Creating Choreography Part 1

One of the requests I've had was for some advice for how to create your own combos and choreography. This is such a hard thing to do because I actually find creating choreography to be quite a personal thing. There are a lot of different ways people create choreo and there isn't really a wrong way. Personally, I find there is also a difference when it comes to creating shorter choreos versus longer ones. So with all of this information to cover I've decided to split this into 2 parts. This first part is going to be some general things to think about before you begin choreographing that work for me no matter what type of choreography I'm needing to create. And the second part will break down a little bit more how to choreograph depending on how long the routine is and the purpose and why I think there are differences. 

When you set out to choreograph, the first thing you need to consider is what you are choreographing for. Are you doing this for a class? A performance? A competition? Are there rules, guidelines, or parameters of any kind? Knowing and understanding this is very important. Nothing is worse than starting to choreograph and then crap... you can't do that move or the theme doesn't work, or it's not to the right level of the class. 

The second thing is to have a song or theme that you feel connected with. If you feel a connection it is going to make the process so much easier. And if this is something you are going to be working on for a while, you will be less likely to get sick of it. Now this isn't always possible if you are putting something together for a class, but it is still very helpful when you can apply it to the class setting as well. Having that connection can help with the creativity of coming up with the routine and will definitely help with the performance aspect. 

Once you have your parameters and your theme/song you are ready to start thinking about the content that is going to go into your choreo. A piece of advice that has always stuck with me is to put things into the choreo you know and love. This means that you probably should not try learning a whole bunch of new tricks or floorwork just for one routine... now if that's the journey you really want to have then go for it, but it definitely can make things stressful, especially if these goals are not being reached on the timeline you hoped for. Now this is not to say that you can't reasonably try to put in a new move or 2 (I have definitely done this for class and performances) but maybe hold off on it all being new. This is also a great opportunity to use tricks and movement that you love! When it's movement we love that really comes through in a performance, and it can really provide some confidence. It can also be fun to create some new and interesting combos with movement you're already familiar with. So with this in mind the next thing I do is make a list, either on paper or mentally, of what tricks and movement you would like to include in your choreo. Sometimes this is just "I really want this in there" and other times its "this move fits this part of the song or this theme so perfectly and I need to put it in there". And a list doesn't mean it all has to go in, or you can't change your mind, but for me it gives an outline to begin building from. 

The thing I do is listen to the song... a lot... especially for a performance, then it's a lot, a lot. When I'm listening to the song I start thinking about what tricks and movement I like for certain parts of the song. Sometimes something just fits a moment perfectly. This kind of mental prep gets me ready to actually start moving. Now not everyone does this kind of mental work first, some people begin with a freestyle or multiple freestyles. If you're not sure what works for you, try both. Once I've done the mental prep then that's when I start moving, some of it is a bit of freestyle and other parts are more like fitting in puzzle pieces. I know I want something in a certain spot and then I begin figuring out how to get there and then how to get out of it to the next thing. 

And that's where I'm going to leave things for now... the next part I'll talk more about actually putting things together and what I find the differences are between shorter choreography, longer choreography and different purposes.