Choreography: The Basics

Jenny Roche, Stephanie Burridge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000589894
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Dance

This book provides a comprehensive and concise overview of choreography both as a creative skill and as a field of study, introducing readers to the essential theory and context of choreographic practice.

Providing invaluable practical considerations for creating choreography as well as leading international examples from a range of geographical and cultural contexts, this resource will enhance students' knowledge of how to create dance. This clear guide outlines both historical and recent developments within the field, including how choreographers are influenced by technology and intercultural exchange, whilst also demonstrating the potential to address social, political and philosophical themes. It further explores how students can devise and analyse their own work in a range of styles, how choreography can be used in range of contexts – including site-specific work and digital technologies – and engages with communities of performers to give helpful, expert suggestions for developing choreographic projects.

This book is a highly valuable resource for anyone studying dancemaking, dance studies or contemporary choreographic practice and those in the early stages of dance training who wish to pursue a career as a choreographer or in a related profession.

1THE JOURNEY BEGINS

DOI: 10.4324/​9781003020110-2

Growing up in urban environments we experience many encounters with dance: street performances, dance studio and school shows, productions in theatres, gallery spaces, outdoors, and much more. Dance predominates in the digital arena from pop culture, informative dance classes in every genre on YouTube, and live streaming of professional companies that coexist in a crowded space. Added to this mix are television shows featuring many different acts and dance genres in an eclectic mix that entertains and excites.

Traditionally dance has an essential purpose for communication with ancestors, the worshipping of gods, and the retelling of myths and legends that are allegories for the mores and laws of the society. Universally the seasons, the lunar calendar, harvesting cycles and special occasions such as weddings, births, and deaths have been marked and celebrated through dance. Around the world, rich dance practices occur where the purpose, intention, and symbolism of every movement, gesture, prop, costume, and sound is meaningful. Complex rules of societies might require that parts of the celebrations are only known to individuals like priests and senior leaders of both patriarchal and matriarchal societies (see Glossary) while the audience, or participants, may be permitted to join in or watch some parts and not others.

Dance for public performances both locally and internationally prevails across cultures as contemporary artists work in hybrid forms that not only embrace their heritage with deep respect but re-imagine exciting departure points through choreography that is expressive of current times and human concerns. Choreographers throughout history have been at the edge, pushing forward with new directions, new concepts and creations that confront society, stereotypes, and preconceptions about dance.

This chapter introduces options to begin formalised training in dance and choreography. Beginning with dance schools in the private sector, the community and the education system it follows the progression from these first steps to options for furthering a career in professional dance and choreography. Choreography occurs within structures such as a dance company, a project for independent artists or collectives, in theatres, festivals or site-specific spaces. The mixing and interweaving of genres has made dance today exciting and innovative from classical ballet to traditional dance, digital dance, musical theatre and street dance. Key periods are important to understand this unfolding story and the role of individual change-makers who have shaped this evolution.

FIRST STEPS

Most young dancers take their first steps in a private dance studio, the school classroom, a community group or in non-formal settings such as with a group of friends who share a love of dancing. In the digital space, an interest in choreography can be inspired by watching movies, and pop stars in video clips; for instance, the dance routines of K-pop stars and other commercial groups have spawned a generation of dancers who copy the moves, adapt them and make up variations. Being engaged viewers and audience members is the first step towards a dance career. Pathways towards professional dance occur through taking classes to an advanced level, completing an accredited dance course as a school subject, auditioning for professional company training programmes, or succeeding through direct casting for a company or a production. While these avenues open up opportunities for emerging performers and choreographers, countless dance enthusiasts perform with community groups, university dance groups, in projects or simply enjoy recreational dance classes while maintaining their mainstay employment. Encountering the idea of choreography, and working towards making dances, occurs in all the above settings.

Private dance studios

A structured approach to learning may include attendance at regular dance classes to develop techniques and body training that enable skills of the genre to be honed. Some genres, like classical ballet, work through an internationally recognised grade system based on the completion of exams such as the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), Commonwealth Society of Teachers Dancing (CSTD), the Cecchetti method and others. RAD states that

Students start with the Dance to Your Own Tune curriculum, move through Pre-Primary and Primary levels and then into eight Graded and six Vocational Graded levels. Students can move from Graded Examinations to Vocational Graded Examinations at an appropriate time, or they can study both pathways simultaneously

(Royal Academy of Dance 2021)

While private dance schools focus mainly on technique, students work with their teachers to learn repertoire for not only end of year shows, but events like eisteddfods, local and international competitions. Often the genesis of a choreographic career is a talented senior dance school student being asked to create a dance for the younger ones – sometimes this sparks a personal interest in choreography and, with an insightful teacher as mentor, the recognition of talent that can be nurtured and challenged. As ballet is a genre with a strong narrative basis, most ballet school concerts work within a plotline that can accommodate both young and senior students, giving everyone a chance to perform and play a part. Other formats are concert-style programmes where items are presented by each class – such shows offer a range of genres from ballet to contemporary, jazz and show dancing and may give opportunities for student choreography.

Although much of this story pertains to classical ballet training, other dance forms operate within similar structures. Street dance is thriving as young people respond to the images they view on social media, want to learn to dance and be part of a culture that not only embraces certain sorts of ‘moves’ but also fashion, lifestyle choices and the feeling of being part of a global ‘scene’ where they can express themselves and their voices can be heard. Private studios have tapped into this, and numerous brands are available worldwide with some even offering the promise of work in video clips with stars responding directly to a young dancer’s dream. Millennium Dance Complex, for instance, founded in 2002, is an internationally renowned commercial dance studio in Los Angeles. The studio works with A-list clientele and employs the top choreographers of this generation becoming one of the biggest brands in dance and entertainment (Millennium Dance Complex n.d.).

In concluding this section, it should be noted that although most private studios create a nurturing environment for dancers, some still operate under a top-down authoritarian system (Lakes 2005) where students are pushed to an aspiration of perfection, are bullied and even abused. This negative side has been the subject of several national reviews resulting in organisations such as Ausdance National in Australia and One Dance UK implementing national guidelines for a Code of Conduct and Safe Dance Practices to address some of these issues.

Dance within the education system

The past couple of decades has led to realigning the arts as essential to the understanding of the world and our shared humanity. With millions of refugees on the move globally, the importance of dance has been recognised by UNESCO and other organisations as a non-verbal language that communicates through the body. It breaks down language barriers and can be a way of communicating across multiple borders (Burridge and Svendler Neilsen 2020). Dance educators have responded by promoting dance as a school subject at all levels of the curriculum and an increasing number of dance graduates from Bachelor, Master’s to PhD level undertake careers across related fields. This is exciting but not without obstacles as dance juggles for space in the curriculum. A recent talk by Sir Ken Robinson claims that “Dance is as important as maths” (Robinson and Aronica 2018). This YouTube TED Talk gleaned millions of hits and sparked debate worldwide.

While dance in most countries at the primary and high school level is still part of physical education, dance at the pre-tertiary sector stands alone as a subject in many countries with an accredited curriculum and well-defined areas of study.

Accredited curriculum courses

Dancers might begin to consider dance as a career option while completing a two-year, pre-third level accredited dance course within the school education system at A-Level (UK), Junior College or Year 12 (Australia). Most courses are based on the three pillars of ‘making, creating and reflecting’. These tenets, with some variations, can be found from Britain to Australia, New Zealand to Taiwan, European countries and the USA.

• Creating
  As a general concept, this incorporates the notion of a process rather than product orientation for problem-solving that includes experimentation, improvisation, defining, selecting, and the incorporation of a range of skills. In this process what may be termed ‘breathing time’ is essential – gestation that allows ideas to evolve and encompasses learning to ask better questions, and not simply finding solutions, is an essential element in this process.
• Presenting
  Multiple outcomes result from the creation process and individuals or groups could come to solutions via different routes; hence, they might present them in various ways and this should generally be included as part of the assessment requirement. For example, an oral presentation, a video, a folio of drawings, a dance or a piece of music could be presented – there are also interdisciplinary options such as using choreography to illustrate a science experiment or a mathematical formula. Presenting can encompass cooperative, collaborative approaches and include group assessment – recognising that there may be multiple variants to a choreographic assignment is part of the process and an invaluable learning experience.
• Appraising
  Appraising can include a variety of parameters that can incorporate summative and formative assessment, teacher and peer assessment. Problem-solving offers multiple choices, strategies and creative solutions with rarely a right or wrong answer. Appraising should incorporate the appreciation of difference, the imaginative way that students address the task and the methods they employed. These methods can both incorporate short activities and lead to long-term projects and explorations with a developmental focus and time orientation towards self-learning. Inherent in these strategies are opportunities for non-linear time frames, lateral and parallel teaching methods where ‘connectedness’ is elemental and team teaching encouraged.

Contemporary dance technique is typically the basis for training while most courses also offer street, jazz and other genres as part of the programme. The term ‘contemporary’, although contested by some dance scholars, is used as an umbrella term or catch-all phrase that involves a spectrum of movement styles activated in current (contemporary) times (Cenci 2018). Like all dance genres, a contemporary class begins with a warm-up that has reference to techniques. Once codified or structured techniques such as Graham, Limon and Cunningham were taught but more often today instructors typically tap into their own preferences, experiences and interests to teach a hybrid class. An essential part of any class is learning short sequences and phrases of dance that enable students to connect movement and express themselves through a longer sequence. Contemporary dance devours space and moves in a linear frame between the floor with grounded movements, medium and higher-level planes interacting with shifts in directions and dynamics. The flow and transitions between the set movements make contemporary dance not just compelling viewing for an audience but empowering and joyful for the dancer. The sequences learnt in the dance class are embodied and passed on physically from teacher to student. With some personal variations, this vocabulary usually forms the basis of early student choreography.

An essential feature of choreographic modules is the combination of theory and practice; dance history and learning about key eras and artists inform personal decision making affecting what approach a student might take. These journeys are exciting but also measured and calibrated incorporating specific tasks with explorations that move from building gestures to small phrases, working with partners and small groups and incorporating themes – these are the building blocks to making larger works.

Reflection and critical analysis occur through student journaling, discussion with peers and articulating choreography in terms of the intention, ideas and resolution. This holistic approach underpins pre-tertiary study and parallels the learning journey of making a dance through an active reflective approach. This process is an important stepping stone to a career in dance pre-empting study at third level (see Chapters 3 and 5).

Electives or co-curricular dance

Students in a school elective or co-curricular dance programme typically begin making dances by choosing music that the group would like to work with. In these early stages, they often work collectively, sharing ideas and making it up as they go along. There is usually a goal to work towards such as a concert, an inter-school presentation, festival or competition. Visiting professional choreographers could be hired by the school to work with the group and the outcome of this process has pluses and minuses – the plus is working with a talented, experienced artist who can collaborate with the students to help them articulate and synergise their ideas into a coherent, imaginative choreography.

Negative outcomes occur if the choreographer comes with a fixed idea, auditions the dancers and either elimin...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Endorsement Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The journey begins
• 2 Choreographic notebook
• 3 Broader skills a choreographer needs
• 4 Choreographic (re)evolution, documentation and preservation
• 5 A choreographic voice
• 6 Choreography for sites, screens and community practice
• Conclusion: next steps on your choreographic journey
• Glossary
• References
• Index