Thread: Teaching Choreography, How to Choreography, and/or Both?

I'd like to hear from teachers and students on this one. I was just reading in the Student Center, the thread on the dancer that can't make choreographies. It brought these questions to mind:

Teachers:
Do you teach choreography? Or do you teach how to choreograph/improv.? Or do you teach both choreographies and how to choreograph? What do you teach first and why?

Students:
Were you taught choreography and/or how to choreograph? Did your teacher teach improv and choreography, or just one or the other? What did you learn first?

Personally, I try to teach improv, choreography and how to choreograph. I feel that a student should be able to draw on their strengths. If they are not able to choreograph, I try to give them choreographies at their level or teach them to improv.

There have been times I've had groups that only wanted choreographies. That was easy and I just gave them all the choreographies I've got running in my head. That group also gave birth to some very strong solo artists, who are strong in improv, building their own choreographies.

I'm really curious about what other teachers teach and what order it's taught in.

I teach how to choreograph in level 4, once a year, in the months leading up to our student recital.

I teach chorographies in my level 1-4 classes.

I have a special class in which I teach improv skills (which can also be used in creating choreos) which is currently called 'solo skills' but I think is about to be renamed 'Musical interpretation'

It depends on what class I'm teaching.

For beginners, I teach and drill the basics and then throw them all into a choreography. I've found that them having a choreography makes them practice more, remember the basics I taught, and keeps more people in class because they want to finish the choreo.

For intermediates, I teach improv skills and combinations (as well as layering and drills of course). The combinations are useful for throwing into choreographies or using in improv. Sometimes I'll put on a song that they all know and make each of them do a small section of the music right then and there... then we all talk about it. As far as teaching people how to choreograph... I give spoken tips during classes... ie: listen to the music over and over at different volumes on different speakers to pick out new sounds and instruments that you didn't hear before... try to bring those out with your choreography. Things like that.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

I teach how to choreograph in level 4, once a year, in the months leading up to our student recital.

I teach chorographies in my level 1-4 classes.

I have a special class in which I teach improv skills (which can also be used in creating choreos) which is currently called 'solo skills' but I think is about to be renamed 'Musical interpretation'

Lauren, your content sounds fab. I wish I had access to such a well-rounded, well-developed curriculum!

Originally Posted by SpicyThai

Lauren, your content sounds fab. I wish I had access to such a well-rounded, well-developed curriculum!

Thanks, Spicy Thai, I'm working on it constantly. Trying to give my students what I never had access to!

I teach choreography to all my levels. I teach improv starting very slowly in level 1 (ie: start by giving them four steps and have them improv using only those four steps, just to get them used to "thinking on their feet"). Once you get to my level 2, improv is a part of every class.

I don't really teach them "how" to choreograph. I'd be interested to hear how you all do that. I've been dancing since I was two, so choreographing comes pretty naturally to me. I'm not sure I'd be able to break it down into a "how to"!

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

I teach choreography to all my levels. I teach improv starting very slowly in level 1 (ie: start by giving them four steps and have them improv using only those four steps, just to get them used to "thinking on their feet"). Once you get to my level 2, improv is a part of every class.

I don't really teach them "how" to choreograph. I'd be interested to hear how you all do that. I've been dancing since I was two, so choreographing comes pretty naturally to me. I'm not sure I'd be able to break it down into a "how to"!

I was wondering if anyone else taught improv early in their belly dance "schooling." I start in the intermediate/Level 2 class. I use the improv to teach students how to choreograph.

We could start another thread just on the in's and out's of "how to choreograph" and how different teachers teach it.

Lauren, OT I have a question & I'm gonna PM you! Thx!

Originally Posted by bnwspots

Teachers:
Do you teach choreography? Or do you teach how to choreograph/improv.? Or do you teach both choreographies and how to choreograph? What do you teach first and why?

I've taught choreography and very light improv. I haven't had to teach "how to choreograph" because I haven't had any students who wanted to learn it. (They were recreationals and beginners who weren't interested in working at that level.) I think it makes sense to introduce the idea of improv much earlier than it usually is, but it's hard to do something if you haven't mastered a few examples of what you're aiming for, so it makes sense to have some choreography under the belt before really exploring improv.

Students:
Were you taught choreography and/or how to choreograph? Did your teacher teach improv and choreography, or just one or the other? What did you learn first?

I've had lots and lots of choreography taught to me. My improv training has been mostly DIY, and years into my study at that. I'm still waiting for a good treatment of the methodology of choreography. When my teachers have attempted to cover the subject in the past, the class content has been so basic that it's been verging on useless. (e.g., "Make patterns on the floor," "Stage left is the opposite of house left," and the dreaded "Shimmy to the qanun.") In other words, their attempts were so vague/obvious/banal that they made NJ's Taktaba podcasts look like a doctoral dissertation on the subject. I see the problem stemming from two sources: (1) These teachers never had much, if any, formal training in choreographic theory themselves, and (2) The idea of dissecting another dancer's method in a classroom setting (i.e., watching a video and analyzing the creative choices being made) is unbearable and unwelcome because it opens the possibility of saying something negative about another dancer in public, which goes against the rules of the "sisterhood."

I teach improv & choreography from day 1, the students just don't always know it!

I do like to string new moves together as we learn them, because it give students a framework & a structure which for some can work as a memory aid- I wouldn't term it a full fledged choreo, per se- who coined that 'combinography' term? that would fit better. I usually pick a different song for each 6 week session- fairly simple for the beginning levels, and make it up as the session progresses. When we learn a new move, I encourage students to play around with it, talk about how to change it for different effects, and when we review at cool down time, we also focus on transitions between the moves we've been working on. As far as I'm concerned, that's ALL training in improv & eventually choreographic development.

In level 2+ we have more structured sections on structured improvisation, musical interpretation & beginning choreography. I highly recommend checking out acting classes for ideas on how to teach improv.- a lot of my best exercises came from there (slightly amended, of course!)

ETA- we only do a formal choreo in the spring, prepping for the spring community recital

Speaking from a student perspective here-

I have primarily taken classes with Jessani here in Maine and we do it all. Classes are 8-10 weeks long, are usually beginner & intermediate level together, and always start with learning some basic moves. We drill it and then use that move to start a basic choreography. As the weeks progress, we learn more moves and string them together into a full dance routine. Usually by the end we've got enough that we can loop it through the end of the song for our recital- giving us plenty of practice of the moves working together.

Additionally, after a weeks or two, she has us go around the circle and do a little improv- I think she calls it "Pass the Movement." It is presented as a safe exercise amongst friends and if you only know one move, that's fine- use that move and even throw in some street dancing if you need to for a confidence builder. It's scary at first, but I know for me it really helped break me from my reliance on her choreography.

Then as we get closer to the end of the session, we will do exercises in pairs or groups where we choreograph 4-8 8 count bars and then "perform" in front of our classmates. I hate that part now because my fellow students know I'm intermediate and look to me to do most of the work- which as an intermediate student I know means they'll miss out on the lesson if I do it all!

None of it is necessarily presented as "now you'll learn to choreograph" or "now you'll learn to improv"- it's all just smooth sailing in the class from one "activity" to the next. But after doing this for a few years now, I can see in hindsight that I've been given a lot of good tools to build off of.

In contrast, I took another class with someone else in the community and while she had us do some improv, there was no choreography taught or encouraged and I always felt a little lost as a beginner not knowing how to make those moves into a dance.

A wonderful thread! I'm very interested in what you guys have to say.

I wrote a book about this last night - have to edit - but briefly I teach "how to" rather than actual choreographed routines.

I think routines are useful and they can be both educational and a lot of fun for the students. But I don't do them except for performances where it's necessary and then they're often group intros/showcases for solo artists since that's the form I perform and teach. My own art is highly improvisational although I work on my music until I can sing it in my sleep and always block it, have a clear idea about a piece and what I want to say so I try to pass along that sort of idea.

However, I suspect a lot of people want instant gratification from their belly dance teacher and getting up on stage and doing a routine is way faster than learning how to create a dance. People get a sense of accomplishment and also have fun. And, routines can help students learn how to fit moves together and they convey ideas about fitting movement to music.

On the other hand learning how to tear apart a difficult piece of music requires commitment and understanding and so does the introspection required to make a statement; and I'm getting the sense that not everybody wants to devote themselves to the art.

Beyond that, choreographed routines dovetail far better with Western forms like modern dance or ballet - a lot of my students were in drill teams or other Western dance forms as teenagers and that's where they feel comfortable.

Getting them to let go of their routines is hard.

But, I try to teach people how to be creative and find their own voices.

More on methodology when I've edited more!

Well MaineMaya's comment reflects the problems with NOT teaching choreographed routines:

"In contrast, I took another class with someone else in the community and while she had us do some improv, there was no choreography taught or encouraged and I always felt a little lost as a beginner not knowing how to make those moves into a dance."

So, a big part of my class, right from Day One, stresses not only how to make a movement but how to string that together with others, and I tend to teach "families" of moves.

Also, performance in class is important.

A big challenge is just getting people past the stage where they feel really lost and/or that the dance is just impossible.

Then it starts being fun and making sense and having people perform for each other, within a safe and supportive environment, also builds confidence.

My classes were mostly learning certain technique or combos. Improv discussion came from private lessons, and I went to one or two workshops on choreography, where we talked about mapping music, different ways to go about choreographing (like start out with just dancing).

Lately, I've wished I've had been made to learn more choreography or that I sought that out. Working in groups is harder for me, because I'm used to improv more than choreography.

My teacher's lessons on "how to choreograph" have come out of her theory of "structured improvisation" -- in other words, the music is informing what movements you pick, but you structure them to build your dance as you go. For example, I'm listening to the music and decide to do mayas in a rhythm slow-slow-fast-fast-fast-fast. I structure this by doing it first facing forward, then facing back, and then changing to a flat 8 in the same rhythm, first forward, then back.

When she has gone further into troupe choreography, she has shown us how, for example, to create a cadence, using dancers doing the same motions but starting on a different count to change the emphasis, and how one might use call and response in a troupe choreography. But her main emphasis is on solo dance.

All my classes get choreography and group improv.

Then the intermediate level gets solo improv concepts for hafla or party situations, called "homestyle" bellydance.

The Advanced level gets solo improv in Oriental (raks sharki) style; and often a choreography project where they work in pairs or groups.

I encourage choreographing a solo to anyone who mentions it, and the upper levels are supposed to have my Dance Tips booklet which is all about composition (choreography) for Oriental Dance.

Re "how to teach" -
Usually when we start choreographies they have (or I'll show them) the music breakdown for the song, which is a visual aid I use for composing choreographies, so they can see the musical patterns.
Sometimes we talk about what the music is saying or how it feels, what the beat or rhythm is, etc.

So its' a long-term approach that is intended to "sink in", rather than a "topical subject" that we focus on exclusively.

Originally Posted by indigostars

Lately, I've wished I've had been made to learn more choreography or that I sought that out. Working in groups is harder for me, because I'm used to improv more than choreography.

I was a professional solo improvisational dancer for 15 years before I ever performed a choreography with a group. It was difficult at first to learn other people's interpretation of music. I'm better at it now, but I design choreos for me or others to do, rather than doing someone else's. I learned alot from my group choreo experience.

With this post I want to stress that it is never necessary for a belly dancer to perform choreography with a group.

At its core, BD is not a group choreography type of dance; rather, it is solo improvisational (or quasi-improvisational) in nature. This "group dance" thing is a way for teachers to get students to dance in class or to perform.

Not that group choreos for students are bad . . . if I thought they were, I wouldn't create and teach them. They certainly have their place in a Western society that is unaccustomed to solo dance in general; where most students don't have the opportunity to just bop around with their friends to Amr Diab as a matter of course. There is also something that happens when a group dances on stage -- it has a different dynamic for the audience.

As to how I teach choreography:

Beginners get improv and combos along with their technique drills. This past session, we did a rather long combination sequence: walk, chasse, step lift, hip circle, reverse horizontal 8, shoulder shake, "Egyptian" shimmy, and repeat. It was literally 8 counts of each to some very static music, so not much in the way of "musical interpretation" in that part of class. We then used these same movements in our "improv" section of class: at least 3 or 4 of the movements -- do them all or more if you know more -- all by yourself while everybody is doing their own thing around you.

I teach choreo twice a year in my intermediate class; one is a group choreo to prepare for (an optional) performance and another is a solo choreo. During both of these time periods, the whys behind the musical interpretation and stage positioning are included, although that and the "how to" of choreography are stressed more strongly in the solo sessions.

However, after so many other teachers telling me about the success and retention in their classes when they do a very simple choreo with their beginners, I am considering doing a "real" choreo for my beginners, similar to a simple long combo sequence that repeats, but that "goes" with the music.

I just don't want learning that choreo to become the focus of the beginning class; it doesn't do any good to be able to regurgitate a few moves in a particular order if the moves don't have good strong technique behind them.

So that's my conundrum.

Deborah

All of my instructors (four thus far) have taught technique followed by a choreography of their own creation. I've never had an instructor who taught "how" to choreograph, or improv for that matter. So last Fall when our class was instructed to split into two subgroups & each group create its own choreography, I found Lauren's "How to Create a Choreography" to be immensely helpful! (Me being the most advanced dancer at 5 yrs experience compared to the one year of the rest of the group, that put most of the burden on me). I think I would have been floundering without her advice. And thanks to the confidence that gave me, I am now working on a solo fan veil choreo to be performed at a local festival in August.

I think it depends on what is considered choreography. If you think about it a lesson plan or curriculum is usually carefully planned out (ie "choreographed"). If you're specifying combinations, choreography specific to skill building, veil work, zill drills, then that would also fall under choreography.

I give my students both (choreography and improv) as well as classes with focus on skill building and strengh and conditioning. I teach both to my beginners with an emphasis on a rounded dance experience. I find if you wait to teach improvisation to more experienced dancers, they have a harder time not falling back into a structured piece or finding the need to pre-meditate their movements (that just being my personal experience).

As a student, I had instructors that were heavily based in improvisation (choreography was specific to recitals, showcases etc). As a dancer previous to starting my belly dance training, I was flexible either way. However, I did see new dancers struggle with not feeling confident in the basics and belly dance "vocabulary" to really commit to improv with no structure.

I would recommend both alternating throughout your curriculum to build confidence, strength in knowledge and body, and to really give balance to new, intermediate and advanced dancers.

I actually think it's best to introduce choreography, improv, and how to choreograph in each level of all my classes. In beginner level I usually start out with teaching basics and at the end of every class I will either teach a short choreo, play a game that allows them to get with a partner and choreo a piece, or just put on music and allow them to use what they've learned so far in the class.

My intermediate level is more of a choreography class. I always start teaching a new move or traveling step, but the majority of the class is learning a dance. In this class I finish with a drum solo that each girl has a chance to express herself. I find that my classes love surprising them with new challenges and other than practicing or learning basics, we never do the same activity twice.

I'm going to go at this from a student's perspective.

My first teacher confessed to being miserable at improvisation. She said that the accountant in her obsessed over 4 cts and 8 cts so that her dance became very mechanical unless she planned it out first.

During each class of a 6 to 8 week session, she would cover a short combination of movements and how each movement transitioned into the next. Then she'd put those combos together into a full choreography.

The benefit to this was that we learned how moves transitioned from one into the other and we learned quite a variety of movements within a short period of time. In practicing the choreography over and over, we were essentially drilling the techniques that she had taught us.

My current teacher uses the "follow-the-bouncing-butt" teaching technique and just moves around expecting us to follow along. When we see a move that we are interested in, she expects us to stop her and ask for a break down.

Of the two teaching techniques, I find the first method the best for myself, especially after a long day at work when I arrive at class with a work-addled brain and need things fed to me in a very direct manner.

I've never actually had a teacher teach me how to choreograph, although i've worked hand in hand with my first teacher to choreograph group performances and she once handed out a worksheet from the web about how to choreograph. Basically I just watched A LOT of videos of other troupes and made note of things that I liked.

My personal method is to listen to my music of choice until I know every little nuance. Then I DRAW the music. I draw snakey sounds as wiggly lines and heavy drum hits as dots. Drumrolls or string sounds are zig zags, big swooshing sounds are circles...and so forth. Then I associate the shapes I have drawn with types of movements. Dots become sharp accents, zig zags can become shimmies. Wiggly lines become snakey moves, circles become hip circles, etc.

Then I look at floor patterns. Am I using the whole stage? Am I showing the audience every side of my body? If I'm choreographing for the troupe, I try to make sure that we move positions at least twice so that each person gets a chance at the front of the stage.

Then I make sure I've got at least one or two level changes (releve? plie? floorwork?)

I guess I could condense all that down to these steps:
1. Know your music
2. Identify types of sound and associate movements with them
3. Use your space
4. Use angles and levels

The nice thing about this short list is that it's also easy for me to remember when I'm improv-ing. If I know what sound is coming next, then I know what types of moves match that sound. If I get stuck repeating a movement, I can easily spice it up by going in a different direction, angling my body, or moving my body up and down.

Now that I've taken the time to write all this down...I'm thinking this might make a nice workshop for my troupe.