On becoming a choreographer...

[Funny Face]

BW -- Thank you for your interest. I'll defer to your judgment as to where I should discuss the trials and tribulations of returning to college to complete a major AFTER dancing professionally. I know it is somewhat different from someone taking up a dance major later in life without having had previous experience. And -- I hadn't actually expected to go off on such a tangent in this choreography thread. So, wherever you think it best for me to address this experience is fine with me.

[Alexandra]

We just put up a new forum, Cross Talk, in the Special Groups forums for posts that don't quite fit into any category, and I think that would be a good place for this topic. We want to keep the General Discussion forums for DANCE WATCHERS and the Special Groups for DANCE DOERS. The reason for this separation is a practical one -- if someone posts "how do I become a teacher" in Dance or Anything Goes, the people who are most likely to be able to help may not see it.

In the past couple of months, we've had good topics on insurance for dancers, studying swing dancing or Irish dancing, where to locate particular brands of shoes, etc., as well as theoretical ones -- the "How did you know when to stop?", for example -- that would be of most interest to dance professionals. It's time we had a general, crossover forum for that. (CROSS TALK is BW's invention -- thank you )

Anyone can read and eavesdrop, of course, but practical questions of interest to anyone who dances can be posted in CROSS TALK. That way teachers, students (pre-professional, recreational or adult), parents, choreographers, designers, etc. will be likely to see it and chime in.

[vagansmom]

I'm just getting to read this very interesting thread right now. It's always bothered me that ballet schools in general don't give classes in choreography or provide their students with regular opportunities to choreograph. Some say they do, and they ARE supportive in terms of allowing the student choreography to be presented at a school program, but the reality is that the students need to create their works in their spare time and as most of you know, the life of a high school student at a pre-pro doesn't allow for such spare time. :shrug:

I heartily agree with Alexandra's statement that young choreographers need experience staging the classics. It's like any other pursuit; one has to gain experience learning the work of the masters and why they did what they did before one can explore alone. Of course there are exceptions to this rule but this is the path most people need to take in learning any art.

I was also intrigued by the references to the need for learning folk dances. Irish dance was mentioned. Interestingly the most celebrated group choreographer for Irish dance in the USA, Michael Smith, told me last year that HIS inspiration came from Balanchine. He's a longtime admirer of Balanchine's work.

Irish dance teachers must choreograph regularly. In order to obtain one's TCRG (Irish Dance Teacher's certification), among many other requirements, one must know all 30 traditional group ceili dances. You are graded on both your knowledge of the dances and on your ability to teach these dances to students. So Irish dance teachers start off right away with this core knowledge. They use that experience all the time when creating new works for their students.

It would be wonderful if ballet schools and universities with dance majors had choreography programs with similar requirements. Practice staging some ballet classics AND some folk dances would certainly provide that.

Jacki