Thread: Class Choreographies?

What's your preferred method of coming up with them?

I'm working on a new one. I've been listening to it, and breaking it down section by section while thinking about what combinations would work where.

What's making it complicated for me is that I have to taylor it to meet the needs of beginning dancers, so I'm working out what are good basic moves that will fit the combination and make sense to teach, and in what order to teach it.

There's got to be an easier way?

where's the praying smiley?

Use repetition!

Repeat combinations to musical themes that repeat; add a slight variation if they can handle it.

You can teach the combinations piecemeal as a specific technique (i.e., teaching the technique and then expanding it into the combination) so that when the combinations appear in the music, they've learned that section and are familiar with it.

It also trains their ears.

Sounds like you are putting great effort into it! Good for your students!
Most of the time I teach the more difficult footwork/hipwork/chestwork a few weeks in advance as a combo, sounds like what you are doing?
I often change steps/hip work if it just doesn't work with beginners (after having worked on a combo that way they don't feel as if they "messed it up" unless it is something very basic that they really must learn.p::
I can't think of an easier way really, it must all be broken down for beginners to get it right!

I feel your pain, Kina but I always try to add few more challenging steps in beginner routines just to push them forward a bit. I then spoon feed with lots of praise and repetition and I'm always amazed at how well most catch on. I don't think there is an easy way to choreograph...it sometimes takes me a couple of months to get a dance the way I really want it but I think the creative process can be so rewarding. For my Beginner 2 dancers, I have them choreograph a minute or two of any musical selection they wish and then perform it for us at the last class session. I'm always blown away by how creative they can be with only beginner steps.

Here's my method. It's still not easy, but it's pretty systematic. My goal here is to create a choreography that *teaches* - the finished product may or may not be performance-worthy!!!

1) I make a list of three or four 'complex' movements I want to teach, plus maybe three or four traveling steps. By 'complex' I mean 'made up of other moves,' so an omi, for instance, is made of lifts and tucks, or a vertical figure 8 may be made up of slides and lifts. So my movement vocabulary for the dance is made up of these steps AND their small components. I try to include ribcage and/or shoulder moves as well as hips.

(the above would be for beginners. For a level 2 or 3 choreo, I'd be working with combos instead of movements, or incorporating a prop, or level change, or whatever the goal of the session is)

2) I break the music into chunks, like you're talking about above. Where the music says 'travel' to me, I insert the traveling steps. Where it says 'standing moves' I insert the standing moves -- simple ones, like lifts, drops, shoulder accents, on the percussive/accented sounds, and complex ones, like omis, 8s, undulations, etc. where the music is smooth.

It's pretty simple to come up with a really bad choreography this way. Then it just requires some tweaking.... LOL

Gah, I'm feeling you pain too Kina! I'm currently on Bhuz procrastinating AGAIN when I really should be working on a choreography for my Progression class... which starts on THURSDAY! So annoyingly disorganised. Bah.

Anyway, sounds like you and I have a pretty similar approach (though you're probably not as late as I am in doing so!) - I go through the song, break it into clear sections, map which sections repeat, and then come up with combinations for them. I teach the song in order, building on it week-by-week, so I know based on the choreo which moves I need to teach that week. For my classes, it's worked better that way than teaching moves for x weeks and then teaching choreo using them for x weeks, if you know what I mean. If I were working with a more accomplished group, I'd probably prepare differently and would feel more comfortable teaching nothing but technique for an hour and having the focus on building technique rather than building choreo.

For me, the key things are -

• Pick a song with a nice pace
• Use a song that has a definite ending and doesn't "start" too quickly
• Pick a song with clear repition, and do the same move/combos at those repeats.
• Simplify, simplify simplify (thought this is a bit frustrating)

Good luck! Now I should really go and do some of MY choreo... ..c::

Originally Posted by Azhia

Use repetition!

Repeat combinations to musical themes that repeat; add a slight variation if they can handle it.

You can teach the combinations piecemeal as a specific technique (i.e., teaching the technique and then expanding it into the combination) so that when the combinations appear in the music, they've learned that section and are familiar with it.

It also trains their ears.

the song I'm using has some great repetition, with slight variations, so that works.

bhuz is being slow, so will reply later, thanks aeveryone for your suggestions! keep them coming, I'll be back!

I feel I can speak to this as a student because I have struggled with some people's choreographies and learned others fairly easily. Either way, it's always been hard for me, so I have done a lot of thinking about what works and what doesn't work.

I know this is obvious but some people don't do this when they choreograph (even if they do it when they dance themselves ) - match each set of moves to a musical phrase, so that you don't have to teach "counts", but instead can teach the students to listen for the musical phrase to cue them. It's much easier to learn if you know you keep doing something to the end of a phrase rather than trying to count numbers of moves. I don't know - maybe that's just my learning style and some people really do want to hear "8 hip drops, 8 chest circles" or whatnot. You don't want people counting to themselves when they are dancing, and I dont' see any way around that if there's an area where you can't rely on the music to cue you.

Also, I concur on the idea of combinations. I think once the brain figures out that there's a chunk of things that go together (say 4 different things in a row), it's easier to remember and execute that chunk than remember 4 different things separately. I really love how Amar Gamal teaches her choreography workshops, where she teaches combinations first and then puts them to music. This is much easier than learning a really long series of moves, which I have found is what they have done in a lot of hiphop classes I've taken. She also often repeats the use of those combinations when the music repeats itself, which a few other people mentioned. I guess most teachers do that, thinking back to a lot of my choreography videos.

This is more in regards of learning/teaching choreography but I've noticed that if you split it into, say, 3 parts, and you teach each part separately...then when you string them together, people get lost at the end of each part and forget what happens next. So, when I'm practicing someone else's choreography at home, I'll take the end of one part and the beginning of the next part and practice that together purposefully. That keeps that issue from happening to me. If I were teaching, I'd probably use that in my teaching.

Everyone else has pretty much said what I would say, especially part about repititions with slight variations.

One thing I often do is take a few combinations or parts of choreography from dances I did when I was first staring out on the hafla circuit myself. I always did my own choreos, so I don't have to worry that I'm stealing from anyone except myself!

Originally Posted by rassicahl

I feel your pain, Kina but I always try to add few more challenging steps in beginner routines just to push them forward a bit. I then spoon feed with lots of praise and repetition and I'm always amazed at how well most catch on. I don't think there is an easy way to choreograph...it sometimes takes me a couple of months to get a dance the way I really want it but I think the creative process can be so rewarding. For my Beginner 2 dancers, I have them choreograph a minute or two of any musical selection they wish and then perform it for us at the last class session. I'm always blown away by how creative they can be with only beginner steps.

Part of my teaching method is to take a combination, start with one piece, drill that, then add on, starting from the top. I then add on, another piece at a time until they have the combination.

I almost always include something that is new to that session, so it keeps people challenged and interested. For people who have been with me for awhile I add another element. Hip slides are not that difficult but they are challenging to a beginner. If they have that piece, then I add a shimmy on top of it, so that each time they do the combination, even if they have the basics perfectly, they have something to work on.

I hear your pride in your students, you must be a wonderful teacher ,r:;

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Here's my method. It's still not easy, but it's pretty systematic. My goal here is to create a choreography that *teaches* - the finished product may or may not be performance-worthy!!!

1) I make a list of three or four 'complex' movements I want to teach, plus maybe three or four traveling steps. By 'complex' I mean 'made up of other moves,' so an omi, for instance, is made of lifts and tucks, or a vertical figure 8 may be made up of slides and lifts. So my movement vocabulary for the dance is made up of these steps AND their small components. I try to include ribcage and/or shoulder moves as well as hips.

(the above would be for beginners. For a level 2 or 3 choreo, I'd be working with combos instead of movements, or incorporating a prop, or level change, or whatever the goal of the session is)

2) I break the music into chunks, like you're talking about above. Where the music says 'travel' to me, I insert the traveling steps. Where it says 'standing moves' I insert the standing moves -- simple ones, like lifts, drops, shoulder accents, on the percussive/accented sounds, and complex ones, like omis, 8s, undulations, etc. where the music is smooth.

It's pretty simple to come up with a really bad choreography this way. Then it just requires some tweaking.... LOL

I do that with drum solo choreographies and have a simple table that outlines the above. It seems to work with that.

Your process sounds a lot like mine. I have a set of movements that I see as being "basic" and use the choreography as a vehicle to teach those movements.

My vehicle just got stalled today!

How long does this process usually take you? And how often do you change choreo's? I know some teachers who teach the same choreo repetively. I can do that, up to a point, but I get bored to tears. I'm trying to also find a happy balance between teaching a choreography that will keep people interested, as well as myself, but also stay fresh.

Originally Posted by wigglewhiz

Gah, I'm feeling you pain too Kina! I'm currently on Bhuz procrastinating AGAIN when I really should be working on a choreography for my Progression class... which starts on THURSDAY! So annoyingly disorganised. Bah.

Anyway, sounds like you and I have a pretty similar approach (though you're probably not as late as I am in doing so!) - I go through the song, break it into clear sections, map which sections repeat, and then come up with combinations for them. I teach the song in order, building on it week-by-week, so I know based on the choreo which moves I need to teach that week. For my classes, it's worked better that way than teaching moves for x weeks and then teaching choreo using them for x weeks, if you know what I mean. If I were working with a more accomplished group, I'd probably prepare differently and would feel more comfortable teaching nothing but technique for an hour and having the focus on building technique rather than building choreo.

For me, the key things are -

• Pick a song with a nice pace
• Use a song that has a definite ending and doesn't "start" too quickly
• Pick a song with clear repition, and do the same move/combos at those repeats.
• Simplify, simplify simplify (thought this is a bit frustrating)

Good luck! Now I should really go and do some of MY choreo... ..c::

.w.: , organised, who, me? Just between you and I, Wiggle, the choreo was for todays class.

I work technique for the first 3- minutes after the warm up, then the combinations to go into the choreography. After the first 3 weeks or so, I start the combinations from the middle of the music to the end, so we have time to work on that as well.

The simplify part is the most difficutl for me, i keep wanting to embellish, 'cause I can. It was my teachers bane when I was her assistant. She'd have me demo movements, and I'd always add something when I got distracted and confuse her poor students.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

I feel I can speak to this as a student because I have struggled with some people's choreographies and learned others fairly easily. Either way, it's always been hard for me, so I have done a lot of thinking about what works and what doesn't work.

I know this is obvious but some people don't do this when they choreograph (even if they do it when they dance themselves ) - match each set of moves to a musical phrase, so that you don't have to teach "counts", but instead can teach the students to listen for the musical phrase to cue them. It's much easier to learn if you know you keep doing something to the end of a phrase rather than trying to count numbers of moves. I don't know - maybe that's just my learning style and some people really do want to hear "8 hip drops, 8 chest circles" or whatnot. You don't want people counting to themselves when they are dancing, and I dont' see any way around that if there's an area where you can't rely on the music to cue you.

Also, I concur on the idea of combinations. I think once the brain figures out that there's a chunk of things that go together (say 4 different things in a row), it's easier to remember and execute that chunk than remember 4 different things separately. I really love how Amar Gamal teaches her choreography workshops, where she teaches combinations first and then puts them to music. This is much easier than learning a really long series of moves, which I have found is what they have done in a lot of hiphop classes I've taken. She also often repeats the use of those combinations when the music repeats itself, which a few other people mentioned. I guess most teachers do that, thinking back to a lot of my choreography videos.

This is more in regards of learning/teaching choreography but I've noticed that if you split it into, say, 3 parts, and you teach each part separately...then when you string them together, people get lost at the end of each part and forget what happens next. So, when I'm practicing someone else's choreography at home, I'll take the end of one part and the beginning of the next part and practice that together purposefully. That keeps that issue from happening to me. If I were teaching, I'd probably use that in my teaching.

While what you say makes sense, N, the music I tend to pick has definite 4 counts, so it doesn't vary as much as it might. I find that unless people have a musical background, they don't always understand phrasing, while everyone pretty much can count to 8.

I do teach that the combinations are based on the phrase, and will illustrate why I chose to add a shimmy sequence at that point in the music etc.

I think with more advanced dancers, you can function that way, but with beginners, you have to taylor it to meet their needs.

Then if you have somebody like me, who emotes rather than count or listen for phrasing, you have a whole other ballgame ,r:; ..c::

Choreo for me, which I am not talented at by the way, tends to go like this: listen to music a lot. Dance around to it. Start creating blocks of movement to it, keeping in mind the movement vocabulary your class is familiar with. Then simplify it because it's probably far too fussy.

match each set of moves to a musical phrase, so that you don't have to teach "counts", but instead can teach the students to listen for the musical phrase to cue them. It's much easier to learn if you know you keep doing something to the end of a phrase rather than trying to count numbers of moves. I don't know - maybe that's just my learning style and some people really do want to hear "8 hip drops, 8 chest circles" or whatnot. You don't want people counting to themselves when they are dancing, and I dont' see any way around that if there's an area where you can't rely on the music to cue you.

Some people *have* to count. I think it's good to make them work with the music, because after all that's what it's all about, but in the end, generally a degree of counting tends to be necessary for some students. Also you have the issue of getting everyone moving the same at the same time. I had a choreo (by my former teacher) for class which had this nice, relaxed, breezy turn and hip accent combo in it and MY GOD. The amount of time I had to spend working out how to replicate it, then teaching them how to replicate it. But it worked and looked lovely in the end. And they had to count it.

Speeking more from a student stadpoint: keep the arms simple, and make sure they know where the weight changes are where the feet are, and that they are not complex either. I always appreciate it when an instructor breaks down the feet, then the hips, then the upper body and arms, cuz if the feet aint right, aint nothen right!

Originally Posted by kina

Then if you have somebody like me, who emotes rather than count or listen for phrasing, you have a whole other ballgame ,r:; ..c::

I hope that you find a way to teach _that_ to your students because it's gorgeous. I'm not teaching yet, but I struggle at how to describe to people how I feel the music, because I'm not analytical about it unless it's a requirement of a class to be so.

Of course, I would also argue that you intrinsically emote in relation to the musical phrases...I believe that all people have the ability to the beat, feel the phrase, catch the transition when two themes cross, but it's only musically-trained people that can put words like "phrase", "measure", "time signature" to what they hear.

Lots of good ideas so far - listen to music, repeat combos, use music with definite chunks.

For class (or troupe), I'd also add keep it simple. Not only to make it easier to learn but for the pelasure of watching. With troupe dance the emphasis isn't on really difficult technique but how the dancers interact and patterns on the floor. (I usually have some image in my mind how the overview of the dance will look)

Teach it initially with minimal staging - ie basically all facing the same way in lines. If you intend to mirror at some stage, after they have a section get them to perform in mirror. Only once they have it start adding circles, floor patterns, starting different people at different points etc.

I like to challenge my students. I will place specific moves or combos that I know will make them pause. I like to keep it new and fresh...it gives me an opportunity to introduce something a bit more advanced. I have noticed that with newbies...if you teach them a difficult move at an early stage of their learning and then teach them the simplified or beginner version, they end up feeling really great about being able to learn the "tough" move first and makes the rest seem very easy to achieve.

Originally Posted by kashmir

Lots of good ideas so far - listen to music, repeat combos, use music with definite chunks.

For class (or troupe), I'd also add keep it simple. Not only to make it easier to learn but for the pelasure of watching. With troupe dance the emphasis isn't on really difficult technique but how the dancers interact and patterns on the floor. (I usually have some image in my mind how the overview of the dance will look)

Teach it initially with minimal staging - ie basically all facing the same way in lines. If you intend to mirror at some stage, after they have a section get them to perform in mirror. Only once they have it start adding circles, floor patterns, starting different people at different points etc.

that's a really excellent idea! I don't have them doing patterns, yet, but it sounds like that might make it's way into the mix, thanks!

As a newbie, counting was very important to me. The moves and the music were so strange to me that the only thing I could do was count. My body couldn't just fall into a hip drop. Hearing 'hip drop' meant I had to remember to keep the balancing leg straight but not locked, rib cage lifted and in proper alignment, place posing leg close to balancing leg. There was no way I could do all of this AND hear the music.

As the basic moves became dance vocabulary rather than body positions I lost my reliance on counting. It was so gradual that I didn't really realize it at first. I began to be able to hum the song and hear the rhythm & melody. I have no idea when this happened. It just seemed like one day I wasn't counting. I'm sure this point comes at a different time for everybody, and some folks probably don't need to count at all. When you've been dancing for a while I think it can be hard to remember what it was like. The choreo that you are teaching may seem boring and simple to you, but to your students it's new and challenging.

Maybe it's just my math disability...if I count, then I can't do anything else.

I'm not good at counting even when I'm not dancing - I get distracted, lost, and end up repeating numbers of going backwards. I can tell you this from experience, say I want to do 30 crunches...there's no telling how many I'll do because I'll get to 15 and then say 20, 25, 30.. Goes back to different learning styles I guess. If you have a student like me who can't count, then there has to be the fallback of hearing the musical cues. Or something else.

I agree with Zum - counting seems to help the students. I choreograph my classwork by breaking the song into discreet blocks that SOUND a certain way. So I tend to choreograph by the feel of the music - as I think we should.

BUT, I always have to be aware of the count as well, because I know there are loads of students who just won't "get" the change in music tone and will want to know that it's 1-2-3-CHANGE-back-2-3 blah blah. Also, I make sure I can present the choreo a number of different ways - so I can count it out, or I can use "left-right-left" instead of "1-2-3". I have students in each class who prefer one way over the other and I have to please 'em both. ..c::