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Can I ask you a question? I suppose this is more for the director's but do you guys have any other dance exprience other then belly dance? How do you come up with your choregraphy? Could you break down what a typical class is like?
I am asking these questions to compare my troupe to others and see how other troupes are ran so to speak. :) :)
I am asking these questions to compare my troupe to others and see how other troupes are ran so to speak. :) :)
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Detroit
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Re: Hey girls..........
Wed, May 10, 2006 - 7:16 PMWell let's see...
I'e dabbled in ballet and flamenco. Sharon has taken jazz, modern, and ballet, and did cheer and drill in high school. Several of our other dancers also did drill or flag corp and cheer. One is currently taking hip hop. Most of us have studied cabaret as well as tribal, and we all take workshops in different styles when we can.
Most of our choreogrpahy has come from Michelle, one of our former directors, or Sharon. They both have a knack not just for putting moves to music, but for the spatial placement of a group of dancers. I don't thnk that way. I can choreogprah a solo, but geometry was never my strong suit.
We have just completed a group choreography, which included input from everyone in the troupe (although admittedly relied heavily on Sharon's choreographc gifts.) We'll be debuting that at Tribal Fest ina little over a week. Eeek!
As for our rehearsals, when we're not in crunch mode our 2-hour weekly rehearsals usually include 20 minutes or so of talking (discussing upcoming gigs and other business), 20 minutes or so of warming up, 10 minutes of zil drills, and then the rest of the time is spent working on technique or rehearsing upcoming sets.
Hope that helps! -
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Re: Hey girls..........
Wed, May 10, 2006 - 7:17 PM"I don't thnk that way. I can choreogprah a solo, but geometry was never my strong suit."
Neither was typing. Please excuse the typos. D'oh!
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Re: Hey girls..........
Wed, May 10, 2006 - 7:35 PMHey Mia,
Renee covered the bases. I also did gymnastics for years, and have taken occasional classes in other styles (like flamenco and hip hop--even a cool "spins and turns class" that was fun--but they didn't stick ;). I still really want to try tap... someday!
I was always into making up choreographies. I was the one coming up with routines for me and my friends to our favorite songs. But I think I learned most of my choreography skills, specifically the spatial relationships Renee mentioned, in my dance/drill/cheer time in high school. Coordinating 30 girls with such precision was a great way to prepare me for what I do now.
If you are not super choreographically inclined, watch lots and lots of videos of group dancing, and not just bellydance. Pay attention to the formations, as well as the "white space" (the in-between spaces), and the "pictures" that are created by the bodies and movement. A good test is to take a mental snapshot at various points in your choreography, and imagine how it would look in an actual photo. If it makes sense/is flattering, then it is a good choreographical choice.
Oh wait, you didn't ask, did you? LOL!
So tell us about how you do it! -
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Re: Hey girls..........
Wed, May 10, 2006 - 7:46 PMWell I have to tell you guys that I just love your style and everything about your troupe. You can tell when your onstage that you are geniunely having fun and it really is obvious to the audience. :)
I love love love my teacher to death but sometimes we just lack in the choregraphy part as well as the coming up with new moves. There is myself and one other girl who is just ready to move on to bigger and better things and sometimes feel like we're being held back. Our teacher/leader has a great heart but again isn't into mixing it up and is very worried about what other dancers/groups will think about us as.
Our class goes like this:
Stretch for about 20-25 min's, drills (the same ones every single week that we've been doing for a year now) and then we usually just free dance.
I guess like I said I'm just yearning to learn more and when I see your guy's troupe or many of the other lovely troupes out there it gets my mind racing thinking of all the neat and fun things we could be doing other then the same old thing that we do every single time we dance.
During troupe practice which is once a week for an hour and 15 min's, we pretty much just pick up and play. It's the same thing every week. Don't get me wrong I love the girls I dance with and again my teacher has a heart of gold, she's just doesn't like change and it's getting kinda frustrating.
At the beginning of this session she asked us what we wanted to learn and so she knows that some of us are looking for new material and we even watched other troupes and saw how they danced. Not that we want to copy anyone's ideas out there but rather to be inspired and see what we can do other then what we're doing right now.
So that's why I asked how your troupe does things. :) Sometimes I'm so envious of all the talent you have out on the west coast!!! LOL
Thanks for listening and letting me vent.
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Re: Hey girls..........
Wed, May 10, 2006 - 10:19 PMSo does your group do group improv? because that is the real key for us. In our smaller venues, we are 100% improv (with occasional choreo stuff thrown in) and on large stages we are about 70/30 improv to choreography. We find that the connections and energy we creat with the improv makes our choreographies that much better. So if you aren't doing group improv now, I highly encourage you and your friends to give it a try!
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