To begin today's post, I will start by apologizing for such a long break! As many of us have been on spring break, I too took a small break as well! Thank you for waiting for me to get back to the blog and staying tuned for what is to come!
Today I want to discuss what it's like choreographing for not only yourself and classes you teach, but for others that perform within the community and those that compete as well. I've had a lot of people ask me how come you choreograph or what is like choreographing for other people? I'd like to answer these different questions to give you a little insight into what it's like on my side as the choreographer, as well as what it can be like being the one learning the choreography.
When you are learning choreography for the first time it can be extremely confusing and overwhelming depending on the kind of choreographer you are learning from. For example, there are different kinds of choreographers, you have those that teach everything in 10 minutes and want you to show it back to them immediately and you have others that teach each step more than once, then you have those that are in between. Being the person that is learning the choreography, you don't always get to choose which type of choreographer you will be working with. Therefore, you have to be prepared to work with anyone and you have to be prepared to try what they give you. I personally understand how difficult it can be to try everything that's thrown at you because I've been where you might be. However, I can honestly say without a doubt, do not be afraid to try something new! It could become one of your favorite things to do and you will not know if you don't try.
Something I've personally thought and heard from friends and students of mine is, "I'm afraid I'm going to fail if I try to do that move" or "I'm afraid I'll get hurt if I try that, so can we just not do it?" The way I began thinking about it is, if you never try new moves you will not get better, nor will you know if you have the capabilities to do it. Another thing I have learned is, a choreographer will not give you a piece of choreography if they didn't believe in you and didn't believe you could do it.
Now that I've discussed a little bit about learning choreography, I'd like to discuss what it's like to be the choreographer. As a choreographer, a lot of the time you have the choice on who you work with, which can be a good or bad thing. In saying that, I consider the good things to be the students that are hungry to learn and ready to be taught. Not only do they want to be in practice learning, but they want harder choreography and completely trust you with their dance. Unfortunately, something I have experienced that I consider the "bad things" are when you have students that do not trust you and will not try to do the hard stuff that in the long run will only make them and their dance better! However, in these cases, most of the students that don't want to try what you give them often believe they need to change their dance without consulting you, the choreographer, first.
I've had some recent experience with students that have told me, "this dance is too hard, so we're changing it" or "I didn't think the moves looked right so my mom and I changed it and this is what I'm going to do at my performance." I am going to let you in on something that many people do not always grasp, when you change the choreography or tell the choreographer you're changing something, you are undermining they're professional opinion, as well as wasting their time. I urge you, please do not be a student that will not try, gives up, and changes the choreography without consulting the choreographer first. Not only is it disrespectful, it is time wasted that could've been spent with a student that truly wants to learn and try what you're going to give them.
A couple of years ago, while dancing during middle and high school, one of my teachers used to tell us an old Chinese Proverb, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." For a long time, I did not understand what that meant, however as I continued in my dance training and career, I've learned what it truly means. Some of my students have recently learned that as well, I don't want to tell you what it means, but I would like to tell you, be a student that practices like it's your last performance, because your choreographer is choreographing as if it's their last piece. Not only will you get better, but you will begin to understand what the Chinese Proverb means. Once you think you know what that means, please message me or comment below and let me know! I can't wait to read your success stories!
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