How to Learn Choreography

Good choreography is chosen to match the music. Of course, it seems obvious, doesn't it? It's hard to become familiar with a brand-new piece of music at the same time you're learning brand-new ways to move your body AND trying to do them in a particular memorized order. So if you can become very, very familiar with the music outside of class, then in class you'll already know what to expect next in the music and you can concentrate just on the movements.

If possible, get a copy of the music before the workshop. Or, if you're learning choreography over the course of a weekly class, find out the first night of class how you can get a copy of the music and go get it immediately.

Now, listen to it. A lot. Get a portable tape or CD player with an earphone. Play it in your car or listen to it on the train when commuting to and from work every day. Listen to it while you're eating supper, bathing the baby, doing yard work, or while you're sitting in your doctor's waiting room.

Jot down notes about how the song is structured. Most songs can be divided into 4 or 5 distinct melody segments. If a song is in the verse/chorus format, there will frequently be a couple of different melody segments in the verse, another used for the chorus, and one more as an instrumental interlude between the chorus and the beginning of the next verse.

Give each musical segment a name: "Verse 1st half," "Verse 2nd half," "Chorus", "Interlude". Or, "Melody 1," "Melody 2," "Melody 3," "Melody 4," and so on. As you listen to the song, write down which musical segment you're hearing at that moment. When done, study what you have written. Listen to the song, and review its structure. The better you know the music, the better you'll be able to associate the dance moves of the choreography with it.

Finally, go over the music and identify which dance move from the choreography goes with which melody segment. Some choreographers follow patterns, always using the same move (or a variation of it) each time a certain melody line appears. Others don't do that. Study the structure to see if you can spot a pattern in the choreography for this particular song. For example, in one dance I choreographed, I used variations of basic Egyptian for Instrumental 1,

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