Thread: Creating Your Performance.

Originally Posted by Beatrix Von Bourbon

I rarely choreograph my acts religiously from start to finish. I prefer to have the freedom to take the act where the audience leads it. I like to respond to the audience...

So I have a few set moves and a few 'punctuation moments' in the soundtracks, but never a fully choreographed act.

I can't work like that. I have to choreograph fully - if I don't, I feel paranoid and worried that I'll freeze up. Improvisation was always my weakest point in drama classes , and I hate it to this day. I do alter certain aspects depending on my audience though, and if I have a malfunction like getting my corset stuck or anything I can overcome it - but if I don't know my steps I get worried ...

Originally Posted by Beatrix Von Bourbon

I rarely choreograph my acts religiously from start to finish. I prefer to have the freedom to take the act where the audience leads it. I like to respond to the audience...

So I have a few set moves and a few 'punctuation moments' in the soundtracks, but never a fully choreographed act.

i TOTALLY agree.

for the first few months of dancing I got REALLY paranoid - setting myself lot of audio cues which just stressed me out.

Now i've done quite a few shows its getting easier - i'm assuming it comes with confidence and the knowledge that what you are doing works well.

however - don't get me wrong, i think there has only ever been ONE of my performances i can think of where i came off stage thinking 'that was ace!' there's ALWAYS something you can pick a hole in!

As someone who is prone to AWFUL panic attacks you can imagine just what kind of a state i was in before my first couple of performances - and inevitably things DO go wrong - so if you are really regimented i think you would be even MORE inclined to panic - just know vaguely where you want to go and practice your stock moves over and over and over in front of a mirror and even in front of your boyf - my fella, bless him is sick of watching my acts im sure - but i trust his judgement implicitly - if he tells me a move doesnt work - i dont get the arse - we just work on other bits!

Just make sure your audience connects with you -LOTS of eye contact, maybe even an open acknowledgement they are there (eg hand behind you ear to request they make some noise) timings and exact moves are really secondary
:twothumbs:

When i was figuring out what i wanted to do I first of choose the theme as in who I was going to "parody" then chose four Magic tricks, sussed what would come first, second etc then worked out "dance" steps to that, the music was easy, I wanted something that went directly against who I was taking of so had two choices, "Bela Lagosi's Dead" by Bau Haus or "Venus In Furs" by Velvet Underground................Velvet Underground won the toss If you google the song you will find the words are quite BDSM ish and I just could not let that one past me!

although i have a dancer's history, i too rarely choreograph from beginning to end.

one of my acts even changes completely if the audience responds in a certain way and i love having the freedom to do this.

i have a double whip act with charlie carpenter. this act is improvised for every show; all we know is that at some point i'll end up with an apple in my mouth, a rose in the apple and a blindfold on. we work the entire act around that finale and brilliantly a magician once breathlessly told us it was the most intricately choreographed act he had ever seen!!

i think working in street theatre helps because you MUST respond to the audience or lack thereof.

explore different working methods and find how YOU work best, just because others work in a certain way certainly doesn't mean you have to

xx

I made the mistake of choreographing to create a very very polished routine. Than arrived and found the stage size I'd been given was completely wrong and I had half the space I was expecting. So spent a lot of that routine improvising around the moves that would work.

I tend to have certain moves I love, and use but build in 'mistake time' into everything. And the best advice I can give is to listen to the music a lot. Once you know it inside out you'll find remembering the routine a lot easier.

Originally Posted by Miss Snappy O'Shea

so if you are really regimented i think you would be even MORE inclined to panic - just know vaguely where you want to go and practice your stock moves over and over and over in front of a mirror and even in front of your boyf

No, it really depends on how you are comfortable working and what you're used to. I'm a very stressy, panicky person if I don't know what I'm doing. Being really regimented helps me no end - just knowing 'stock moves' and knowing vaguely where to go is what makes me panic! I can't relax and get into a performance if I don't know a routine from beginning to end - I feel like I'm not ready to be there

Originally Posted by Fleur du Mal

No, it really depends on how you are comfortable working and what you're used to. I'm a very stressy, panicky person if I don't know what I'm doing. Being really regimented helps me no end - just knowing 'stock moves' and knowing vaguely where to go is what makes me panic! I can't relax and get into a performance if I don't know a routine from beginning to end - I feel like I'm not ready to be there

righto - i get you!

Originally Posted by Miss Snappy O'Shea

righto - i get you!

Like everything else, it all comes down to personal preference!

I kinda envy you for the creative freedom you can have

Originally Posted by Fleur du Mal

No, it really depends on how you are comfortable working and what you're used to. I'm a very stressy, panicky person if I don't know what I'm doing. Being really regimented helps me no end - just knowing 'stock moves' and knowing vaguely where to go is what makes me panic! I can't relax and get into a performance if I don't know a routine from beginning to end - I feel like I'm not ready to be there

I'm exactly the same - if I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing from one beat to the next I can relax and respond to the audience more because I'm not so worried about what I'm meant to be doing next.

I also find that pracising a lot calms me down - I've got my first paid gig on 7th February :worried: and I had the whole thing choreographed by last weekend and am averaging between 1 - 2 hours practice a day just now - and this figure that will almost certainly increase as the date gets closer (it certainly did when I was working towards my debut)!

Is this about what most people put in?

Originally Posted by Lilly de Lure

Is this about what most people put in?

I think it's more than a lot of people do!