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“The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.” — Agnes de Mille
As a dancer, you’re now performing in different techniques and styles. You love being onstage, the audience reactions, the respect and esteem people show for your wonderful profession. You want to go on forever.
There are, though, a couple of other options. Maybe at school you did improvisation, perhaps even choreography. Maybe there are movement ideas you’d like to try. If so, find a tactful moment (not backstage) to ask the director. Companies usually want new choreographers — many theatres organise programmes of new pieces created by the dancers. This is a great way to start; you can try a short piece, to music of your choice, in a relatively protected situation. Keep it compact, with a small cast. Other dancers will also be choreographing, so casting gets complicated. Some dancers will be in several different pieces — tiring for them and frustrating for choreographers all wanting the same people. This will be discussed at the start, and you’ll have to compromise and adapt.
“And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, buy of their gifts also. For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul“ — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Keep your production values feasible. You don’t need a big set which can’t fit into the programme. Don’t make your creation too long. Ideally the director should set a maximum duration of twelve minutes. If you want to go on longer, fight it. Even a short work requires lots of preparation; you may only get about an hour’s rehearsal for each minute of your piece. These rehearsals are fitted in around the main repertoire, so time is precious – don’t be over-ambitious. You need quality, not quantity — all choreographers should bear this in mind.
“She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky“. — Monique Duval
Now — what you want to do? What’s your starting point? Is it a particular musical composition or style? Is there a film (novel, painting, statue, or a historical event) that has touched you? Relationships between performers? Do you want abstract movement, or a stage full of light and shadow, with narratives in different areas? Is there a moral, social or political concept — if so, can you make it comprehensible? The clearer you are, and the more consistently you keep to your idea, the better it will be. This needs self-discipline, honesty and intellectual rigour. Prepare everything beforehand, so you know exactly what you’re doing. Never come to rehearsal unprepared. Get into a studio, brainstorm your ideas, write them down or film them as starting-points for your rehearsal. One hour of rehearsal per minute leaves you no wiggle-room. The more you plan in advance, the better; also your dancers have been at it all day, and they won’t want to wait for your Muse.
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“Muses work all day long, then at night get together and dance…“. — Edgar Degas
Treat dancers properly — respect their minds and bodies. If you become autocratic, you lose support. There may be suggestions; consider honestly if they might be useful. There may be requests. Someone may want to turn left instead of right. Be generous, unless you really think it would destroy your concept. Have a Plan B for when you can’t get what you want; it’s better than losing their good will, and may even be preferable to your original.
“The choreographic process is exhausting. It happens on one’s feet after hours of work, and the energy required is roughly the equivalent of writing a novel and winning a tennis match simultaneously.” – Agnes de Mille
Ask yourself constantly “Why?”. What is this step for? Is it necessary? Everything should advance your concept; otherwise, cut it. If you’re using a waltz, don’t fill it with balancés, merely because they fit the time-signature. Linking steps should be used when necessary, not for their own sake (unless your piece consists only of linking steps, which might be quite interesting).
The other consideration is safety. Some dancers may have trouble executing your movement. Be sensible. What seems easy to you can feel uncomfortable, unmusical or uncoordinated to a different body from a different background. Possibly you can help by careful demonstration, but remember that what you require may not be possible and may even injure someone. Partnering work is dangerous. Consider relative weights, skill, proportions and timing before you ask dancers to take risks. Your vision may not be viable, so find an alternative — don’t force anyone to do something unsafe.
“Choreography is simpler than you think. Just go and do, and don’t think so much about it. Just make something interesting“. — George Balanchine
After creating it, you’ll have to clean and rehearse it, which can be hard. You’re very close to the piece; you may have trouble viewing it objectively. You’ll have to develop “the eye”; to stand back dispassionately, note problems of timing, placement and execution, find answers, and implement them. Someone may say, “But no, that was always on seven – why are you changing it now?” This can be difficult, as though they were challenging your authority. Don’t get emotional; say clearly and consistently what you want. Find the definitive version and stick with it. It’s easier for everyone and better for the production. Stay reasonable, polite and objective, and persuade your dancers that you know what you want, and you’re right.
“Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays on“. — George Balanchine
Other things, too, will be your problem and your responsibility. How should it look? What about costume? (Don’t be over-ambitious; the costumes come from available stocks in the theatre, and there won’t be much of a budget). The piece is short and people perform other works on the same evening — don’t give them elaborate costume changes when there’s no time. Costume can impede or conceal movement, complicate partnering or floor-work, and damage your masterpiece. The same applies to sets and lighting. Lighting rehearsals take time. The more cues you demand, the longer they take to set, and the more chances there will be for accidents in performance.
Before your first rehearsal all the relevant departments (direction, wardrobe, lighting, sound, props, make-up, dramaturgy, publicity, sometimes performers) come to a meeting where you explain what you hope to do and discuss the feedback. It’s very valuable to everyone and forces you to organise your thoughts.
Have you got a title? Many people set happily off thinking they can call this dance “the Mozart” or something similar. (You could do that, but you’d need a good reason). There’ll be programme notes, cast-lists with credits for dancers, composer, collaborators and so on, and publicity material. There may be interviews, or a pre-première matinée, where you explain your idea to an audience. There’ll be photo calls, maybe a press conference. The general rehearsal might be open to the public, and you’ve got to lead that rehearsal, as you lead all the others, calmly and professionally. This is not the moment for any kind of mannerisms, however on edge you may feel. Take it on board, roll with it, find answers to the problems. It’s your learning curve — treasure the experience.
“The body is a source of amazing energy. This thing wants to live. It is a powerful engine. The brain (is) a reservoir of images, dreams, fears, associations, language. And it’s potential we can’t even begin to understand. Movement begins to negotiate the distance between the brain and the body, and it can be surprising what we find out about each other“. — Bill T. Jones
Curtain calls must be fast, brief, relevant and attractive so that the audience doesn’t get restless. You might get several calls — rehearse them carefully and thoroughly. You, the choreographer, may also have to go on — clear that with the director and build it into your concept. With luck you might even be asked to choreograph something else in a slightly larger context.
Choreography is very personal and instinctive, and there are not many places where you can find out how to do it. Workshops are great, because they start from the premise that young dancer-choreographers are relatively inexperienced, and you’ll get advice and feedback from the direction. Some schools do teach choreography. Supervised first attempts at it are good practice, and useful experience. There are a few written works dealing with some of the practicalities, for example, Doris Humphrey’s “The Art of Making Dances”.
I once went to a seminar organised by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, directed by a very famous choreographer and an equally famous composer. Six or seven young choreographers were there, the same number of composers, some very good dancers and a few musicians. We did a classical and a modern class every morning, then the directors would set the day’s theme. Each choreographer would be paired with a composer and two or three dancers and sent off to create a piece, two to five minutes long, using the theme and the resources available. We’d rehearse all afternoon, and that evening the pieces would be performed and critiqued. Next morning, we’d be sent off with another, different composer, new themes, new dancers, to create another piece, for performance that evening. And so on, every day for two weeks. This was exhausting but we learnt how to collaborate, how to stay concise, produce under pressure, and find fast, valid solutions. If you have a chance to do something similar, grab the opportunity.
“Crawling about on the floor like half-dead November flies is one thing, and dancing reels another.” — Ethel Smyth
It’s difficult initially not to copy steps or styles you’ve admired. Really good choreographers produce this effect on the emerging talents around them – you need honest, dispassionate self-appraisal to avoid this trap. It’s hard, but you must find your own movement style, personal and unique to you, not cloned from someone else’s idiom.
Of course you look at how other people have done it. There are neat little tricks which your developing choreographic eye will pick up and enjoy, solutions, entrances and exits, ways of using space, focus and dynamic. They’re the technical apparatus of choreography, a common resource, what scientists call “the body of knowledge”.
“Great artists are people who find ways to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike“. — Margo Fonteyn
Never allow yourself to pass off someone else’s style as your own– use the craft of choreography, but respect other people’s creative material. Anyone who knows will see at once that you’ve simply “borrowed” that step — you get no points for that. Audiences and directors want your own language, created by you from your own artistic self. Make it yourself, out of your own travail and torment; only then will you actually become a choreographer.
©Jeremy Leslie-Spinks
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