handful of lighting instruments.
Another practical benefit is the ease of access with which one can alter these lights. Color and template changes, as well as quick shutter adjustments, can be made rapidly between curtains for dances, scenes, or acts in an evening. Thus, our touring dance company could have a completely different palette one dance to the next despite the use of a single angle of light throughout the evening.
One can fast see why such a lighting angle would be popular with dance companies, traditionally known for their limited budgets and even more limited tech time. Yet an angle of such grace, beauty, and versatility need not be limited to dance. Theater and Opera both are ripe mediums for such illuminative explorations.
The beauty of the Head High should live free of the conventions of modern dance or naturalistic sunsets. It gives a sense of drama unlike any other lighting angle. With such beauty and grace at our disposal how could we possibly say no?
