Thread: Repeat Performances?

I was just wondering how many times you would typically perform the same choreography or routine.

I mean if you work on a solo, or group piece for a haflah for example, would you perform it only ever once, or more than once, or several times, but only to different crowds, or change/refine it a bit, or perform it anywhere and everywhere for a limited (or unlimited) time?


Interested to hear if anyone has their own 'rules' on this.

I'd love to hear what your views on this are, as I performed a duet last week with a friend and put a lot of time and energy into making up the routine, it wasn't perfect, but it seems a waste to just forget it and move on to something new when maybe we could improve our performance a lot more if we had the chance to repeat it.

Re-use and recycle! I'll perform the same choreography as many times as I can, but I try to make sure I don't repeat things for the same audience. People don't tend to travel as much to watch as I do to perform, so whilst there might be one or two who've seen me dance to the same music before I don't think it's worth ditching a piece after one performance.

Anything I've used absolutely everywhere I can think of gets put on the teaching list.

When you go to your favourite band's concert you will expect them to sing songs that you already know, right? It's called a repertoire and all artists have one.

There's a rather famous dancer from Germany who presents certain dances that I have seen her do 10 years ago on video.

But one also has to know that sometimes show organizers will say: "Please, can you do your famous XXX dance numer for us? We want to see it again!"

If it's good, dance it several times! Often, the dance becomes better the more often you do it.

Just be sure to do different things in the same place. But take your choreo and show it around elsewhere, who cares?

MEISSOUN

I'm the opposite!

Haflas/dancer showcases are the only places I get to really *dance*(especially since the move down south to a completely different restaurant scene) . . i have so many ideas and things I want to do with my dancing but never enough opportunities where it would be appropriate. Why would I waste an opportunity on a piece I had done before?! Having said that I do occasionally repeat stuff if am particularly pleased with it, or if I haven't got time/am too lazy/haven't got the inspiration (having this problem at the moment) to prepare anything new. I particularly feel the pressure not to perform anything I have up on YouTube as I worry people might think I am lazy or a one trick pony . . .

Z

It depends on the venue. Generally, I try to perform different pieces for different audiences, but I may bring back an old choreo so long as I've performed other pieces and styles in front of said audience between repetitions.

Something else I do to maintain variety both for myself and for the audience is to keep portions of my choreographies improv (they're about 1/2 & 1/2 in most cases). That way, they're never really the same.

Like Zahirah, once a piece is on YouTube, I'm a little more wary of repeating it.

These days I'd rather improv than repeat a piece. It maintains my interest more, as once I've choreographed a piece and done it several times, it starts to lose it's spark.

I think the most I have repeated a piece was 3 times and that was a group piece. So far, I have been doing different pieces each time for solos. I would think about repeating them if I thought it would work for a venue, but to me, coming up with new choreography helps me improve my skills in different areas.

Whoops! Forgot to mention that in regards to the troupe, I think it's fine to repeat pieces and vary annual performances within the troupe repertoire rather than learning and refining new choreographies for each show. Build up a repertoire and draw from it, add a few new pieces here and there is my line of thinking...

But really, I think you just do as you are comfortable! If a piece still speaks to you (or your troupe) then it'll still be fresh.

Maybe twice for the same (or almost the same) audience, but that can add up to 5 or 6 times for me with as much as I travel around to dance. That's about when I start to get tired of a piece anyway, so it works out well.

I like to perform a choreography, place it on the "shelf" and pull it out a few years later. For example, I developed a choreography in 2005 for feather fans. I just pulled it out again for a 2008 show. I updated it a bit with some new moves (cuz my skillset has grown since 2005) but it was basically the same one. I think pulling routines off the self every once in a while is fine. You worked hard for that!

You do become better at a piece of music each time you do it and I've seen Randa, Dina etc perform to the same piece many times and enjoyed it.Having said that I don't choreograph rigidly I bulid in places that can change because they are improvised and bits in the music that are usually danced the same.Each time I perform I hear something differently and feel it differently so the improv bits are different.Having said that I perform all over the UK and would not perform the same piece for the same(ish!!) audience twice.I'm talking about stage performance or guest performance at hafla's here.
My restaurant work is always different - it is all improvised and I'm constantly changing my programme to keep it different-I get a lot of people who come to see me many times and it is always different depending on the audience, the props I've decided to use that night,the lay out of the restaurant and sometimes even because of the costume I'm wearing

Group pieces that involve a lot of work, rehearsal, etc -- I'll use those to DEATH. After all, they didn't just perform CATS one time, right? Mostly I try to make sure my group isn't doing the same routine for the same audience over and over, though.

Solo work I repeat less often. Many songs I've only done in public once, but if I have a piece I've really put a lot of work into, I'll certainly try to get some mileage out of it. Whether it's improv or choreo, I find that a piece is still pretty 'raw' the first time I perform it and it takes three or four performances to begin to see some polish.

Just PLEEEEEASE don't keep performing the same novelty number> I've just seen Sweet Little Sixteen for the third time and I didn't think much the first time..........but I Made allowances for a new dANCER. But 3 years in a row..................

I have a novelty piece that people requested so often I had to give it a rest myself. It's the world famous housewive/ironing board number.

And I am up to about 30 dances (of various styles) on YouTube now.
Just posted 2 new choreos that I only taught once at a workshop each.
But I wanted to film in that location and they were a practical length.
So I might teach them again, maybe with some modifications - they were never intended for me to perform them on a stage though.

And yes, if it's OK for Dina to dance Tahtill Shibbak until 3 weeks after she is dead, I can show around my dances in different places.

I understand Zafirah though. If you dance in the same place, you HAVE to change your dances or you and your audience will both get bored.

MEISSOUN

I just joined a troupe and from what I've seen/heard of what they do: They learn several dances throughout the year and keep a repertoire. Then the director and members decide on what dances and costumes are appropriate for what performances. It sounds like they re-use dances until everyone is absolutely sick of them, but the director will also bring back dances from a year or two ago and change them up a little bit.

I like to use different arrangements of same song by same of different artists and then see how I want to change up what I am doing. O

ditto what Zafirah said.

Re-reading my post, It wasn't meant to sound so aggressive. When I was in Edinburgh, you could pretty much guarantee the same usual suspects at any hafla in the south of scotland! So I needed to change it every time. Now I'm down in London and traveling about more for haflas, its probably less necessary although my personal preference will still be to change every time, more to satisfy me than the audience!

Z

Originally Posted by zafirah

my personal preference will still be to change every time, more to satisfy me than the audience!

Yup. I usually feel like a song loses its "magic" after I perform to it, so I move on to something else. Of course, it might be a different story if I actually put a bunch of work into coming up with choreographies and such. ;)