Choreography: the Art of Creating and Arranging Dance or Movement

Most dancers have experienced that moment when some outside stimulus causes them to imagine movement, it can be a piece of music, hearing a unique sound that is rhythmic but non-musical, a personal or emotional experience, the discovery of some new and interesting pattern of movement in total silence, reading a poem or story that demands interpretation in movement, and/or world events that drive you to choreograph. Depending on how you are stimulated, the movement may come first and the music next or vice versa. Of course one of the more powerful stimulants for choreography is money! While we all love to choreograph dance for the personal pleasure, the reality of dance as a profession is that we are often required to choreograph dance or movement for projects that are not always emotive or intellectually stimulating, but the money allows us to do those works we love.

Some believe that movement always comes first and that the music comes later. The supporters of this method of choreography also like to use formulas and complicated schematics to create their works. I once had a young choreographer proudly show me how her professor had taught her how to draw a schematic of movement and "mirror" the movement so that you could reverse the choreography and create a very nice symmetrical pattern, that repeated itself over, and over, and over again! Some also like to "borrow" movement from their students and dancers. Most of us have had a choreographer telling us to improvise, to "explore movement". Don't misunderstand me, I realize that teaching choreography to a class of eager students is not exactly the same as choreographing a piece. But some use that method to create new works, and while that may well be choreography, it is at best a "group effort".

In nature there are sounds, birds sing, frogs croak, trees sigh in the wind and thunder rolls, so sound is a natural part of our environment. In many cases the sounds we hear in nature are imitated in music, the rhythms and beats of music often can be found in the natural background sounds created by animals, insects and other natural sources.

Movement is also seen in nature, most animals move, usually with grace and power. Early humans no doubt observed the beauty of movement as saber-toothed tigers loped after prey, gazelle leaped across the savannah, and waves of grass undulated in the wind. A visit to any site where early humans painted in caves will give you a clear understanding of their careful observation of movement. My feeling is that far in the distant past, one of our neolithic ancestors found a hollow log and while beating on it to drive any snakes out, realized he liked the sound it made. After a time they learned to beat upon hollow logs and one night, while one cave person beat out a rhythm, others listened to it and rose slowly, allowing the power of the music to enter them and... danced! No complicated formulas, no schematics, or computer programming, just free movement to rhythms beaten on a hollow log around a fire...

(www.discoverydancegroup.org/webdoc10.htm)