Hey gang!
Drex here from DrexFactor.com and today we’re
returning to the topic of writing choreography.
In my last dance vlog, we talked about using
blocking to break down different sections
of a song and to work our choreography around
it.
Today, we’re going to take a slightly different
approach.
What if I told you that to choreograph a dance
or poi routine, you don’t even need music
at all?
Madness, you say?
Let me show you how to do it and why it might
be a better idea than writing to a piece of
music.
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.
So first up: I will totally admit that there’s
something that feels super satisfying about
seeing dance and more specifically poi and
flow arts dance choreographed to a specific
piece of music.
At its best, this type of choreography really
works symbiotically with the music to enhance
your experience while also giving you another
level of art to appreciate.
But there’s also a few drawbacks.
First, it can come to feel overly mechanical,
especially when the way you accompany the
music becomes predictable to the audience.
A good choreographer can vary how they approach
accompanying the music, but it’s easy for
a novice to fall into this trap.
Second, when you choreograph to a specific
piece of music you may find that your choreography
is so closely matched to the song that there
isn’t any room to reinterpret it.
One of the great ways that dance can be made
to work as an art is by reinterpreting the
same choreography in multiple contexts.
Giving it a different emotional core or putting
it on different bodies or an ensemble.
When you choreograph too specifically to a
single piece of music you can lose the flexibility
to do this.
Third, the music can become a distraction.
Sometimes if you use a piece of music that’s
incredibly well known or is really unique
it can overwhelm the choreography so that
people wind up paying more attention to the
music than your dance.
It was actually fashionable in the European
Juggling scene for several years to write
pieces that were meant to work without accompaniment
at all.
The idea was to try and hold the audience’s
attention purely with the aesthetics of the
act itself without having to use music to
assist it.
I’ll also say that I just really like how
organic choreography written without the aid
of music can be.
It flows purely from the intention behind
it and there’s something I find really compelling
about that.
Okay...so the question is, then, how do you
choreograph in this way?
So blocking is clearly out, but this is one
of those cases where creating free-association
exercises can be really helpful.
I’m going to borrow one from a dance concert
I just went to this past weekend.
It’s made up of two components.
For the first component, I’m going to think
of someone whom I need to forgive.
Someone who has committed an infraction against
me or against whom I’m holding a grudge.
I’m going to write a short phrase around
that person.
Next, I’m going to think of what it would
mean to me to forgive them.
Again, I’m going to try and express this
concept through movement.
There’s no rules on how long or short either
of these phrases have to be.
Now that I have both, I put them together
into one piece of choreography meant to reflect
the dual nature of my resentment toward this
person as well as the catharsis that comes
from that act of forgiveness.
And here’s the fun thing: I can now reinterpret
this same phrase in a couple of different
ways.
Let’s say that overall I want to convey
the weight that this grudge has over me and
the slow process of letting go of the resentment.
With minimal changes, I can make this phrase
breathe in such a way that it takes on a timeless
quality that the original choreography might
have lacked.
Alternatively, I can reinterpret the phrase
filled with anger and the stark contrast of
wiping my hands clean of the situation.
Again, this requires some minimal changes,
but the core of the phrase is still intact.
Because the choreography isn’t wedded to
any one piece of music, I can also now put
my choice of music behind it to embellish
it in whatever way I see fit.
For instance I can put something tender underneath
it to make it feel more delicate and empathetic.
Or I could put something more percussive and
active under it, making it feel much more
lively and energetic.
Because there is no musical association built
into the phrase, I can now use music to accentuate
it in any way I want to.
Give this exercise a try!
See what context you can put your choreography
in and what interesting dynamics that pulls
out of it.
Or, if you want to go the European Circus
route, write a piece with no music whatsoever
and see if you can hold your audience’s
attention in complete silence.
It’s a huge challenge, but it’ll definitely
teach you a lot about compelling performance.
One last thing: if you try either of these
exercises out, post your choreography to Instagram
with the hashtag #drexfactorpoi so I can see
your dance.
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
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If you’re not a current backer and would
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do, please go to patreon.com/drexfactorpoi.
Thanks again and peace!
