Basic Choreography 101
by Ngaio
This article is designed to help those of you who want to choreograph a piece of music for the first time, but aren't quite sure how to begin.
I want to start by saying there is no right way or wrong way to choreograph. Each person will have her (his) own style and manner of approaching it.
I have been choreographing for about 6 years and I still find it to be one of the most fun and challenging aspects of dancing. The first thing to do is find a piece of music you love. This is vital because you will be listening to it until you can hear it in your sleep. (This is the nightmare part of choreography.) I would suggest that for a beginning choreographer that you choose a piece that is no more than 3 ½ minutes in length. Really, this is a good length for any solo routine. When you are out there dancing by yourself, believe me, 3 ½ minutes is plenty of time. Group routines can be longer, since you can put in individual solos, and many other variations which play on the group dynamic and keep the routine exciting for both the dancers involved and the audience.
If you have access to a portable CD player or tape player you can pause, start over and skip back (rewind), this is very helpful, especially once you begin to put the movements on paper.
Once I have my music, I count out the beat. For purposes of this article, I am going to use a 4 count. That means there are 4 beats and then it starts over like this: 1234, 1234. I use a notebook and a pencil and I count out how many sets of 4 count there are in the music. I use a tick mark for each set of 4 counts and I underline for changes in tempo, vocals or instruments. It looks something like this (only not nearly as neat):
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These marks show 4 sets of 4 count before there is a change. After doing this the first time, I may go through the piece several more times to make sure I have caught all the beats and changes (that's why I use a pencil). I then go through and mark what all the changes are like this:
/ introduction
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/ drums
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/ string instruments
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Now it is time to begin. Some dancers will physically dance, stop and write down, dance, stop and write down. I like to do it in my head, imagining the movements and how they will fit together, pausing the music to write it down, and once I have either the entire piece or an entire segment done, I dance it to see if reality meets imagination.
One final note: if I am choreographing for myself alone, I always put in a dance move that I can not do when I start and challenge myself to perfect it by the time I perform. If I am choreographing for the troupe, I try to take into account how many people will be performing, the general skill level of the dancers (beginning or advanced), and how much space will be covered by steps in the dance.
I hope this article has inspired you to try your hand at choreography and has answered a few of your questions.
If you have questions, or would like further explanations of any of the information in this article, please e-mail me at ngaio@meira-nawal.com and I'll do my best to answer your questions.
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