Choreography

You might have written choreography on a piece of paper and gone through it in your head, only to find that it completely changes once you begin to try it out. Why? It could be because you hadn’t really felt the music to begin with, or that the movements didn’t feel comfortable or blend with the rhythm – There are many reasons.

There’s no right or wrong way to choreograph a belly dance. Listening to the rhythm and sounds of the music will help you decide on how you think your body should respond.

For most, the hardest part of dancing is creating a unique set of patterns which will eventually become your dance. It takes time and effort but without this drive and creativity, there would not be such a huge variety of performances to inspire us.

The moves might all have a name and there may be a specific way of manipulating them, but the way in which they’re blended together to interpret the music is the unique aspect of every dance – Expression means everything.

So how do we know which moves work with which parts of the music? The slow, flowing movements of snake arms and figure eights work well with gentle instruments, whilst hip drops and shimmies compliment the variety of drum beats.

A song will have an introduction, a number of verses, a chorus and an instrumental break. A dance is likely to have the same. The introduction might set the mood and pace of the dance, each verse is likely to express part of a story, the chorus will be the key to that story and the instrumental could be a time to reflect. Music without words will often have a similar structure and you are free to create your own story from what you interpret from the piece.

You can choose to repeat the same moves for each verse and/or the chorus, or you can progress the dance all the way through making changes to each segment.

You will also need to consider the use of space – whether you’re going to remain in the same spot or move around the entire area you have available.

Often you will see a dance that combines both the use of space and a centre spot, as well as the speeding up and slowing down of movements. There is also the option of pausing for a few beats before moving into a new segment of the routine.

If the moves you choose flow freely alongside the music, then it’s likely to be a winning choreography – Just enjoy it from within.

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