Choreography

[tufty007]

Looking for opinions/thoughts/input from people who choreograph, cabaret or showcase pieces.

What comes first the music which gives you the inspiration to come up with a choreographed piece? Or do you search for a piece of music you want to put a routine to?

Also, how does it work in your mind. Do you vividly see the routine in your mind when you hear a piece of music. Or is it a case of having to work at putting a routine together?

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally posted by tufty007

What comes first the music which gives you the inspiration to come up with a choreographed piece? Or do you search for a piece of music you want to put a routine to?

I would have trouble thinking of a routine first. For the Alley Cats routine we thought of an entertaining idea first. Mixed the music to fit the idea of what we wanted to do and then choreographed moves to fit the music. At each stage you have a good idea of what the next stage is going to be like but the style of the moves was more important to us than which moves they were, so the music and the story idea had to come first. Im sure its equally popular to do it the other way round but if a routine is moves based i would say it would be less likely to 'tell a story' but could still be a fabulous routine. Each to their own innit .

Originally posted by tufty007

Also, how does it work in your mind. Do you vividly see the routine in your mind when you hear a piece of music. Or is it a case of having to work at putting a routine together?

Lots of moves would apply to any piece of music, experience would be the clincher on wether you find it easy to picture a routine vividly on hearing a piece of music. I imagine everyone works hard to produce a routine, some are just naturals at it though. (which im not by the way lest you think i meant that in some way )

[Chris]

Originally posted by tufty007
What comes first the music which gives you the inspiration to come up with a choreographed piece? Or do you search for a piece of music you want to put a routine to?

Also, how does it work in your mind. Do you vividly see the routine in your mind when you hear a piece of music.

Haven't choreographed a showcase or cabaret. When I choreographed Total Eclipse of Sybil Price the inspiration was the theme, the story, and finding moves to fit, reflect and interpret that. (Like DS, the idea first.) We practiced to Doris Day (which gave us a nice variety of breaks and tempos) but then wrote the actual music afterwards.

I always use a mood or idea to dance from - sometimes I get it from the music cos that also gives a focus so a partner can come from the same place.

A cabaret that was brilliant in my mind (and everyone will have diferent criteria) was the one the other night (Amir) and although the music was prepared the dance was un-choreographed (ie it was freestyle). I really liked the timing and interpretation. Amir uses kinetic dance imagery, which is one way of dancing from an idea, though it can also be used to enhance style and stuff (didn't he touch on this in the workshop?) Beautiful interpretation & musicality anyway - I wonder if we could get him to tell us how he did it?

[Siobhan (Forum Plant)]

Have to agree Chris, his piece on Sat was def. different!

He also did an 'All That Jazz' routine as the class, it was excellent.

[Bill]

Only put together one routine and very much at the last minute so kept it pretty simple.

I decided on the piece of music and then visualised some moves before writing them down and trying them out.

As DS says, it's possible to think of moves first and then see which music fits but generally I'd have the music first and some kind of idea of the kind of routine you'd like.

Also depends on how many folk you want/ can have in the routine as well and whether they will be capabale of doing all the moves.

[bigdjiver]

I would love to choreograph a routine, and live in hope of finding a partner.

It seems natural to start from a piece of music, and dance to that.

If it starts with an idea it can be difficult to find the right piece of music to go with it. Obviously the DJ's here would be a good place to ask for help.


There are many songwriting groups on the internet which are a good source of oddball music.

example - theme domestic discord "Angry Greek Hernia Man" :

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/7/no...rmersmusic.htm


There is always the possibility of getting the numbers customised when working at this level.

----

I said once before that I regretted that I knew of no video clip(s) on the web that I could point people to to show them the range of what Ceroc was about. Being a songwriting dabbler I am trying to produce a song to let the dancers show it. I had the idea of switching music and dance styles between lines of a verse which are extended musically.

Can any of you real dancers imagine being able to do the transitions from one style to another rapidly enough?


One minute I an flowing and graceful
the next I am a jitterbugging queen
I can be sensual and Latin
Or plain dirty and obscene

-----
Lastly I want to share my days delight from the world of "unknowns" "Mip ma baby"


http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/3464/3464867.html

[Graham]

I've performed in three choreographed routines, and assisted in the choreography of one of them. These thoughts represent my view from both having done it, and from seeing how other people have done it. Not everyone will agree with me, and I must emphasize that I'm basing this from an amateur point of view - I've never worked with a professional choreographer so have no idea how they do it.

I think that the first two things which need to be decided about a choreographed routine are the theme and the music, but that they can come in either order. A lot of people think of themes they think could be fun and then think of music to go along, while others hear a track and have a flash of inspiration for a theme. Sometimes the theme is so intimately linked to the track that it's kind of both together.

Once the theme and music are chosen, I think the next stage is to finalise the exact performance track. Many routines use more than one piece of music, so you have to decide how much you have of each one, and how the join is going to work. Then you need to map out the music in detail so you can start annotating your choreography against it. I think you should start by working out the major features of the music (such as different tracks, verse/chorus, instrumental sections, breaks, flourishes, highlights etc), then work out how long each takes and how long is in between them, preferably in beats/bars.

Then you need to start filling in your choreography. Again, I think you should start with the major features (structural as well as which moves) and work out how these fit in with the music. You may have ideas you'd like to use (a dramatic aerial move you've seen for example) which you need to choose a "place" for, or you may listen to the music and it suggests a particular pattern to you. There may be things which aren't quite clear yet, just "this needs to have a latin feel" or "sounds like a spinny kind of bit".

The next stage is to start going through and working out a detailed sequence of moves. Often the routine can be split into sections (eg if more than one track, or just between particular highlights) and done in bits - it's better to complete a section than to have the whole thing "nearly finished". In addition to the moves, the "shape" of the performance also needs to be worked out, especially if it's a team routine rather than a single couple (in both cases it's important to make use of the available space, but in a team routine you also need to make sure that the formations are interesting, that the dancers don't collide, etc). At this stage the choreography isn't final - unless you're an extremely experienced choreographer, you will actually need to get the dancers to try out your routine to see how well it works. For a team routine, this doesn't necessarily have to involve the whole team - a single couple may well be enough, unless you want to check out complicated formations, partner changes, etc.

Once you've tried it out, you should carefully record the EXACT sequence of moves against the music, recording how many beats each takes, how particular cue points line up (eg, if there are particular lyrics which correspond to specific movements). Ideally this should be done both on paper and on video, and if it's a team routine both should be made available to the team. The last thing is to work out all the style details - you may well have made some notes as you went along for an overall feel, and for how some moves should be done, but once the routine is fixed you need to colour in everything else (especially for a team routine - everybody's free hand should ideally be doing the same thing, for example).

Don't be tempted or pressured into starting rehearsals before the choreography is sufficiently advanced (and I'm not including trying things out as mentioned above as rehearsals). If you're aiming for a competition and you haven't got it finished then perhaps it's better to wait for the next competition rather than trying to rush things.

What does everyone else think? I'm a bit surprised there haven't been more comments from people who have experience similar to mine (ie not much!) but have nevertheless formed a view.

[JamesGeary]

I used to know a professional jazz/ballet choreographer.

It was all quite mechnical for her. But then she did it all the time. She would create a 'storyboard'.

The entire piece of music would be marked out on a long piece of paper. Every high, low, repeating sequence, unusual sound, stop, change of style, change of tempo, would be marked down against time.

She would then work out the story that would go to that piece. With a couple that could be a romance story (theme), with things like

'interest', 'flirting', 'attempt to impress', 'playing hard to get',
'confusion', 'heartbreak', 'connection', 'understanding', 'passion', 'climax', 'errr.... whatever', as sub-themes

all jotted down on parts of the storyboard.

It would be a sequence with the associated ways of displaying that sequence. You need to have ways of displaying each theme and also of displaying when there is a change in theme. Jot those ways down at the appropriate place.

Then she would then mark down specific moves/movements that would suit the story and go well with specific parts of the music.

After that it would just be a case of filling in the blanks.

That said I've heard of other professional choreographers who can do it all in their heads and it comes out looking good.

[Chris]

I like this storyboarding idea - fuller and more accessible than some methods I've heard of

[Lindsay]

I've done a fair bit of choreography for kids theatre, and currently Blues Sisters. Tend to have a 'concept' and work from there. I start by listening to the whole piece, and noting the phrases, any dynamics etc. The music dictates the movements generally, but you can usually fit in specific moves that you want to include later on.