Hey gang!
Drex here from DrexFactor.com.
For most of the past year I’ve been uploading
video blogs that cover individual aspects
of dancing with poi and now I want to take
the next 3 months to talk about how you can
choreograph using a lot of that information.
This month we’re going to start off with
a super important skill for choreographing
that’s called blocking.
Before we dive in, I just want to take a moment
to give a shout out to the friends of the
channel!
Big thanks to Dark Monk, Emazing Lights, Flowtoys,
Spinballs, and Ultra Poi for helping to make
the videos on this channel possible.
You can visit them all on the web by following
the links down in the description of this
video.
One really popular approach to choreographing
a piece is to start with a piece of music
that you’d like to have accompany your performance.
A lot of times a piece of music will get me
inspired to move in a particular way or it’ll
give me an idea for a story I’d like to
tell through it.
Either way, though, if you’re choreographing
to a full song you’ll almost certainly have
to block it out.
Blocking is breaking the song up into small
pieces so you know exactly how much time you
have to cover for each of them.
This lets you keep track of emotional beats
in the music as well as pace your overall
piece.
For this example, I’m going to block out
the beginning of a song from the YouTube audio
library called Club Thump by Gunnar Olsen.
To do this, break out a piece of paper and
draw three columns.
Label those columns Time, Measures, and Changes.
We’re going to be tracking how long each
section is in terms of total length, how many
measures it covers, and what the characteristics
of the music are in each of them.
Now, I selected this song specifically because
there’s no fade in, so it’s easy to tell
where the song starts.
Let’s have a listen.
Our intro consists of one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight,
two-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight, three-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight,
four-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight of
this very spare, minimalist kind of arrangement
with the keyboards and the drums.
So, with that in mind I’m going to write
out that from 0 to 14 seconds I have 4 measures
of that piano melody with minimal instrumentation.
After those first four 8-counts we have a
washy series of synth chords fill out the
sound for another four 8-counts.
Give it a listen: one, two, three, and four.
It’s really, really common that you find
sections like this that come in even numbers.
Occasionally there will be a turnaround or
something that’s a single 8-count or a song
with a trickier structure, but looking out
for even numbers is almost always a good idea
with this.
So I’m going to write down that from 15
seconds to about 29 seconds I have 4 measures
of washy synth chords.
So next up we have a dropout for an 8-count
and then three 8-counts of a bouncy bass synth
riff.
Take a listen!
So with that in mind, I’m going to write
that from 30 seconds to 48 seconds I have
4 measures with a drop and bass synth.
For the next 8 8-counts there’s a section
that includes a syncopated staccato riff.
Here’s what it sounds like.
Cool.
So this is going to take us all the way to
a minute twenty.
What I’ll write is that between 49 seconds
and a minute 20 we have that staccato riff
for 8 measures.
And that’s the first part of this song blocked
out.
So what do I do with this information?
Well, I can use these different sections to
think of how to write phrasework.
Let’s say I want to have a different theme
for each section of this song.
The first section is very quiet and minimalist,
so I’ll want to write out a 4-measure phrase
with slow but direct movements.
That is, when I’m moving from spot to spot
I’m doing so in a straight, direct line
rather than curved.
For the next section, I want to add some indirect
movements to fill out space like those synth
riffs are.
For the next section, I’m going to use the
dropout to play with some dynamics and go
back to direct movements for that first 8,
then open up my onstage volume with some flowers
and chaines turns.
After that, I’m going to go to some super
techy antibrids for 4 measures and for the
last 4 measures initiate movements from my
feet and lower body to provide some contrast.
There’s really no rhyme or reason to how
I assigned these sections.
These were just themes I wanted to explore
for each of them.
I can do structured improv in each of the
sections I’ve outlined or fully choreograph
the whole thing.
I think in this I’m going to choreograph
the first two sections and do structured improv
with the ideas I’ve outlined for the latter
3.
Let’s see how it turns out!
Cool, I like how that turned out!
Next month I’ll cover a different method
for writing choreography that’s a little
less mechanical.
For now, I hope this gave you some ideas of
where to start in choreographing your own
pieces.
If you wrote something using this method that
you like, throw it up on Instagram with the
hashtag #drexfactorpoi--I’d love to take
a look at it!
Thanks so much for watching.
If you got anything out of this video, please
hit that like and subscribe button to help
my channel grow!
Special thanks to all my awesome supporters
on Patreon--you guys are the ones that make
these videos possible.
If you’re not a current backer and would
like to sign up to support the work that I
do, please go to patreon.com/drexfactorpoi.
Thanks again and peace!
