Should your music go out or skip—and it will, every director attests—make sure you have backups ready, whether digital or on a separate device. Always give your dancers the chance at a do-over, too, says Carole Royal. “We’ll either replay the music right then—have them leave the stage and come on and do it again from the beginning—or we’ll wait two numbers while we get it set up and then have them come back and do it again,” she says.

Tony Waag knows from experience that your audience will be relieved by a fresh start. While on tour singing with a big band for a Hoagy Carmichael music show, Waag started singing and realized that his mic wasn’t on. “I raised my hands and got the whole orchestra to stop playing. I said, ‘We’re going to try this again,'” he says. “It was such a relief—people get really uncomfortable if you pretend that nothing is going on.”

Carole Royal, owner, Royal Dance Works, Phoenix, Arizona

Tony Waag, American Tap Dance Foundation, New York, New York