Tips, Research and Excerises to help you develop your Choreographic talent!

Visionary Choreographer
At about the same time as Captain Cook discovered Australia, Jean Georges Noverre wrote his influential exposition, Letters sur la Dance (1760).

Noverre, called the 'Shakespeare of Dance', was a dancer and choreographer who worked to reform ballet, believing that choreography should focus on the drama of dance, emphasizing the plot. He freed dancers from the tradition of wearing masks, enabling elements of mime to be incorporated in the ballets.

Born in Paris, Jean Georges created a style of choreography, which he called ballet d'action, where the movement was born out of the plot. He obtained a long-desired position as director of the Paris Opera in 1776 under the patronage of the French Queen Marie Antoinette. A prolific choreographer, Noverre created more than a hundred and fifty ballets before his death in 1810.

Jean Georges Noverre's birthday is now observed as International Dance Day which is celebrated across the world on April 29th.

Timely Tips
It is so easy when you first choreograph to just keep dancing and dancing believing that if you should stop for a moment you will be boring!

The experienced choreographer knows the very opposite is the truth, if you don't stop you WILL be boring! When music stops it's called a rest or a tacit. These 'pauses' are essential to create interest, not only in the music composition but also in the well crafted dance.

Similarly, the commas and full stops that are used to punctuate sentences in the written word can be replicated in choreography by the insertion of pauses and tacits in the dancer's movement.

Choreographic Challenge
Create a dance sequence using:
Music: 8 bars of Classical music in quick tempo
Drama: With a feeling of urgency
Style: Classical or Neo Classical
Tool: Augmenting -
Create a sequence adding (enter) dancers to the stage area one by one from both sides and then subtract (exit) the dancers in a group to one side.

Re arrange the sequence adding (enter) dancers in a group from one side, and then subtract (exit) the dancers one by one to both sides.

The Missing Link
What if we had a Tool that enabled students of all ages to combine the skills they have learned with their imagination…beyond their technique?

What if we had a Tool that bridged the gap between the idea and the dance!

Choreocraft Tool Scales allow you to become your own teacher and learn things about yourself that are uniquely individual. Practicing the Scales reveals individual Tool preferences and permits the students to choose freely beyond "right and wrong".

The ChoreoCraft Pyramid incorporates five rotating planes; randomly applying these combinations of Tools takes students on a journey of discovery which helps them to unleash their inspiration.

In nature you'll find eggs of similar shape and colour, but when they hatch they become uniquely different creatures. Each egg is unique and speaks from the moment of creation.

In Choreocraft you find Tools of a similar category, but when they are used by the students they also produce uniquely different compositions. This is because the Tool Scales help the student to focus and unlock the subconscious mind.

I believe dance students should be allowed to go beyond the stereotyped studio format of 'learning in lines' and be given the opportunity through the ChoreoCraft dance making method to freely express their innate imagination and natural creative talents.

I believe ChoreCraft is the 'missing link' in dance training. If the original passion for dance is to be maintained or developed, it is vital that students of all ages be given the kind of training where there is a balance between 'taking in' and 'giving out'.

ChoreoCraft - making dances...made easy!

Written by Kenneth Norman, Devisor of ChoreoCraft

BACK STAGE
For further information on ChoreoCraft Pty. Ltd., contact the director and author
Kenneth Norman at dances@choreocraft.com