You've chosen your music, and you have an idea for a costume in your mind, but before you order your dress, you'll want to at least start thinking about WHAT exactly you are going to do in your routine so that your costume flatters your dance as well as you.
There is no one right way to choreograph a solo or ensemble. Some methods are definitely more productive than others, but for the most part, how you learn the movements is up to you.
You essentially have two choices - do it yourself, or have someone else do it. Some people are natural choreographers. They have an innate talent for interpreting music with their movements. Unfortunately, you will never learn if you have this talent unless you try your hand at it:
- Turn on your song, and go wild! Turn off the drill team side of your brain for a minute and listen to the words, the rhythms, the beats, the sound effects...just DANCE! Do this in front of a mirror if possible, so you can get a better idea of how your ideas will look to an audience.
- Watch ESPN dance/drill team competitions and dance movies for ideas. A word of caution - be careful when you are trying to imitate a move you see. You might want to take notes or bring in a copy of the routine and ask your director or dance teacher for help. For ESPN airdates, check out Dance UDA.
- Use phrases from team dances if you need an idea to get you moving in the right direction. Unless the move is copyrighted, which I highly doubt it will be, using a few 8-counts from an old team dance is perfectly legal. If you don't like the way it fits into your routine, remember that you can always go back and change it. It's YOUR dance.
- In an ensemble, assign each dancer a section of the music for which she is responsible for choreographing. Work on your own for a bit, then come back together to pool ideas and teach your sections.
Maybe choreographing your own routine is not something you as a soloist or your ensemble wants to tackle. This is understandable: choreography requires a great deal of time, energy, and effort, and when you're trying to balance drill team with school and other activities, you may not have an unlimited supply of these.
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