Still about what makes a choreo great
February 9th 2009 04:54
Training LDA Pro Team at the SSC 09
As the shows from Kim and Alex, Dave and Zoe were proof enough of course show moves, tricks, dips and magic are things that will always keep the public in love with a routine. On the other hand technique and pure dance beauty will enthral everyone in the same way, I’m still sighting when I think of Jordan and Tatiana. Some people don’t need theme, costumes, looking up, don’t need props, some don’t even need music, only their dance skills kills the watcher.
Especially for couple dancing two things will show very well on stage: how much training they had, and how many times they performed the choreo for a public… The best show moves are the ones you don’t see either coming or going. The transitions have to be smooth as… It is great to perform something new for the first time at a big event but the following performances on stage are usually much better than the first one. It’s sometimes worth getting a small public to perform to before going to a big event. It’s about the confidence you get.
The amount of training done before the big day will show in how clean the choreo is. I’ve seen a few small groups that forget that if you have only a few people on stage the choreo has to be much cleaner than if you have a big group.
Cleanliness is more important that velocity. Some dancers think that if it fast it is good and everyone will only think about how fast the routine is. Wrong, the faster it is the cleaner it has to be, every movement has to be perfect, every arm has to stretch it fully if they are to be stretched. Half movements ruin a routine.
The clean, fast routine usually appears slower that it is because good dancers make it look fast but easy.
I was once in a doctor near my ballet school straight after training and I was all flushed, sweaty, tired. An old lady looked at me and asked what I was doing to what I answered “ballet”. She only asked:
- How come? It looks so easy and light and soft?
That is the trick. Make it look easy… and light, even if it is fast. Motion Couture did a beautiful job with that and I’ll say a bit more about them in my next post.
One detail that has to be taken in consideration in a routine is a scenic technique: where do you want the public to focus, do you want the attention divided or not. For example, in Jaime’s and Liz choreo all I could see was Jaime’s spotted boxer. If they were not sooo good I wouldn’t be able to see anything else. I still laugh every time I think of those boxers… but for any sort of performance you can’t forget that people moving on the back can divide the attention so it has all to be studied. If you want complete attention to a particular piece and more effect to something specific, remember to make everything else completely still. If you want people to be overwhelmed in their senses move all elements in different directions. That is how it works.
Novelty is the last thing I can think of as important in a choreo, but it’s one of the first the public will notice. IUAC from Melbourne gave me the shivers with a start in slow motion they used. Not that it is something never used before but it was different from all else and gave such a great effect to the choreo.
That is how much they have trained: until they dropped!
Last year we performed a “zoukaton” routine at the congress, a fast zouk to reggaeton music. It was different, sexy and oh! so much fun, we then took it to Brisbane’s Brazilian Congress. Jaime’s creation may have influenced others a bit as we have seen a few other zouk routines to reggaeton this year. I had a few people coming to me to say a lot of nice things about the choreo and how different it was. This congress he came up with a routine that was unbelievable again. This time it was for LDA Pro Team. Half zouk, half salsa shines. I simply loved it. The costume was beautiful, and things were happening everywhere, all the time, making the most of the divided attention thing. The zouk was heartfelt, using the music fully, with tricks and dips and changing partners, the shines was so clean and good I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. I’m bias but who cares, I loved it! That was in my opinion a great example of a work of art!
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