The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Welcome back to the Casual Dance Teachers podcast. I'm your host, Maia. This is week two of Choreography Month, one of my favorite topics, and I'm going week by week talking about different elements of choreography. You can listen to them in order, but you don't have to. Last week, we talked about choosing music and a general theme for your piece. And now today we're going to talk about getting into the actual movement material and how do you come up with the moves and steps in the dance. Let's talk about it.

All right, so we are talking about creating movement material for your dances today, which I think a lot of people who aren't versed in choreography think that's what choreography is, Maia. That's kind of the whole point.
But whether you've studied choreography or you've been doing it for a long time, you're going to find that it's a lot of work. And you feel really confident with choreography, or you're new to it, and you don't have a lot of background in choreography and are feeling a little bit apprehensive about stepping into that role. Having a process for choreography, just like everything else with teaching dance is really helpful and really important to make sure that you're serving your students. So again, coming up with movement for a dance recital, that's geared towards casual dance students is going to be different. And so I'm going to talk a little bit about that. And of course, I'm coming up with choreography for a concert piece or a more formal performance.

With that said, I still tend to approach my choreography for my classes in a similar way to how I was taught when I studied choreography in college. So in today's episode, again, I'm not really saying anything novel. It's not like I've come up with my own method for choreography or anything like that. But I think it's great to share the insight that I was able to get through my formal education in choreography. And I'm going to talk a little bit about that. And even if you have your own formal education, again, or you feel really confident in choreography, it never hurts to hear some of these things again. Even knowing this, I still sometimes get stuck, I still sometimes get in my own head and get in my own way.

And putting down these thoughts on paper for me actually already kind of opened up some ideas that I hadn't referenced in quite some time. So it can be really helpful to just kind of think through these things and say, 'Am I doing this? Am I doing this?' Are you utilizing all of the tools that you have in your tool belt to get the most out of your choreography? So, the main thing that I'm going to talk about is the fact that I don't just step into the room and start choreographing a dance from beginning to end. Last week, I talked about how I always have a theme of some sort that I'm working on with my students. But I don't just start at the beginning of the story and go to the end.

I don't necessarily just put on the music from the beginning and go to the end. When I'm coming up with the movement material, I will generally stick with the idea of having a theme and variation. And I'm going to talk a little bit about that. So I'm going to start with a theme and variation, or a central motif to the movement. And depending on the level of my dancers, if I'm working with beginner dancers, and they're like five years old, the motif is probably going to be super simple. It might just be an arm movement, like the arms go up to a V and come back down. And that's the motif. And you're going to see it throughout. And there's different ways that we're going to do it.

If I'm working with advanced dancers, you might be talking about several different complex phrases that form the motif, come back and are referenced throughout the piece. But either way, I'm still working with some core central movement theme, in addition to the central sort of representational theme, emotional theme, musical theme, whatever that may be. The easiest way to come up with this, especially because we again, are trying to serve our students and trying to show the end goal of all of the work that we've done throughout the year, is to take either a couple of steps that they've been working on throughout the year, or a couple of combinations that they did throughout the year, and then start reworking them to work with the theme that you've chosen for their dance.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel. And especially if you're choreographing a lot of different pieces, this can be really, really helpful to move quickly through choreographing multiple pieces, because the students already know the material, you don't want them to get bored. So you're going to be changing them up. But referencing material that they are comfortable with, that they've been working on, and it's showcasing what they've learned. So that's the easy part. Then of course, you have to flesh out the movement material. And there's lots of ways that I do that as well. For me personally, when I'm working on the dances myself, I might just start improv-ing in the studio. I might start by doing the combination or the phrase that I already know, and then just go from there.

And I'll video myself doing an improv, or I'll stop and take notes about some of the things that I liked, and didn't like about what I did, and then get back into it. That's really easy. And then I can go back and reference any time that I need additional movement material to add into the dance. I also, of course, really like to reference the general theme that I've chosen for the dance. So even if I've picked out a piece of music that I really like, and there's combinations from the class that I really like that go well with the music, I want to fuse them together with some really, really on theme movement. If you're working with a theme that involves a story or characters, you can go through each character and do a couple of gestures that you think the character would do.

Then we're going to play around with those gestures and start to build them out into full movement phrases. You might want to just picture the story in your mind and start by doing sort of a guided visualization. Put the music on and start taking notes about what kind of images you're seeing, in your head. Write down really specific words, especially verbs, action words that come to mind regarding your theme or your music. And then you can go back and look at the list of words that you have and turn them into movement material. Obviously, with different types of music and different stories, you might have one where it's hit, strike, really dynamic, strong, percussive words. And so then you realize, okay, I need to create some movement material that follows that same theme.

If you put on the music and you're picturing a gentle breeze, swaying, rocking, that's going to look really different. But sometimes if we don't access the theme in that way and actually put it down in writing, we can tend to skip over some of the more important parts of the theme by trying to just cram in vocabulary. And that's when you end up a lot of times with a dance that's not really a dance. And that's when you end up with a dance that's not really a dance. That's fine, but you feel like you could have gotten more out of the dancers. And I'm saying that because I've been there. I've had classes where I didn't really take the time. I just tried to put vocabulary in that they had learned. And at the end, it felt a little uninspired. So it's nice to take the time if you can to really delve into the theme that you're working with. If you have a costume picked out that's really unique or inspires you, or of course, if you have a prop or the theme that you're working with, you can take that time to really take that time to. There's a set piece that's going to be on the stage. You're going to want to spend a lot of time exploring that. The worst thing you can do is introduce a prop or a set piece in a dance and then underutilize it and have it just be a gimmick. You want to make sure you're doing lots of improv, having the dancer spend a lot of time with that. Get really comfortable so it's like it's an extension of their bodies. That is really the only time that you should use a prop or a set piece, in my opinion, is if it's an extension of their bodies. And that's when you're going to extend what the dancers are doing and what they have learned in the class. So if you have that, make sure you are starting with a lot of exploration of how do my arms interact with this? How do my eyes interact with this? How do my legs and my feet, my torso, my hips, every part of the body needs to be comfortable with how and when they're interacting with that. And same with a costume. A costume with fringe is going to look very different doing the same moves than a costume with a lot of tools, right?

So the choreography should, if possible, represent the costume and vice versa. So you can be creating movement material off of what the dancers are wearing. Are they touching a skirt? Are they shaking some fringe? I'm shaking right now in my chair. I just did a little shimmy and then I looked and felt really silly because you guys can't see me. But coming up with movement that's inspired by everything else that's going to be on stage with them. Very important. I also like to sometimes do music visualization. So I'll just listen to the piece of music and try and access and reference beats in the music, small little sounds that you maybe don't hear on the first couple of listens. Sometimes there's so many different instruments playing and let's say the string section is prominent. And so we tend to choreograph just to the string section because it's easy to hear and the dancers can dance right along to it. But is there something else in the background? Is there some percussion? Is there a piano playing? Is there a flute? Is there something that we can reference in the body that might make the audience notice something new about the music, and might help you to flesh out the dance more than you might have if you just stepped in and choreographed right along to the prominent musical themes. Now, of course, every single one of those ideas you can do on your own as sort of an independent exploration to come up with movement, or you can have your students do them. Especially if they're students that are relatively mature in their understanding of movement and are up for a challenge, you can have them do any of these visualization exercises, improv, working in the class. And again, you can video them or you can just watch, you can take notes and go back and reference what they came up with. If you're really feeling like you're in a pinch or you're stuck and you just need a very, very quick solution to come up with some new movement material to throw in, have the students show you one of their favorite moves that they did during the year, have them show you one of their combinations. You can even go back and take some of the vocabulary you worked on, write it down, put it in a hat, pick a step from the hat.

It's actually really easy to insert material that way once you start working with it in some of the ways I'm about to talk about. Okay, so that's how you generate kind of the core movement material, right? And now we have to make sure that it's interesting, that the students don't get bored, that they're not just doing a series of combinations that they've already done in class because that does not serve them at all. So here's where we get into some of our choreographic devices. Again, this is not anything I came up with. This is like choreography 101. But sometimes we have our favorites that we stick to and then other ones get pushed to the wayside. And for years, we might not be accessing these choreographic devices.

So I don't think it hurts to hear some of these again. Here's just a couple of them that we can use. Doing that, same core material that they're comfortable with or that you came up with together. Utilizing the vocabulary that they've learned and worked on in class this year to make sure that that is prominent in the dance. You can go in and change the levels. Are they doing it high up on relevé? Are they getting low? How are the levels changing throughout the phrase?

Change the tempo, fast, slow, super slow mo. Let the music guide you on that and change the tempos.

The dynamic, the same movement can look like a hit or can look like a wave depending on the dynamic that you put into it.

Accents, accenting the move at the beginning or accenting at the end. Repetition, canon, retrograde. I love throwing a retrograde at a more experienced student. That is a huge challenge. It's really fun to throw at them and see if they can do it. And then you're coming up with sometimes complete moves that you can do. And then you're going to be able to do it in a completely new and innovative choreography just by retrograding the movement that you already have.

Embellishment. So I use this all the time with the younger kids because they're not going to be doing a ton of different vocabulary. So if they're doing a lot of retiré, tendu, échappé, things like that, how are we embellishing that through use of the arms, the head, the body positioning, things like that.

Accumulation, that can be really powerful when you're taking, that's maybe just a simple combination, but it accumulates over time. It can really grab the audience's attention. It's great for students to learn these choreographic devices. And I know I have a tendency to fall into using some of the same ones a lot and underutilizing others. So getting that list out and looking at them and saying, have I used this? Maybe let's do a challenge in class. Each student is assigned a different one and they have the movement motif. And they're going to be able to do that. And then you're going to be able to do a lot of this. And then you're going to be able to do that.

And then you're going to be able to do already learned, but now they have to apply their choreographic device and then teach everyone else. That could be really interesting. Or you could have them all work on the same choreographic device, but see what kind of different results they get. Maybe take one relatively simple movement motif and have them do it through three different choreographic devices of their choice. So they're understanding how very basic similar movement can suddenly evolve, all of these different things. If you're still stuck after doing all of that, I would say, fast forward a little bit and don't worry about the movement material for a second. Start putting bodies in space, start playing around with different formations. We're going to talk about formations and traveling next week.

So you can reference that episode once it comes out to look for some more ideas, but start putting those bodies in space and you might be inspired. You might find that something is going to be different. You might find that something is going to be different. You might find that something comes to you just from seeing that start to take shape. Maybe again, use the dancers as your guide, put them in one formation, tell them, okay, I want you to go from point A to point B, but this time travel fast and flowy, or this time travel low and slow and take notes and cues from them. I'm all about using the dancers to help with my choreography because it helps me get out of my own head, helps me get out of my own head, my own bubble.

And it helps me create things that are truly serving my students and what looks best and feels best for them. So I love doing that. What I would not recommend is that you go online. I'm always hating on social media. I'm sorry. Don't go online and watch videos. I will say this. I am constantly consuming videos from the choreographers and companies that inspire me. So, I'm not against that by any means, especially since COVID, a lot of these companies started doing virtual seasons and things like that. It's amazing. I'm so grateful for that. However, when you start to turn to little snippets, or you start to turn to a high volume of commercial dance, especially as a casual dance teacher, and you're seeing that and you're trying to get ideas from that and insert them into your own choreography, I don't think you're going to be happy with the results.
I don't think your dancers are going to be happy with the results because they're going to feel like they're not doing it the way it should be done. You might also start to get stuck more easily because you're relying on someone else's creativity to come up with ideas versus referencing your own body, your own creativity. I'm sure most of you agree with me on that. But as someone who consumes a lot of dance media and loves watching professional companies, commercial dancers, and all of these things in my spare time, which I think is great and very inspiring and helps me kind of keep up with the times and keep my choreography fresh in the moment that I am choreographing.

If I'm in the choreographic process, I will not be looking at that type of media because I think it will just stifle my personal choreographic vision and keep me from telling the story. I want to tell it. So that's my little don't. Stay away from that. You might want to reference choreographic books or manuals. Probably a ton of you have read the two books that I referenced the most, which are The Art of Making Dances by Doris Humphrey. That is like the Bible of choreography, right? And then my other favorite, and also one of the most used in choreography classes and seminars and things, The Intimate Act of Choreography by Lynn Ann Blom. And I've had so many different teachers reference that. And I have actually two copies.
I have one in my upstairs and one of my downstairs, because sometimes I'm doing choreography in my kitchen. Sometimes I'm doing it in my basement. I want to have that right there. Because if you're stuck, The Intimate Act especially has these little studies all throughout. And you can just very, very quickly open that up, find one of the little studies, and it'll walk you through how to do it. And I think that's really important. And I think that's really important. And I think how to manipulate the movement material that you have, how to apply some new choreographic devices really, really quick, really easy. So if you're stuck, I would definitely recommend a book. Again, I wouldn't recommend trying to go and find moves from somebody else.

Come up with the moves first, reference your past classes, reference your own improv, your students' improv or their work in class and the steps that they've learned throughout the year, and then go in and start to work through all of that. And I think that's really important. And I think that's really important. And I think that's through all of these different devices and all of these different exercises. And you're going to end up with way more movement material than you can possibly use. So, I hope I wasn't too all over the place with my suggestions here was a little bit of a sort of brainstorm method of telling you about my process for choreography. If you listen to the whole month, I think there's a lot that you can access to help you even if you're an experienced choreographer, just kind of reminding you of some of those little tricks that you can do.

And I think that's really important. And I think that's to help you break out of your bubble of choreography if you need to. I have been inspired by some amazing choreographers over the years.

So I just want to again, thank everyone that I've worked with, who supported my personal field of study in choreography and my own choreography. Thank you to GB mystical for writing my theme music. And thank you to everyone on the casual dance teachers network on Facebook. If you're not already there, please come and join us. I'm really enjoying sharing and connecting with people through Facebook. So check out the casual dance teachers network to chat more there. And before I go, I will close with this lovely quote by Arlene Croce. "Good choreography fuses eye, ear, and mind."