_How To Choreograph
By Michelle
Who is intimidated by the thought of choreography? Who gets nauseous at the
prospect of coming up with enough different moves to fill a five-minute piece of music?
Who positively retches at having to then MEMORIZE all those moves? Who believes
choreography is anathema to the beauty and spontaneity of this dance form? Just as I
suspected.
Now, who has ever complained that when they get out there to perform, they find
themselves doing the same moves, over and over? Who has ever worried that they were
boring or that they were bored with their own dancing? Again, just as I suspected.
Choreography is the solution to the latter complaints and it is not truly the evil beast of
the former. Even if you are a die-hard improvisational dancer, choreography can make
you a better dancer. Why? Choreography forces you to really listen to your music.
Whether you count your beats, or simply note the changing phrases (or both), when you
are preparing to choreograph a piece, you must break down your song and know it inside
and out. Listening to the CD in the car three times before you perform it is, obviously, not
going to cut it. Choreography allows you to challenge yourself to master a new move
instead of allowing muscle memory to rely on the moves you have already perfected.
Choreography allows you to consider details (like arm placement, line of sight, angle of
movement) that you might otherwise forget. But enough of why I think you should
choreograph (if you’ve read this far, clearly you’re considering it). Let’s address how to
approach it.
Entrance: If first impressions count, then your entrance is important. But soloists
need to approach their entrance differently than a duet or group.
Soloist: The audience is going to spend the first several moments of your dance
looking at your costume, getting familiar with your music, and settling in to watch your
show. So don’t waste 47 moves in the first 20 seconds of your dance. Allow your music
to build anticipation. It does not matter if you begin on stage or enter to your music, but
rarely should you bolt into your dancing like a racehorse—the audience is simply not
going to see it. Instead, enter with a graceful dance walk, add some three-step-turns, or a
few spins of your veil.
Duet/Group: When you have more than one dance to get on stage, you need to
enter more quickly as the audience has a lot to look at, and, obviously, you have more
people to get out there before you begin the actual dance. Utilize both sides of stage and
even try coming through the audience when the venue allows. When choreographing for
my troupe, I like to allow 4-8 counts of the music to play so we can prepare and then
enter with a great deal of energy. Groups are an entirely different energy than solo
performances and their entrance should reflect that.
Stage Placement: Where you end up after entering is important too. Everyone in
the audience needs to be able to clearly see the dancer/group or they will quickly lose
interest.
Soloist: Center stage is the strongest visual position. Display your most dynamic
moves here and try to end your dance in center stage as well. However, don’t just plant
yourself there. Travel, using the downstage corners, circling the performance area,
drawing the audience’s gaze from side to side.
Duet: Center stage is still the strongest point, but you don’t want to have one
dancer on center. Rather, have center between you. This will help keep the stage
balanced. However, you don’t have to stay in the horizontal plane—use the vertical or
staggered horizontal (side by side, but one person steps forward, the other steps back).
You also don’t want to get too far apart—the audience should be able to watch both of
you rather than focusing on only one of the dancers at a time.
Group: The most difficult and most fun! You need to make sure everyone can be
seen, but there is absolutely no need to stay in a straight line. Use Vs, inverted Vs,
staggered lines, circles, U’s, diagonals. Basic rule of thumb: if a dancer can’t see the
audience, the audience can’t see the dancer. Each dancer needs to respect her troupe
members and pay attention to make sure she’s not blocking someone with sloppy
placement.
Audience/Dancer Interaction: Here’s where the piece comes to life. Planning how you
relate to your audience is just as important as planning out when to shimmy and when to
travel. The mood and meaning of the piece is part of the choreography.
Soloist: Your interaction is with the audience. You have a symbiotic relationship
with them—you give emotion to them, they give energy to you. Unless you are doing a
deeply introspective piece, you need to acknowledge them in your dance. Use smiles,
winks, point at someone. Even if you are focusing inward you need to give the audience
something. They are there to see you, after all.
Duet: The audience is acknowledged, but you need to be attuned to your partner.
Duets can be on a wavelength with each other that can allow for really dynamic
performances. But you must know what is in your partner’s mind and hips. To help
develop this report, as an exercise, establish who is a leader at specific times in the dance
and then follow that leader, no matter what she is doing.
Group: Again, you are giving something to the audience, but your focus must also
be on your fellow dancers. Watch your leader. Use nonverbal and verbal communication
(trust me, the audience won’t hear it over the music). Laugh with each other, wink at each
other. The audience will enjoy you enjoying each other. The audience will feel like they
are a part of the troupe if there is a great deal of camaraderie on stage. However, keep in
mind that each dancer is responsible for knowing the choreography. It will show if one
dancer is trying to follow the others and her focus will be on the moves rather than the
group presentation.
Finale: If first impressions count, know also that audiences will remember most
what they last saw. So regardless of what happens in the rest of your performance, make
sure you have a flawless finale.
Solo: This is your big moment, know you music know your music, know your
music so that when it ends, you end. Plan a pose, or if you’re exiting to music, plan a
dynamic exit like spinning off into the wings or shimmying with your veil billowing out
behind you—you get the idea. Most of all, make it dynamic. Plan your bow—dance your
bow so you don’t drop your dancer pose to bend over and then stomp off stage. Have it
be part of your dance.
Duet: Watch your stage placement so that the audience can focus on the both of
you. A nice ending could involve a pose where you mirror each other (one with her right
arm up, the other with her left). Perhaps end facing each other, grasp hands and backbend
(nice for connecting with your partner).
Group: This is a good time to turn your attention from your fellow dancers to the
audience with a final pose. If the music is fast and ends abruptly, try a quick grapevine
with all of you facing in a circle and on the final beat, the front half of the circle turns to
the audience, crouching down so the back half of the circle can be seen. Practice practice
practice so that everyone ends at the same time. My troupe recently changed a drum
solo/sword dance we’ve done for over a year because we simply could not consistently
spin in synch at the end. The song sounds like a spin, but a strong finish is more
important than the whims of a drum solo!
Compiling the choreography: Now you know the basics of a choreography—but how do
you fill in all the moves.
First, interpret, borrow, and mimic anything that looks awesome or fits your music.
Watch videos, go to shows, take workshops. Now, write those awesome moves down so
you remember them when it’s time to choreograph! I’ve come up with the most fabulous
moves while listening to music in my car, but when I get home and put on the same piece
of music, I cannot remember what on earth I meant to do! I’m sure it’s happened to you,
right? My solution has been to have a spiral notebook that I just fill with moves. I try to
explain as thoroughly as I can what the move is and draw goofy diagrams—anything to
jog the memory.
Next, use combinations—a 16 count combo, used in two different directions fills
a lot of time. Try to avoid doing the same exact move over and over (and over and over),
but changing the angle, elevation, or arm position of a move can make it seem to the
audience like a new move while reducing the number of actual moves you have to
remember!
Start out simple. (See train your brain below) It won’t be long before you’re adept
at putting together a complicated choreography, but approach it gradually. When I
choreographed my first troupe piece, it took me about a month to compile and the troupe
about two months to learn! Now I can usually choreograph in one or two sessions and the
troupe can pick up the bulk of the choreography in a night. So your first time out, don’t
create a choreography worthy of Raqia Hassan and then expect yourself to remember it.
Build up to it.
Challenge yourself, but don’t use moves that you haven’t mastered. Let me
clarify. I will usually include a move in my choreography that I have not mastered in
order to force myself to master it and this technique works superbly (I no longer feel like
I’m going to lose my lunch after extended periods of spinning!). However, if you limit
the number of moves you don’t yet own to one or two and fill the rest of the program
with moves you have mastered, you’ll be happier with your results.
Don’t choreograph from start to finish. Use an outline of the music and fill in the
blank spots as you are inspired (see sample outline below). This less-structured approach
frees your mind and allows the creative process to flow rather than worrying about
getting just the right entrance followed by the ideal stage placement.
Juicy extras: A stellar performance is in the details. Use your eyes to direct the audience’s
attention. Choreograph when you look and where you look at given points in the dance.
Plan where your arms are, plan if your hands are soft or flexed TO EACH MOVE. In
other words, don’t just place them beautifully out to the side and leave them there. Plan
the personality of the dance. For troupe pieces, I used to come up with a simple story to
tell (village girl comes to town, flirts with boys as she fill bucket with water) just so we
would have a mood to keep our faces engaged.
How to remember all those moves: First, know your music, know your music,
know your music! You can pick out your spot in even the most repetitive song if you
know it well enough. Other memory techniques include writing the choreography down
(on paper, in the computer, or, our favorite, with dry erase marker on the mirror in the
studio!). Talk the moves as you dance them. This also works when you’re not dancing
them—listen to the music in the car and say the moves with it. Train your brain—I
promise, the more you do this, the easier it gets! Plan for a slip. This is easier for soloists,
but duets and groups can establish in advance what they will do if someone (or everyone)
forgets something. Finally, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. There is really no
substitute for dancing the moves six times in a row (or ten, or twelve!).
I know, it sounds even more daunting now than when you read the first paragraph, but I
promise that you will be happy with your results!
By Michelle
Who is intimidated by the thought of choreography? Who gets nauseous at the
prospect of coming up with enough different moves to fill a five-minute piece of music?
Who positively retches at having to then MEMORIZE all those moves? Who believes
choreography is anathema to the beauty and spontaneity of this dance form? Just as I
suspected.
Now, who has ever complained that when they get out there to perform, they find
themselves doing the same moves, over and over? Who has ever worried that they were
boring or that they were bored with their own dancing? Again, just as I suspected.
Choreography is the solution to the latter complaints and it is not truly the evil beast of
the former. Even if you are a die-hard improvisational dancer, choreography can make
you a better dancer. Why? Choreography forces you to really listen to your music.
Whether you count your beats, or simply note the changing phrases (or both), when you
are preparing to choreograph a piece, you must break down your song and know it inside
and out. Listening to the CD in the car three times before you perform it is, obviously, not
going to cut it. Choreography allows you to challenge yourself to master a new move
instead of allowing muscle memory to rely on the moves you have already perfected.
Choreography allows you to consider details (like arm placement, line of sight, angle of
movement) that you might otherwise forget. But enough of why I think you should
choreograph (if you’ve read this far, clearly you’re considering it). Let’s address how to
approach it.
Entrance: If first impressions count, then your entrance is important. But soloists
need to approach their entrance differently than a duet or group.
Soloist: The audience is going to spend the first several moments of your dance
looking at your costume, getting familiar with your music, and settling in to watch your
show. So don’t waste 47 moves in the first 20 seconds of your dance. Allow your music
to build anticipation. It does not matter if you begin on stage or enter to your music, but
rarely should you bolt into your dancing like a racehorse—the audience is simply not
going to see it. Instead, enter with a graceful dance walk, add some three-step-turns, or a
few spins of your veil.
Duet/Group: When you have more than one dance to get on stage, you need to
enter more quickly as the audience has a lot to look at, and, obviously, you have more
people to get out there before you begin the actual dance. Utilize both sides of stage and
even try coming through the audience when the venue allows. When choreographing for
my troupe, I like to allow 4-8 counts of the music to play so we can prepare and then
enter with a great deal of energy. Groups are an entirely different energy than solo
performances and their entrance should reflect that.
Stage Placement: Where you end up after entering is important too. Everyone in
the audience needs to be able to clearly see the dancer/group or they will quickly lose
interest.
Soloist: Center stage is the strongest visual position. Display your most dynamic
moves here and try to end your dance in center stage as well. However, don’t just plant
yourself there. Travel, using the downstage corners, circling the performance area,
drawing the audience’s gaze from side to side.
Duet: Center stage is still the strongest point, but you don’t want to have one
dancer on center. Rather, have center between you. This will help keep the stage
balanced. However, you don’t have to stay in the horizontal plane—use the vertical or
staggered horizontal (side by side, but one person steps forward, the other steps back).
You also don’t want to get too far apart—the audience should be able to watch both of
you rather than focusing on only one of the dancers at a time.
Group: The most difficult and most fun! You need to make sure everyone can be
seen, but there is absolutely no need to stay in a straight line. Use Vs, inverted Vs,
staggered lines, circles, U’s, diagonals. Basic rule of thumb: if a dancer can’t see the
audience, the audience can’t see the dancer. Each dancer needs to respect her troupe
members and pay attention to make sure she’s not blocking someone with sloppy
placement.
Audience/Dancer Interaction: Here’s where the piece comes to life. Planning how you
relate to your audience is just as important as planning out when to shimmy and when to
travel. The mood and meaning of the piece is part of the choreography.
Soloist: Your interaction is with the audience. You have a symbiotic relationship
with them—you give emotion to them, they give energy to you. Unless you are doing a
deeply introspective piece, you need to acknowledge them in your dance. Use smiles,
winks, point at someone. Even if you are focusing inward you need to give the audience
something. They are there to see you, after all.
Duet: The audience is acknowledged, but you need to be attuned to your partner.
Duets can be on a wavelength with each other that can allow for really dynamic
performances. But you must know what is in your partner’s mind and hips. To help
develop this report, as an exercise, establish who is a leader at specific times in the dance
and then follow that leader, no matter what she is doing.
Group: Again, you are giving something to the audience, but your focus must also
be on your fellow dancers. Watch your leader. Use nonverbal and verbal communication
(trust me, the audience won’t hear it over the music). Laugh with each other, wink at each
other. The audience will enjoy you enjoying each other. The audience will feel like they
are a part of the troupe if there is a great deal of camaraderie on stage. However, keep in
mind that each dancer is responsible for knowing the choreography. It will show if one
dancer is trying to follow the others and her focus will be on the moves rather than the
group presentation.
Finale: If first impressions count, know also that audiences will remember most
what they last saw. So regardless of what happens in the rest of your performance, make
sure you have a flawless finale.
Solo: This is your big moment, know you music know your music, know your
music so that when it ends, you end. Plan a pose, or if you’re exiting to music, plan a
dynamic exit like spinning off into the wings or shimmying with your veil billowing out
behind you—you get the idea. Most of all, make it dynamic. Plan your bow—dance your
bow so you don’t drop your dancer pose to bend over and then stomp off stage. Have it
be part of your dance.
Duet: Watch your stage placement so that the audience can focus on the both of
you. A nice ending could involve a pose where you mirror each other (one with her right
arm up, the other with her left). Perhaps end facing each other, grasp hands and backbend
(nice for connecting with your partner).
Group: This is a good time to turn your attention from your fellow dancers to the
audience with a final pose. If the music is fast and ends abruptly, try a quick grapevine
with all of you facing in a circle and on the final beat, the front half of the circle turns to
the audience, crouching down so the back half of the circle can be seen. Practice practice
practice so that everyone ends at the same time. My troupe recently changed a drum
solo/sword dance we’ve done for over a year because we simply could not consistently
spin in synch at the end. The song sounds like a spin, but a strong finish is more
important than the whims of a drum solo!
Compiling the choreography: Now you know the basics of a choreography—but how do
you fill in all the moves.
First, interpret, borrow, and mimic anything that looks awesome or fits your music.
Watch videos, go to shows, take workshops. Now, write those awesome moves down so
you remember them when it’s time to choreograph! I’ve come up with the most fabulous
moves while listening to music in my car, but when I get home and put on the same piece
of music, I cannot remember what on earth I meant to do! I’m sure it’s happened to you,
right? My solution has been to have a spiral notebook that I just fill with moves. I try to
explain as thoroughly as I can what the move is and draw goofy diagrams—anything to
jog the memory.
Next, use combinations—a 16 count combo, used in two different directions fills
a lot of time. Try to avoid doing the same exact move over and over (and over and over),
but changing the angle, elevation, or arm position of a move can make it seem to the
audience like a new move while reducing the number of actual moves you have to
remember!
Start out simple. (See train your brain below) It won’t be long before you’re adept
at putting together a complicated choreography, but approach it gradually. When I
choreographed my first troupe piece, it took me about a month to compile and the troupe
about two months to learn! Now I can usually choreograph in one or two sessions and the
troupe can pick up the bulk of the choreography in a night. So your first time out, don’t
create a choreography worthy of Raqia Hassan and then expect yourself to remember it.
Build up to it.
Challenge yourself, but don’t use moves that you haven’t mastered. Let me
clarify. I will usually include a move in my choreography that I have not mastered in
order to force myself to master it and this technique works superbly (I no longer feel like
I’m going to lose my lunch after extended periods of spinning!). However, if you limit
the number of moves you don’t yet own to one or two and fill the rest of the program
with moves you have mastered, you’ll be happier with your results.
Don’t choreograph from start to finish. Use an outline of the music and fill in the
blank spots as you are inspired (see sample outline below). This less-structured approach
frees your mind and allows the creative process to flow rather than worrying about
getting just the right entrance followed by the ideal stage placement.
Juicy extras: A stellar performance is in the details. Use your eyes to direct the audience’s
attention. Choreograph when you look and where you look at given points in the dance.
Plan where your arms are, plan if your hands are soft or flexed TO EACH MOVE. In
other words, don’t just place them beautifully out to the side and leave them there. Plan
the personality of the dance. For troupe pieces, I used to come up with a simple story to
tell (village girl comes to town, flirts with boys as she fill bucket with water) just so we
would have a mood to keep our faces engaged.
How to remember all those moves: First, know your music, know your music,
know your music! You can pick out your spot in even the most repetitive song if you
know it well enough. Other memory techniques include writing the choreography down
(on paper, in the computer, or, our favorite, with dry erase marker on the mirror in the
studio!). Talk the moves as you dance them. This also works when you’re not dancing
them—listen to the music in the car and say the moves with it. Train your brain—I
promise, the more you do this, the easier it gets! Plan for a slip. This is easier for soloists,
but duets and groups can establish in advance what they will do if someone (or everyone)
forgets something. Finally, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. There is really no
substitute for dancing the moves six times in a row (or ten, or twelve!).
I know, it sounds even more daunting now than when you read the first paragraph, but I
promise that you will be happy with your results!
