Why is a dancers makeup so important?

If any of you have ever seen a dancer perform at a  professional or amateur leave, or have seen movies such as Black Swan you may be wondering why all of these dancers are wearing such extreme out of the box face makeup. This makeup that dancers wear also called stage makeup, stage makeup is a very important part of a dancers performance and overall look.Well preforming the lighting on stage as well as the distance the audience members are from the stage can make the dancers appear washed-out. On the other hand if there is too much dancers eyes may resemble a black hole. Utilizing proper techniques when apply stage make-up is an essential skill all dancers must have. The purpose of stage make-up is to add color to the skin and extenuate the dancers features.When applied right stage make-up (more extreme than makeup wore daily) should be seen by members of the audenice upwords of 50 feet away. Stage make up not only makes dancers look more put-together, it also adds to the costume and overall look of the the dance which in turn adds to the performance. For example in a dark dance number, as seen in the film black swan; the dancers wear heavy dark make up, as opposed to cheerfull dance routines you would see a 6 year old preform.

  Dancer