Dancing is not all about skills and steps. In fact, most regular people come across dancing watching TV and stage performance. That is all about choreography.
The easiest path towards choreography dancing is through learning from the instructor or copying the existing choreography from the video. But, don't you want to make your original choreography with your own creativity alone?
Dancers who teach are used to coming up with a simple routine of 8 counts × 4.
So this time, I will introduce how to make a choreography that even a beginner can make and tips for performing it cool.
Prepare for making choreography
First of all, you need to get your body warmed up. Choreography making is the same as cooking, but nothing can be created without preparing the ingredients first.
Let's start with the ingredient gathering for the choreography. 3 tips are given here:
- Acquire skills and steps as much as possible.
- Create variations of the skills
- Manage a combination of senior dancers
1. Acquire skills and steps as much as possible.
Acquiring new skills from every day is important. The more steps and repertoires you remember, the more you can start choreographing with various patterns. Starting from there is always a good idea.
You can take advantage of video sites like YouTube. Going to dance studios is always an option as well. (See "[How to choose a local dance school that will not disappoint you"]"(http://dancesensei.com/how-to-choose-a-local-dance-school-that-will-not-disappoint-you/)).
2. Create variations of the skills
After that, try making an arrangement of those steps and move for your next practice. With only the basic form of the steps you have learned, the choreography will become a repetition of one pattern no matter how many number of steps you have picked up.
Even just changing the angle and balance of the body slightly will change the way it looks. With that in mind, come up with various arrangement and generate your own handsome moves.
3. Manage a combination of senior dancers
Even if you are confident in your creative skills, you can be stuck from time to time with your own imagination. Feel free in those occasions to borrow the idea of a senior dancer.
Check the video site, and keep increasing your repertoires by imitating and rearranging the move.
Don't worry about losing your creativity. Best artists steal from others. In fact, it can be a good test against your current skills. If you do not fully understand the dance move, you cannot digest others' dancing by parts either.
Let's actually make a choreography!
Once you are ready with the preparation, it is time to dive into the fun part.
You should start with a combination of skills of 8 beats x 1 and x 2 , a total of 16. Then you can gradually increase the count to "choreography".
Choose a song to choreograph
Here is the most important thing. Choose a song to choreograph!
In the beginning, it is recommended to choose the upbeat and nice vibe. It is important that you can easily visualize the choreography. Instead of focusing on the authentic dance music, lyrical pop music can be a good option as well if you come from that background.
In addition, if the song has a slow tempo, it will make your life easier. You can make your routine with a plenty of margin.
Stop overthinking. Make a move one by one.
Once you have decided on the song, try out the combinations and variations of steps you learned while playing it.
At this stage, rather than making a choreography, it is more like practicing your skills to match the sound and getting your body accustomed.
Do not forget to move while checking yourself with a mirror or a reflection.
Connect combinations that match the music
It is rather my nuance, but as you add on practicing, you will come to find combinations that go along with the sound.
If you can grasp the feeling; "Hm, this move matches with this part of the beats...", then you will be able to combine the move on top of another and extend the count little by little.
Check and rework the finished choreography
The choreography you have made should be taken with a smartphone or a digital camera.
Take as much as possible from the front and check how it appears from the audience side. And you will add a fix.
It is a good idea to get advice from your friends while you are not familiar with it. Refine until it is cool and you are satisfied.
Tips to make a cool choreography for beginners
So far, we have covered how to come up with a routine. Now, it is time to enhance. From my experience teaching and watching choreographed dancers at various levels, I have come to realize one single important thing to turn your choreography cool.
The key to show your choreography effectively is change. Making a change holds your audience interests and turn your otherwise dull move into lively dance move.
There are 3 methods to introduce change to your dance routine.
Move in fast and slow
Without being accustomed, the choreography tends to be in the same steady pace.
By giving changes to the speed and magnitude of movement, you will control the music, showing the great confidence in your move.
If you are just starting out and moving faster is physically impossible, focus on the slow. Including a rest point is also effective because it will make your next move faster and bigger.
Utilize vertical & diagonal box
It is tempting to stay in the comfortable position of standing. But, moving the eyeline of the persons watching you is a great way to give out a fresh impression.
You can drop the body greatly close to the floor line. Or lean towards the right up side. Playing the position and angle of your body feels brand new even with the same movement.
Without movement of angles, the eyes of the viewer will be fixed, facing forward for a long time, therefore your dance easily becomes boring. If you watch the performance by the dance contest winners, they all use the stage at the great extent.
Stop making it complicated
By focusing on the dynamics in speed, your choreography becomes interesting to a degree. At that point, you do not need a complex move.
In fact, it is tempting to cram in many steps in the short time. But that is counterintuitive, where the audience is left being confused. You need to give them time to digest and appreciate your move. That is why including slow moment is important.
Limit the number of complicated move in your choreo, and increase the impact of your dance with the change in speed.
Practice method to make choreography by improvisation
As introduced in this article, if you gather the performance ingredients and following the steps carefully, you will be able to create a choreography from the bottom up.
However, in case of improvisation (freestlye) dancing where the song for the choreography is picked on the spot, you have to think about the move as dance. For those, you need to overcome a different level of difficulty.
It is the same in terms of the procedure: learn skills ⇒ learn variations ⇒ combine steps. But it requires considerable practice to put it out on the spot.
In the process of making the choreography and increasing the number of available steps, your ability to dance improvisation will gradually be polished.
How to make a choreography: summary
To create a choreography, first of all, from the collection of materials to master skills!
If the number of steps and move you have in your hand is large, you can make choreography with various patterns.
It takes time to get used to, but if you keep up with it, you will gradually be able to increase the speed of making one. Making a floor coordination inside choreographies specifically for dance events will also become possible.
At the same time, even if you focus on a choreography, it is absolutely indispensable to improve your foundation.
In order to absorb various choreography types, it is important to boost the level of your basics. Let's keep up with dance practice in balance.