Once I have a song selected (as long as it's a really good song), the dance is usually already there, and all I have to do is get it onto the bodies of some dancers before I get distracted by the next thing. But the process of selecting music (and a "concept," but that goes hand in hand with the music), for me, is well reflected in this quote that my best friend Amy put on her facebook last week:
Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds.
I'll often start with an artist whose music I'd like to explore. After some time on itunes and youtube, I'll drift to pandora.com and find similar music by new artists. Then I have to listen to all their stuff too.
Then a word or color or image in a music video will capture my attention and take me in a new direction, and the process starts over again.
And again and again.
I usually throw in a good amount of Sufjan Stevens and Regina Spektor too, just to remind myself to have high standards (and, hey, some very well-known choreographers go back to the same musicians time and time again to make their dances. Don't hate.)
And this is made all the more complicated when guidelines are imposed by an outside source (i.e. the owner of ADC asking me to choreograph a duet for two of my students, and wanting it to be lyrical). Guidelines are very helpful at times, but when my inspiration leads me down a path that doesn't fit (Ooh! Masks! Opposite forces! A scarf!) and I have to reign myself in, said well of inspiration can seem to dry up.
Right now, I really am selecting music for a lyrical duet, and I really am interested in having them portray some sort of opposites. If you saw them dance, it would make so much sense. One dances like a volcano (much like me), and the other is meek but very precise. I am open to suggestions.
And now, time to turn off the music and go see District 9! I am stoked, and terrified.
2 comments:
Once you told me that some hard things are good. In your case, the hard work that goes into finding the music may be necessary. There is a lot of weeding out what doesn't work and refusing to settle for something that is almost right before you can get to the burst of creativity when the right music sets the dancers free.
Mom: you understand the dancers so well. You know in Pride and Prejudice when Lady Catherine de Bourg is talking about playing the piano forte and she says "If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient?" Well you are just like that, with choreography. No time like the present to begin your training, I suppose. I think you should study latin dance, like the samba or paso doble.
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