Thread: How do you prepare for a solo improv?

I've chosen the music (a mix of manson's right round, and flo rida's right round), I've chosen the costume, but there isn't time to put together a choreographed routine (which I don't really like anyway, unless its for a group).

So, this is my first on stage solo.... how do you prepare?

1) Listen to the music constantly - on repeat. If you have the chance you should know your music inside and out.

2) Dance to it a lot. If you dance it over and over again you will have the body memory built up.

3) If you begin to be frustrated or are starting to hate the music....take a break and relax a bit.

I hope this helps!

I generally practice improvisational pieces as much as choreographed ones, if the music is complex. i will noodle with it on my own for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, listen to the piece of music at least 100 times, then a couple weeks or so (at least) before I perform, I practice for someone who will give me feedback -- generally this is one or more of my troupemates. They give me feedback with regard to technique, musical interpretation, and staging, and I work on incorporating these. Generally I do it for them one more time before I perform.

If the music is complex, with unusual phrasing patterns, rhythm changes, lots of little and big accents, there will inevitably be parts that need choreographic structure. I try to identify those early on and nail down what I want to do with them.

Sometimes my improvisation is sort of a multiple choice choreography. For example, there will be a phrase of music, and I may have 2-3 combos that go well with it, and the choice of which to use will be made in the moment as I respond to the music without thinking. Other times, something totally new will come out that I won't even be fully aware of unless I see a video of my performance -- it is really cool because sometimes these subconscious decisions work out really well.

If the music is not so complex (e.g. an Arabic pop number) I will still log in 50-100 listens and noodle with it for several weeks before performing, but may skip the structured rehearsal with an audience, and there may be less of a need for structured sections.

I have my students choose Middle Eastern music for their first solos. I feel very strongly that you can't do justice to a fusion concept unless you can do justice to its individual components.

I burn the song onto a CD and let it play over and over in my car while I'm driving. "Fortunately," I have one hour commute to my job, so I can get every note and accent burned into my brain pretty "quickly."
R

Same as above -- dance to it a LOT. Listening to it is also good, but each time you listen to the song should count as 1/100th of actually getting up and moving to it.

Even better --- videotape yourself dancing to it 3 times in a row. (you can get a drink and breathe in between, but come right back!).

Then walk away for a little while, take a shower, get a cup of coffee. Come back and watch the video. When you see yourself doing something you like, get up and do that step again, right away, several times in a row, to get it into your body memory. You may or may not repeat it exactly like that, and you may see a different combo you like to the same phrase of music each time -- but your body will have the memory experience of producing movements you liked to that phrase and will be able to access that in the future.

If you see things on the video that make you cringe -- and you will, and it will probably be your arms/hands more than anything if you're like most of us -- get up and dance that section again, correcting the issues you see. Don't get discouraged, just be glad you discovered the problem(s) on video BEFORE your show!

After your video intensive, make time to run through the piece a couple of times in a row each day. If it's a 5 minute piece, just 15 minutes of practice time daily will make a HUGE difference in your performance.

You might dance it differently each time, or you might fall in love with certain movement combos and use them always. Let yourself be happy with either way, they're both good.

I think Lauren said it all. I do make a habit of listening to the song in my car and it's amazing how my body does absorb the tempo and the timing so that when I do practice, my body is reacting even more than my brain.

I keep a of my "in the queue" pieces -- things that I'm planning to dance to in the near future. I have this on my iPod, in my car, and at work and listen to it alot. I noodle with all of these over a period of time, and as performance opportunities show up, I pull something from this list that is ready for prime time.

I'm not as seasoned as the others but I'll offer what I can. Listen to it on your headphones/ipod/mp3 etc as often as you can. You may hear things you want to accent or hit. How many verses to chorus are there? Are they identical or a little different? Some people write these down, some people just listen a lot and work at getting the feel of it.

3 must the magic number ..g.:I will dance to the track at least 3 times back to back. I've found that different things will come out each time but equally there will be things I keep in.

A great piece of advice I've picked up is this - if nothing else work out your start and ending. It may only be a few bars of music but knowing what you will be doing for those few moments can keep you mentally settled & I think it can add polish to your overall presentation.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by straightleftknee

A great piece of advice I've picked up is this - if nothing else work out your start and ending. It may only be a few bars of music but knowing what you will be doing for those few moments can keep you mentally settled & I think it can add polish to your overall presentation.

Yes.

We have a saying (unfortunately) in my church choir that goes something like this: "have a strong start and a strong finish and they'll forget what happened in the middle." .w.:

In this BD case, though, the middle is usually just fine. However, I really do agree that a strong start and end really do settle the brain and make for a polished performance.

Deborah

i am a car person too

what the others said: listen to it constantly and "plan" some moves to beats. i'll usually plan the beginning and end of my songs and just improvise in the middle keeping in mind the accents i want to hit or combos i want to try out. it's fun