Jade savage started this discussion ·
Wondering what people who have competed or performed solo recommend for creating a performance piece? Music first? Combinations? Stringing them together? Costume?
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I took a choreograhpy class for bellydance before. and i know its not the SAME.. but it was very interesting. I cant even say how much HOMEwork and work in general it was... but to sum it all up quickly we picked the song first.. we researched as much as we could about this song. how many versions, who was the first person to make it, whats it about whats it mean ( it goes on) gosh i dont even remember everything without looking at all my homework lol. it got as deep as closing our eyes an writing down what colors we saw, what emotions and textures we felt, and tried putting that all into a costume and in our choreography. ( it got really deep). I think in order we did song, choroeography then costume. im sure theres no wrong or right. =) I would just do what you feel. what u see. I am not sure how it goes with pole I have not yet made a choreography for pole. I wish u all the best luck =) Sorry i know this didnt really help any lol
Basically I will pick a song first. I will narrow a selection down to maybe 5 or 6 songs and then I will listen to them over and over until one totally speaks to me. Then this becomes what I listen to over and over and over again. Some of my best choreo comes when I am doing other things like working or driving. I will see certain moves at certain points of the music. I study the song, changes in the music, timing, etc and break it into 1-2 minute pieces. I will freestyle and play with the tricks I want and have a notepad and/or video camera near by. Generally while I am working a piece the costume comes together. This is just how I do this and what works for me.
My process is similar, pick song, edit song if needed, pick theme, story or emotions to reflect song....then my best ideas come right as I'm falling asleep, or driving! I listen to my songs a lot while driving!
Reyn ·
i will definitely pick a song or a theme first (usually song first but I did once decide I just had to dress up as Poison Ivy so had to find the music to fit). Once I've got my song I will free dance to it for a while, recording every session and keeping clips of all the things that seemed to work really well. I will start a document with a list of moves I'd love to use and start a little spreadsheet where I type lyrics in one column and insert moves next to the lyrics when I decide I want to try to put one in a certain spot of the song...Yes, I am really that weird. I also like to cut my song into several pieces so I can choreograph and/or practice it a little bit at a time. If it is going to have a prominent theme then I start to think about costuming during my choreography stage because maybe I want to use the costume in my dance. =)
