Ideas for choreography
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Choreography, Dance & Movement for Theater
Forum Discription: For the dancers and choreographers in community theater
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3518
Printed Date: 11/23/24 at 10:06am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Ideas for choreography
Posted By: Nanette
Subject: Ideas for choreography
Date Posted: 10/08/08 at 9:22am
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An upcoming production has a few dances in it, performed by actors portraying dolls. As there are no dance schools within 50 miles of us, contacting a dancer/choreographer to assist is virtually impossible.
So I'm thinking of going virtual! I'm considering looking at video posts on YouTube for ideas on the dances (Russian, Spanish, ballet, ragdoll) and doing the choreography myself ... it needs to be simple because of the age of my actors. Any other suggestions?!
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In a world of margarine, be butter!
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Replies:
Posted By: dancingbarefoot
Date Posted: 10/11/08 at 12:08pm
A lot of movement/choreography comes out of improvisation. It is probably a good idea to look at other work for inspiration but copying their movements will probably not suffice for you or for your actors. Perhaps watching animated cartoons featuring dolls or toys (Toy Story, Fantasia 2000 has a version of the Steadfast Tin Soldier, etc.) will help inspire also.
To come up with movement, I would suggest doing some improv to explore and find movement that works on your own body (or even have your actors do the improvising). Find music that sounds playful or matches the doll character you are working on, if you feel you need music to help inspire movement. Or, you could just use the music that the choreography is for (although sometimes that can be limiting when you're just trying to come up with ideas).
Think (or have the actor think) about what kind of doll is being portrayed, for instance a rag doll would obviously move differently than a doll with joints, which would move differently than a molded figure, etc. A lot of choreography is about character study, so acting-class improv exercises can usually be applied. Once you have sort of a vocabulary of movements for the character, try drawing from that vocabulary to create the dance.
I created a short ballet for some dance students a few years ago based on a story where dolls and flowers came to life. In parts where the whole group was dancing, I took the same basic movements but had the dancers modify the movement to fit their character (for instance the spanish doll had a bit more flare in her arms, the rag doll sort of flung her arms rather than positioning, and the jester jumped more and also added little handstands and silly faces to whatever she was doing). Think of creating variations on a theme and don't be afraid to re-use movement. A lot of novice choreographers make the mistake of creating one long string of new movements. Just like in music, the audience enjoys recurring motifs and patterns.
Hope that is helpful!
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Knowledge, Passion, Dance
http://danceadvantage.net - Dance Advantage
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Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 10/12/08 at 7:18pm
dancingbarefoot ... that is tremendously helpful! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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In a world of margarine, be butter!
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Posted By: dancingbarefoot
Date Posted: 10/13/08 at 11:26pm
Glad I could help! Best of luck and keep us updated on how it turns out!
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Knowledge, Passion, Dance
http://danceadvantage.net - Dance Advantage
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Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 2/13/09 at 8:03am
An update ... I watched MANY youtube videos on Russian, Spanish, ballet, and ragdoll dances and took the simplest movements to create the dances for each character. The movements were repetative, as you suggested, and turned out very well. The music needed to be short (30-45 second) pieces, which turned out to be more difficult to find than the actual choreography ... LOL. Overall, the audience LOVED the dolls!!! Very playful and doll-like.
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In a world of margarine, be butter!
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