Thread: The process of Choreography

I am curious to the process of how you all began your choreography. After you have chosen your music, do you choreo the "chorus", parts of the song that you love...ect? Where do you start?

I usually began by choreography parts of the song that I love, that moves me and go from there.

I don't traditionally use choreo for performing, but I do use it for teaching because it can help me explain how I listen and hear music.

I start by mapping out the patterns and rhythms. What is the structure of each part/ what am I drawn to (the melody? the rhythm? The lyrics? a specific instrument)/ where to I want to be traveling and where do I want to grab a part of the stage and keep still a bit.

It's after a map is drawn out that I start filling in the detail...either very specific steps or notes like "Refrain: shimmy for two measures over the vibrato, strong accents for 2 measures, one measure transition, soft upwards move for the 'm' ashalla...repeat"

I start by listening the piece over and over again. And over time bits will start appearing by themselves. if there are complicated rhythms or parts that don't seem to "recall" a suitable movement/combo, then I will map those parts down in details. This way, I can listen to the music and follow it on paper to help it make more sense.

When I've decided I'm serious about performing a song, I outline it. I personally prefer music with vocals to instrumentals, so that means I go through and set up a spreadsheet that identifies musical sections ("8 counts of drum intro...16 counts of intro, adding violins..."), and then I expand the lyrics line by line, indicating repeats and variations. From there, I can decide whether I want to travel or do standing work for each section. I usually leave my own choreography loose, but if it's something I'm teaching, I'll transcribe more detail.

I've never thought to loosely choreo a piece. Do you do this for any particular reason?

Most of my choreo comes from imprv sessions. When I find a song that moves me I listen to it a few times with my eyes closed. This helps minimize my externail distractions. Then I will just improv to it until I feel comfortable with each layer of the song. Then I break out my video camera and film myself dancing to the song. Then I look at the dance and take out moves I like and don't like. It's kind of like doing a blind contour drawing and filling in the details by sight.

I like this approach because it still allows for a lot of creativity and spontaneity to my work. I find it incredibly difficult to break a song down into 8 counts and have my choreo still be interesting.

I've always had trouble developing choreography for myself, I've tried mapping out songs, listening to them over and over, etc. I recently got some advice that you should focus your energy on large musical transitions, put your most effort there, since that will be what your audience will most pick up on. This helps you create a rise and fall in what you're doing; pull back a bit for parts of the song and hit 'em hard in the big musical transitions. I think that's good advice that I keep in my back pocket to help avoid overly busy or sparse choreos.

If you're choreographing a famous song, it's interesting to go to YouTube and see how other dancers have interpreted the song. See what works and doesn't work and think about why.

What I've been playing with recently is to first improvise to a song several times over with a video camera running. Dancing it multiple times over give you a feel for the song as a dancer, the video gives you an objective eye. I've found that something that "feels" right doesn't always look right and I've totally found that I will do something unconsciously that looks amazing. I had this happen recently while fooling around with a veil, I did something I would never known I had done without the video and was able to reconstruct it and include it.

Once I have a stronger sense of the song I continue to use the video camera as I'm developing a choreo to always have that outside perspective. Most of my choreos are very loose, I don't often perform in places where I can bust out a full-choreography. And I find that my choreographies are constant works in progress, I find depending on mood and venues, I'm always changing them and improving them.

Originally Posted by teakpeek

I've never thought to loosely choreo a piece. Do you do this for any particular reason?

Leaving yourself a little room to experiment on stage builds improv skills. I don't do bellygrams, but dancers who do often loosely choreography because you never quite know what the situation will be like at any given gig until you get there. It isn't particularly useful to have a routine planned out to the letter, only to be caught off guard when you can't do what you rehearsed.

Finally, there's something to be said for the liberation of knowing there isn't one "right" way to dance. Students who cling to the rigidity of always dancing the same way to a song stunt their growth. If you can train yourself to accept the possibility of doing different things to the same part of the song, it allows you to be more creative and expressive on stage, and it also mitigates some of the fear of making a mistake. You don't have to figure out how to get back into your choreography if you miss a transition or find your weight on the wrong foot, because you can just do something else.

Just witnessed first-hand what can happen when a dancer relies too heavily on choreography - last night a dancer was doing a perfectly lovely set, but at some point in the middle, her confidence and movement took a nose-dive. As part of the audience I didn't understand what exactly had happened in the moment (maybe she pulled a muscle, stepped on something and hurt her foot,...) until after when her coach informed me that she was too reliant on choreography, had apparently forgotten what came next and just basically lost it. Really a shame, because she was a beautiful dancer and very sweet person.

It's good for some performances (big stage, professional production, video, etc.) to have an idea of what you're going to do and put together a skeleton choreo/outline...but improv skills are so so important!!

Play it over and over while doing something else - cooking, dishes (not programming I find I don't hear the music when I hit my stride). Often the shape will be obvious - sometimes I sit down and let my hand scribble (sharp bits, curly bits, repeats etc).

Once I know the general shape I improv until I find something that works and quickly note it down (or video it).

A really useful tool is the muso A-B repeat - ie you define a start and end position and the CD plays over and over just that bit.

Originally Posted by mathkitty

What I've been playing with recently is to first improvise to a song several times over with a video camera running. Dancing it multiple times over give you a feel for the song as a dancer, the video gives you an objective eye. I've found that something that "feels" right doesn't always look right and I've totally found that I will do something unconsciously that looks amazing. I had this happen recently while fooling around with a veil, I did something I would never known I had done without the video and was able to reconstruct it and include it.

This is absolutely a wonderful thing to do, for the very reasons you mention, mathkitty!

* * * *

I also "map" music: intro, verses, refrains, bridges, etc. I count out the number of 8's, noting where changes take place in the repeating patterns (often counts 5-6-7-8 at the end of a phrase), which indicates change is coming.

Then I break it down further. For example, say there are 4 counts of 8 that are pretty similar, but there are differences in phrases 2 and 4 that correspond as a call and response to phrases 1 and 3. Phrases 1 and 3 will probably be choreographed similarly, as will phrases 2 and 4, remaining aware to find the nuances that might make phrase 4 different from phrase 2.

I use choreo strictly for stage performances; I wouldn't even attempt a choreographed piece at the usual gig.

Deborah

Thank you ladies. Your thoughts are valuable to dancers like me (still growing). I guess we will always be students of this art, but you know what I mean. I do feel if I become less rigid with my choreo, I will be able to enjoy myself more and improve my improv skills. I think this was the key I was missing. I am glad I asked this question. I have a lot to mull over.

I´m close to Ozma&Tourbeau´s methods in what I do:

1.First of all I must choreograph precise when teaching.

2.For stage when there´s not any interaction with audience except verbal feedback,I have frames:some parts are left for impro but I have "frames".

3.For weddings,parties etc I expect ANYTHING to happen after entrance number;musician decides to throw in taksim/solos,kids running close,camera guys and their cords,people interacting by jumping up to a song they love etc.
It would give a very sterile impression if sternly choosing to adhere to a set choreo-to me improvising is one of the most important skills for a working dancer!