choreography nerdom

today i have:
dusted and de-dusted
vaccumed the floors
washed the floors.
put on some bread that seems to be trying to climb out of the baker thing.
read an interesting post on choreography by crinkle.

the last i will say more about.

the project crinkle mentions in her post is one i'm also involved in. and it's my first real experience with choreography in swing in recent years. i've been involved in other projects, but let's not talk about that.

crink outlines this approach to choreography:

1. select song:
things to consider- song length, energy level of song, sound quality, speed, structure(breaks), style etc etc.
for example;
i want a 20's charleston sounding song with an 'up' sounding feel (using certain instruments- banjo?). i will want it fast enough to make charleston look energetic but this will use alot of energy so i dont want it to be too long.

2. block out song:
listen to and transcribe the number of phrases in song, chorus, verse, bridge. then list the highlights of each section, what makes this bit different to the previous bits? could be the instruments used, solos, breaks, recurring melody, chorus, vs. etc etc.
for example;
i chose a charleston song with a main melody in the first 2 phrases and again in the middle 2 and the last 2. these are divided by solos of certain instruments, most solos go for 1 phrase. these solos might be illistrated by giving individual dancers solos, with the main melody line being danced by the entire group.

3. break down each phrase into it's 8's and examine the general style or sound. think about a sequence or style of dancing that would suit the music in this phrase.
for example; this phrase has an up bouncey feel that i associate with tandem charleston, with lots of energy, so i might be moving alot during this section.
4. break down each 8 and examine the rhythmical structure, what sounds are being made on the micro level, what movements do these sound like?
for example:
this 8 has the rhythm of {1-,5,7} with the long slur at the start making me think of a slide or a high kick. the two ending hits are quite sharp, this might be a quick change of weight.. etc.

i hadn't thought about a formal approach to choreography before. previously i've been doing it via improvisation (a la the stuff i talk about here in my worklog).
with this project, crinkle and sal and i worked through the structure of the song we'll be using marking phrases on a bit of paper with a pen. we managed to rough it out to the point where we could use it for a planning meeting.
that night i took the copy we made an had another go. i've been using imovie lately on the squeeze's mac (i think i'm in love), and all the stuff i've been working on has been music-centered. i put a song into the timeline and then structure my editing using that as a framework (dance nerd plus - but i can't help it! it just makes sense!).
so i popped our song into imovie, and then used this to mark out the phrases. you can add a bookmark at any point on the time line, and i used the bookmarks to note the end/beginning of phrases. then i went through and added pictures of the people who'd be choreographing each section, but that was just playing.

i did find that it made the whole process work in a different way when i could visualise the song, lay it out as a picture, then read that picture when i listened to the song. i could note what was going on where in the music on the picture.
this sounds really technical and pretty much antithetical to any notion of vernacular dance, but it was really interesting. from here, of course, i'll go back to the dance floor and choreograph using my body and just fiddling about with the music, seeing what will fit where. feel my way through it, rather than rationalise my way through.
it was an invaluable tool for organising a group of people who would all be contributing to the choreography. especially when that group has to communicate by email (i then transcribed the song into a table which i sent out to people).
it was neat and an excellent learning tool. i have a good sense of how music works (all that music at school really helps out), and can pick phrases easily not only when i'm sitting about but also when i'm dancing. and i'm facinated by the process of making what i hear visible - so providing visual signs of the music in my body.
it also helped me to articulate what i hear. i noticed that some steps that i'd automatically associated with a particular section of the song actually corresponded not only with speed, instrument and 'loudness' but also pitch and the way i imagine that section fitting into the song as a whole.
it's really interesting to think of what i do on the social floor in terms of choreography. i have many of the skills i need already.

i'm taken by the idea of musical 'themes' or 'heads', and making them visible - ie, repeating particular movments or structures in my dancing that illustrate what the music is doing. and THEN you ADD to the music by adding in movements that aren't actually just illustrations of what you hear, but are extensions of a musical theme or idea.
it's very nerdy and exciting.

the key issue of course, is that you have to move about when you choreograph. i mean, you have to see if the combination of steps is physically possible - can you go from move X to move Y in that amount of time?

and then you think about the relationship of dancers on the floor. do they stay still? are they moving alone or in groups? do you use formations? do you use a solo/chorus structure (ie one person as the 'shine'/focus, with the others in a supportive role)? do you have everyone synchronised? do you have the 'chorus' 'echo' parts of the solo in a 'minor' way (ie not distracting from the solo)?

and all that has to be tied into the physical abilities of your dancers. we have a range of abilities, so we have to offer either a range of simpler moves that everyone can do (and spice up), or do we offer a complex move with a simpler variant?

it's neat. and nerdy.

Posted by Dogpossum on April 5, 2005 04:09 PM