Principles of Choreography

Mark A. Sheldon and Didi von Deck

Choreography is fun. It is an opportunity to be creative and express the music that we love. Good choreography, like any other art, communicates an idea or feeling to the audience.

Ballroom competition choreography operates in a special environment. We want to reflect the music, but we don't actually know the music in advance (though we can make some assumptions). We must be able to adapt to different sized floors and navigate among other couples. We also want to show ourselves off to best advantage when the judges are making their comparisons.

Our musicality and floorcraft workshops were concerned with how you actually make the corresponding adaptations. The point to be made here is that you cannot construct choreography with the idea that alignments, precise timings, and phrasing will be fixed. This workshop is will focus on four rules of competitive choreography:

Do what you do well.
At every point in your choreography, know what the main idea is and show that main idea to the maximum.
Keep it moving.
Maintain the character of the dance.

1 Do what you do well

Competitive choreography should show the couple to best advantage: Show what you do well, deemphasize what you don't do so well. For example, couples with a good sense of line and shape should design their choreography to show this off with picture figures and groups that emphasize changes of shape. Couples that spin and pivot well should include these elements. Conversely, if you don't pivot well, then minimize that and concentrate on, for example, linear swing. This does not mean you shouldn't improve your weak areas: just put on the competition floor today the things you do best now.

2 Know and show the main idea

Each section of choregraphy should have a main idea, some particular feature that you want the audience to notice. You cannot show several ideas at once: the audience will not know what to focus on. Pick one idea and do it to the maximum. Use whatever you can to direct audience's attention to the feature you want them to notice (you can use your eyes to great effect).

Rhythm
Shape
Swing or movement
Rotation
Stillness
Footwork
Speed

Good choreography will show a variety of these elements. Showing one idea usually means incorporating lots of contrast. For example, one might do several different shapes, repeat a movement twice with different rhythms, etc. Examples:

Spins and pivots in Waltz
Checked weave with pivot and sync double twist turn
Running weave in Waltz can be done for swing or shape (not both).
Spirograph
Throwaway with switch
Stalks in Tango (footwork)
Chassés and points in Tango.
Scatter chassés
Change of direction (in F and Q)
Five step

3 Keep it moving

To understand and use this rule effectively, we must first understand a term that has two different meanings in ballroom dancing: volume. Each couple has volume, the amount of space they appear to take up. A couple's volume is a function of their hold and shapes, and we always want the couple the have maximum volume.

But there is also the volume of the choreography: does it fill the floor. We feel there is an important distinction to be made between choreographing for a show versus a competition. In a show, you have the floor to yourselves, and a lack of volume will appear flat and weak to an audience. They see all the space, and you must fill it. However, in a competition, it is to your advantage to keep movements progressing around the floor as much as possible without a lot of meandering maneuvers. The audience is less aware of whether a couple's choreography fills the whole floor, because there are other couples on the floor. Keeping your dancing progressing around the the line of dance makes floorcraft easier (for you and others), but, more significantly, creates an impression of strength and movement in the audience. One of the floorcraft exercises is useful here: can you dance your choreography in a narrow corridor to maximize distance down LOD? Try it! And don't choreograph groups that frustrate this goal. For example, visiting a corner, then dancing a loop and returning to that corner is a waste of time, looks weak (even if amusing), and is a menace to other couples.

While we're on the subject, you should avoid staying in one place too long. Share an idea with the audience, then move on.

4 Maintain the character of the dance

Each dance has a particular character. A waltz has a lilting rhythm that brings to mind rise and fall and rotation. Foxtrot has a linear feel with an undercurrent of ebb and flow. Tango is a driving dance with strong rhythms, tension and release, rapid contrasts. Quickstep is about joy and freedom.

You may divert from the characteristic actions in your choreography, but realize that this creates a tension in the audience that should eventually resolve.

For example, a linear group in waltz should resolve to classic waltz. A running weave to a tumble turn is a common example. In foxtrot, one can follow a double reverse spin with a contracheck, or a three step.

It is a common belief that certain figures much be phrased in certain ways. For example, some say you must come out of a promenade or do a half natural turn on a strong (odd) bar. Not at all. In fact, the most basic figures, like the waltz natural turn or feather step in foxtrot, are wonderful endings to groups. Everyone in the audience will know that one idea is done, and now you're ready to do something else.

Examples: In Foxtrot: Open natural, outside spin, feather step started on 1234 versus 5678. In Tango: do not have to come out in PP on outside leg on 12.

Obey these rules, but keep it fresh

As choreographers, as artists, we are always searching for new ways to communicate our sense of the music to people. Here are some ideas for injecting some variety and novelty into your dancing. You may borrow figures from one dance and put them in your choreography for another — but you must reinterpret the figures for the new dance. (Stupid dancer trick: dance basic foxtrot with waltz technique.) Just be aware that some figures don't translate well. A feather finish screams foxtrot, and, while we can have fun doing it with waltz technique, your choreography is fighting the character of the dance.

Use an existing figure, but change the emphasis. For example, pivots are usually done to show rotation. But we can do pivots and spins in a way to show shape. This will change the technique and the amount of turn, of course, because you can't emphasize both rotation and shape. (The combination we call the spirograph is an example of this.)

Use a different alignment for a figure or combination. For example, you can take a three step DC (and people might not even recognize it). A few years ago, it was popular to take natural turning figures DC, which gives them a fresh look.

Example groups:

Waltz: Rolling chassé, back checks, reverse pivot, chassé to R, heel pull, curved feather, drop to same foot lunge, reverse spin and pivot, telespin, throwaway.
Tango: From PP, checks (SQQ...) drop to oversway, nat. spin/pivot (look at lady for 2, normal for two) to PP, prom points, L whisk, point back, step through.
Foxtrot: outside spin to feather or weave
Quickstep scatters (and variations). Heel pull, hairpin, blackbird. Kicks for rhythm and playfulness.