Dance Notes : How to Make Choreography

This time I would like to share one of the lessons I got in Dance. Actually I got this lesson on the new year's eve 2014, then continued on the day of new year after we had a sleep over at Via's house. **Via is one of my friend and also instructor on Dance whom I learn many things from her**
What a productive way of spending New Year right :)
Okey, back to the topic, from a short lesson and notes I got, actually making a choreography is just like making an essay/article, so it's a comprehensive process, with its own technique and many aspects to take care to make a single choreography. It really different from what I understand and had in mind before, choreography is not only a set of movement which you create for a certain music, definitely not just that.
My previous understanding of "what is choreography" is totally wrong. The movement we create for some counts in music is called "phrase", while the set of movement (phrase) combined together into "sequence". This sequence is sometimes mistakenly understood into choreography. A choreography is indeed consists of several sequence, but it has lots of other things to be considered. Being a choreographer is not that easy, ha ha….
When you create a set of movement to some music, doesn't mean that u are a choreographer already, the same like when you create a thing through your sketch or design tools in your PC, doesn't make you a designer. Not as simple as that!
The very basic things to remember when making a choreography is to have as many references as we can, such as understand the style that we are going to choreograph, learning more vocabulary of technique on that style to enrich the type and variations of movement. Because when a choreographer lack of vocabs and references it will shown in his/her works later on. The same like when we write something (could be article/essay), the more vocabs and references/knowledge that we had, the richer our text gonna be. 
The same like an article, choreography also has things to work out, such as: it has a plot (beginning, mid, end), where is the climax/conflicts will be placed, in contemporary dance usually choreography has a story to tell (could be finished or unfinished story).
–> Choreography usually has: title, theme, topics, framework, plot
When making a choreography, choreographer should also look at it from different point of view: 
- Choreographer: what is the message to convey through this piece?
- Dancer: will it be feasible to performed technically and emotionally by the dancers?
- Audience: if audiences see this, will they get the message? Will the formation works? Not to mention different place (seat position) of the audience, or if it is going to be shoot by video, what is the angle? etc.
Here are some technical aspects in making a choreography that should be considered by choreographer:
**hopefully I can write more detail about this later on, when I already experienced or learn and research more about it :) **
- For contemporary, ballet, jazz, usually needs dramaturgy element
Choreographic Device, such as: Canon, Unison, Split Focus, Retrograde, Repetition, etc.
- If the choreography will be performed on stage, then choreographer should also concern about scenography (visual elements of the performance), could also work together with scenographer. 
Those are just a few technical aspects that should be taken care of, not to mention the supporting function such as: lighting, props, make up, music, etc. that should also be considered by a choreographer when creating a piece. No wonder some said that usually choreographer needs time for a bout 6 months to make a full dance performance piece, the longer they had the time the more detail they can get, unless the choreographer is also a deadliner :p 
Well, those are just a short lesson and knowledge I learned from previous session. I'll update more about it if I already got the next session.
Of course we had a homework for this, just a simple one as a start, which is to create a set of sequence and try to work in group to mixed up and do those sequence in random but structured order. Sounds complicated eh? ha ha…
Let's just work on it!! I'll update the result later :)

  1. Fantastic!
    Thanks, buddy. Reading yours, I gained new knowledge :)


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