Competition help!

kimpole started this discussion · 8/7/2011

Hi. I am brand new and looking for some help. I have entered into a pole competition (first ever!). I am really struggling with my routine. I have never choreographed anything before. Someone said that it is best to freestyle a routine rather than stick to rigid timings if you are new. I am really nervous - I don't want to muck it up. It's less than a month away. Any tips greatly welcomed. :)

2 replies

TinyDancer04 · 8/7/2011
Have you picked a song that your dancing to? I would suggest listening to the song with a pen and paper and picturing and writing down where you think specific moves would suit- (in the chorus for eg). Then putting it into practice and working out how much time you have in between for transitional moves. The other way is to just practice dancing to the song and doing the moves where you think they fit.
Cinara · 8/7/2011
Welcome and congrats on your first comp! Personally, I prefer to do choreographed than freestyle routines, but it depends on the person. If you have a dance background, or freestyle regularly freestyle is probably easy. I don't have either so I sometimes find that I get stuck and don't know what to do. The other thing you can do is a semi-choreographed routine. Plan beforehand what tricks you want to do, and roughly when you want to them. Then freestyle it and film. You'll probably find bits you really like and then you can keep them in the routine. You'll find you slowly start choreographing from there. Plan moments of hip rolls, body rolls and the like that you can be flexible with on the timing so you have something to do if you're ahead or behind, or just forget what to do. It really depends on what works for you though. I have a gymnastics background so I make pole routines as though they're floor routines. A bit of dance, three separate combos of tricks in place of tumble runs, a floorwork sequence, a pirouette and spins in place of the leap series and acro-gym-acro combination. So you'll probably find what works for you. For now just have a bit of a play around and you'll figure it all out. Good luck!