Picture it: A rehearsal room, [insert year to complete this perfect Golden Girls reference here]. You’re about to teach choreography to a cast with various levels of dance or movement experience; Some of them have taken dance for years, while others have never learned a dance combination in their life.
But you’re not worried; Why? Because you came prepared, that’s why!
Your choreography is challenging enough to keep the dancers excited, but also accessible enough to allow the less experienced to gain confidence and a new skill. And on top of all that, you have a solid game plan to teach it all effectively and efficiently. How? Because you’re about to read the rest of this, duh!! :)
First of all, you don’t need to be Bob Fosse to be a successful choreographer…
If you’re reading this, it’s most likely because choreography is new(er) territory. As a choreographer myself, I’m aware that I’m totally biased when I say that coming up with dance numbers has to be one of the most challenging aspects of the creative process, but MAN, is it rewarding!
I am also a firm believer that you don’t have to be a skilled dancer to create choreography; you just need an active imagination and openness to exploring movement (just make sure you clear out any hard furniture or potentially sharp objects before you start experimenting at home; your shins and hands will thank you). Got everything cleared? Amazing! Now… let’s get to creating!
Set yourself up for success:
Fully immerse yourself in the music
The more familiar you are with the music, the easier it will be to come up with movement to go along with it. When working on a specific dance number, I tend to listen to the song on repeat. Like, nonstop. While I do that, I listen to/for three things:
The lyrics - what are they saying?
The instrumentation - Are there certain hits that stand out that would be good to accompany with movement?
The overall mood or feeling of the number - Does the song grow at all? Is there any sort of story, or is the number just a fun excuse to dance? (Both are possibilities!)
I also find it helpful to follow along with the score or libretto to fully visualize the song. Being able to mark sections within the score is extremely useful, and helps with communicating to your music director where you are in the music. (Bonus points!)
Not a music reader? That’s perfectly fine! Following along with the lyrics in the libretto and making markers for where in the soundtrack each section is can also be extremely effective.
While creating, work within the abilities of your cast and, when possible, LAYER!!
As you start experimenting with choreography, you want to make sure you’ll provide content that will make everyone look good and, most importantly, feel confident. If the majority of your cast is inexperienced, you don’t want to create something that will set them up for failure, but neither do you want to just give them step touches and the occasional jazz hand. #boring, as the kids say. This is where the element of layering comes in.
Depending on the size and breakdown of your cast, I find it extremely beneficial to create different dance groups within the same song. For any given number, it may look like this:
Principles - generally the leads of the show, or soloist(s) in the song
Featured Dancers - those in the cast that are most experienced or comfortable dancing.
Movers/Ensemble - those who are maybe less skilled as dancers, but still have great energy and stage presence. (I usually like to give this group a fun name in theme with the show or number!)
Having these groups not only gives everyone on stage an opportunity to shine, but also makes the number more exciting for the audience to watch as well! You don’t have to get too crazy with changing up the choreography, either; Sometimes creating the fullest, most challenging movement first and then pairing it down to a slightly simpler version with moments of unison is variation enough. Additionally, breaking down musical numbers like this can allow you to maximize your rehearsal time by staggering each group's call before putting the number together.
Which way is better to choreograph and teach?
My honest answer? Both! There are always going to be people in the cast who prefer learning dances one way over the other, so having both options ready, if able, can be extremely helpful and ultimately less of a headache for you in the rehearsal room. Counts are usually the simplest way to teach and learn choreography initially, but when starting to sing and dance together, word association with specific moves can be a huge benefit.
Lastly, staggering is stellar
Use rehearsal time efficiently!
When teaching choreography, the initial instinct may be to call everyone at once and to work from the top. To quote those mysterious kids from earlier again, “That ain’t the vibe…” This is not always the case, but I have discovered over the years that working slightly out of order to teach the different dance groups separately will allow you to give each level of experience the time and attention it needs, which will inevitably maximize your rehearsals by lessening the amount of time needed with the full group when threading it all together.
Trust your abilities and just have fun!
At the end of the day, there really isn’t a “wrong” way to create and teach choreography; you just have to find a system that works best for you within the structure of your rehearsal schedule! I find the biggest key to success is being extremely organized ahead of time, especially knowing the total number of people in each song and who they are each playing.
Using this Character Breakdown Spreadsheet has become a huge asset when planning my dance numbers, as it provides all of those details in one place. A win for sanity!
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