Choreography

It’s always exciting to have action-packed sequences in your show, and chase scenes are both great fun and challenging to stage. Whether a character is being chased by a villain, chasing after a lost love, or participating in any kind of chase in between, you’ll want to ensure your choreography is exciting and engaging while also being repeatable and safe. First, consider what tempo your student actors will be moving at. Are they running full out, are they doing a slow-motion sequence, somewhere in between, or a combination of both? They can all be used in comedic or dramatic shows, depending on how you block the actors’ body movements and facial expressions. As well, consider where in the performance/audience space your actors are. Are they actually moving throughout the staging area (which could potentially involve the stage itself, as well as the surrounding area such as through the audience) or are they moving in place? What concerns, risks, or safety issues might arise? Be sure to check out our safety considerations document in the giveaway below. Here are several ideas for staging chase scenes creatively. If you’ve got more ideas, please share them with us! • For chase scenes that are staged by having actors run or jog in place, create the illusion of movement through imaginative lighting, projections, sound effects, and/or special effects, such as a fan or wind machine. Slow-motion chase scenes can be extra funny with the addition of exaggerated movements, facial expressions, and slowed-down vocalizations. • Create a side-scrolling video game effect by having actors face directly to one side of the stage and run in place. Have ensemble members or stagehands “scroll” by in the background — crossing the stage with set pieces or puppet-style props, running backstage or behind a curtain, and coming through the stage again as many times as you wish. Great for comedies. Explore different tempos with both the chasing characters and background performers to find a speed that works well. • You can create car or motorcycle chase scenes by having actors sit on rehearsal blocks with prop steering wheels (plates also work well for this!), with the target placed further downstage and the chasers placed further upstage. You could also try having students sit or kneel on small, wheeled platforms or hand carts, and have stagehands dressed in black move them around the space. • For chase scenes where the actors actually move throughout the space, you must ensure that every moment of the chase sequence is choreographed and well rehearsed. Draw a bird’s eye or top down map of your space and make a diagram of the movement path(s). You may want to use transparency sheets if you have multiple actors travelling in different directions to ensure there are no collisions. If the chase scene is part of a musical, you may wish to indicate on the sheet music exactly where students should be at a particular moment in the scene, circling or highlighting the lyrics or notes where students move. • Consider how you could use every inch of your space. How can you use your performing area(s) to its best advantage? Can you have actors go through or around the audience? Are there different entrance/exit points in your space, and how can you access them? Can you create additional entrance and exit points with flats, curtains, or other set pieces? Are there areas that students can climb around, go over, or sneak under? • Use puppets, dolls, stuffed animals, or shadow puppets to create a funny chase sequence. This can be useful if your chase sequence has magical moments, stunts, or any other risky movements involved, such as big leaps, tackles, or flying — it’s better to toss a doll across the stage than to risk a student’s safety. • Create the illusion of a super-fast movement by having multiple actors appear as the same character. Dress three or more actors in the same costume and have them pop in and out from different places on the stage at specific times, while the other actor(s) in the scene moves their head and body to indicate that the fast character is moving in a particular direction. For example, you could have Actor A pop out from stage right, and Actor B look at them. Actor A quickly moves backstage while Actor B makes a big movement to look out behind the audience, where Actor C has popped up from behind a door or an audience seat at the back of the auditorium. Continue for as long as you wish and for as many actors as you want to have involved in the sequence. As mentioned above, be sure to do a thorough safety assessment of your blocking, set, costumes, footwear, and props to ensure that your students can maneuver through their chase sequences as safely as possible. Check out the free simple safety considerations resource in the giveaway below.

Producing a musical is a big job – the cast sizes are generally bigger, the costs to produce the show are usually higher, and of course the artistic staff team is bigger. In addition to the director, a musical director and choreographer are necessary to get the job done. When directing a play, the teacher in charge has full responsibility for the overall outcome of the show; when doing a musical, the responsibilities are shared, but cooperation and collaboration are absolutely essential. A shared vision, clear communication, and unshakeable teamwork are the ingredients for creating a successful and memorable production. Here are five tips to help you on your way. 1. Be clear about your expectations.Before you even begin the process of auditions, casting, and rehearsing, sit down with your team and discuss your expectations for the show you are creating together. There are lots of questions that should be discussed in advance. Do you expect the full team to attend every rehearsal, or will some rehearsals be run by only one team member? (For example, does the musical director need to attend a blocking rehearsal? I personally prefer to have at least two team members present at every rehearsal.) Will you have the musical director teach vocals in one room while the director blocks a scene in another room? Who has final say in any casting disputes? Do the musical director and choreographer have the authority to make changes in their rehearsals, or do all changes have to be approved by the director? What is the overall concept/vision for the show? Are rehearsals casual or strict? What is the daily routine? What is the best way to communicate with each other outside of rehearsals – email, text, phone? Laying out your expectations in advance will help to maintain a smooth rehearsal process, and will give you the opportunity to discover any common ground or disagreements in advance. This will help you present a unified front to your students as well! 2. Set your schedules in advance.Create a calendar with your team in advance, and record any known conflicts right away. This will help you to figure out your daily rehearsal plans and use your time most effectively. There never seems to be enough time to get everything done, but with smart planning, you and your team can get a lot done in the time you have available. Plan ahead for certain rehearsals where you can separate to “divide and conquer.” But also make note of scenes/songs/moments where you should “tag team” and work together in rehearsal. You will need to allot more time to rehearsing singing and dancing than you probably want to, but that time will be necessary. (Remember that the students will need to learn their vocals, then their choreography, and then when you put the two together for the first few times, either the singing or the dancing proficiency will mysteriously vanish.) Be prepared to sacrifice some of your blocking time, but know that everything will come together in the end. 3. Let your team members do their jobs.Theatre is a collaborative medium – while you as director have your overall vision, you hired your musical director and choreographer for their skills and talents. Back off and let your team members do their jobs. Don’t micromanage your team. Otherwise, what is the point of them being there? While you should definitely know and communicate your wishes for a certain look to a dance or a particular mood you want in a song, let your musical director and choreographer know that before the rehearsal, and then let them lead. Lend your support, but don’t smother them. 4. Be aware of their strengths and weaknesses.Your musical director might be really great at teaching the students harmonies in a clear and concise way, but has a tendency to go over their allotted rehearsal time. Or perhaps your choreographer creates gorgeous dances, but the taller girls complain that they are always in the back row of the choreography. In your initial meeting, bring up this topic and share your own strengths and weaknesses as a director. For example, you might be great at pulling strong performances out of your students, but you are also impatient if a student forgets their lines. Or perhaps you get your blocking done really quickly but then forget to go back and revisit the scene again before your first stumble-through. Share your own strengths and weaknesses, and ask for your team’s help with improving your skills. In turn, help them with theirs. Create an atmosphere of trust and open communication. This will help your students feel that they can trust and communicate with the team. 5. Support each other.While creating a theatrical production is fun and fulfilling, it can also be very stressful. Be there for your teammates and support them as best you can. Listen to each other, communicate with each other, and back each other up. Be prepared to compromise. Remember your common goal: You are all working together to create the best show and best rehearsal experience for your students.

For those students who love dancing, simply mentioning the word “dance” gets them up on their feet and immediately moving. For other students, the idea of pirouettes, step-touches, and fan kicks causes them to break out in a cold sweat. Dancing is fun, a great way to exercise, and a wonderful way to express feelings and emotions onstage, but it can be intimidating for students with two left feet – or even students who are good dancers but lack confidence. Here are some tips for providing more leadership and growth opportunities for your dance enthusiasts, and to encourage your less dance-inclined students to dip their toes deeper into the dancing pool. 1. Start with those who love danceFirst and foremost, if you are working on a class production and have students who absolutely love dance, that is an ideal opportunity for you to get those students more deeply involved. You can have them work with the choreographer of the show: first by shadowing to learn proper warm-up techniques, how to explain the moves to the other students, and how to give corrections and feedback. (If they have a background in dance already, they may already have this knowledge.) You can assign “dance captains,” and have those students lead warm-ups and rehearse choreography while other students are working on other tasks. From there, if you have some really skilled and enthusiastic students, have them choreograph a part of the show. Perhaps they can work on a dance break during a song, a transition to cover a scene change, the sequence of bows, or even a brief number within the show. Have the students plan their choreography in advance (either by writing it out on paper, or filming themselves doing their choreography) and show it to you. If it works with your vision for the show, then they are good to teach it to the rest of the cast! Be sure to credit their work in the program (such as “Monkey Around choreographed by Susan Martin and Kyle Reeve”), and let them film the cast doing their choreography, so they can have a recording of their work. 2. Use movement to tell a storyWithin the classroom, challenge your students to think of dance as just another way of telling the story. Compare dancing to singing in a musical – why do characters break out into song? It’s because the character’s emotions and feelings are so strong they can’t just speak the words. It’s the same with dance – it’s another way of conveying emotions, feelings, and advancing the story. Dance is also so diverse. It doesn’t always have to be all jazz hands and grapevines – it could be a series of interesting movements or lifts, it could be inspired by martial arts (like tai chi), it could be a stylized way of entering and exiting, it could be a dance fight… there are lots of possibilities. Have your students brainstorm a list of different ways that dance could be used beyond just the traditional “song and dance” style of performing. Have them think of it as creative movement, if they need to. Speaking of diversity, there are so many different styles of dancing to explore. How could these different styles be incorporated into theatre? Perhaps your students claim not to like dancing only because they haven’t found a style they like. Your students might like hip hop, highland, popping and locking, ballroom, or ballet. Encourage them to explore different styles of dance – have them watch YouTube videos of different styles, and see how they might incorporate those moves into a show or scene. Or perhaps they might see two dance styles they like, and combine them together to make a unique hybrid style! (A tap dancing tango? Why not?) 3. Mini Exercise: Flowing Frozen PicturesStudents will create three frozen tableau scenes to tell a story (the beginning, the middle, and the end of a scene), but, rather than breaking the scene and just moving in a quick and neutral fashion to set up for the next scene, students will find a way to transition from scene to scene using flowing, dance-inspired movements. Have students hold the first tableau for five seconds, and then move slowly and smoothly (tai chi speed) for ten seconds to their second position. Students must keep moving for the entire ten seconds until the second tableau, then hold that pose for five seconds. And then, again, take ten seconds to flow their movements into the final frozen picture. Ten seconds doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but when moving from frozen picture to frozen picture, it’s quite a long time! Encourage students to move their bodies in interesting and varied ways – use turns, levels (high/medium/low), reaches, stretches, and so on. Feel free to set the scenes to music if you wish!

If you want your students to take their character development to the next level, introduce them to Laban Movement. Laban Movement will provide them with a clear and understandable tool set that will enable them to grow their own movement vocabulary and discover new ways to physicalize character. This work is not just technical but spends time teaching the students to recognise and act upon creative impulse in the body. What is Laban Movement?For a long time Laban movement was primarily used for dancers and dance choreography to discover new ways to move. In the 80s and 90s, it began being used to help actors and improve performances. I first encountered Laban work while I was training at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. While the Laban work comes out of modern dance exploration, at Dell’Arte they were using Laban’s Eight Efforts to explore character in the body. They used it as a way to extend an actor’s movement vocabulary and ability to play characters physically. The Eight Efforts became a cornerstone of my work as an actor. They help an actor both physically and emotionally identify and play characters who are different from themselves. This embodied work helps the actor in understanding internal impulse and in developing an expressive body that can make clean, precise choices. It also helps the actor create and maintain a strong physical instrument that will serve them throughout their training and future professional work. Who is Laban?Laban is named after Rudolf Laban , who was a movement theorist, a choreographer and a dancer. He is considered a pioneer of modern dance. Laban categorized human movement into four component parts: • Direction • Weight • Speed • Flow Each of those parts has two elements: • Direction is either direct or indirect. • Weight is either heavy or light. • Speed is either quick or sustained. • Flow is either bound or free. So, for example, if you’re looking at Flow and the movement is bound, then it’s very tight. It’s very held in. Think uptight businessman or administrator. Whereas someone who moves freely is the opposite of bound. Think of children. They are always running, always free. And if you’re looking at direction, you’re either moving toward something directly or you’re meandering toward it. Laban then combined these parts together to create The Eight Efforts: • Wring • Press • Flick • Dab • Glide • Float • Punch • Slash For each effort, Laban identified which component parts were to be used. For example: For WRING • The Direction is Indirect • The Weight is Heavy • The Speed is Sustained • The Flow is Bound How can you use Laban in the drama classroom?Student actors have a hard time moving outside their own body. Every character they play, moves like they do. Introduce a process to students that gets them thinking about different ways to move. Then with every character they play, they have a vocabulary to draw from: Does this character move with a flicking movement? What weight does this character have? Am I bound or free? There are many different ways an actor can begin to employ these efforts into their work. Observational work: The actor can take time observing individuals and creatures in the world around them with an eye towards identifying the Eight Efforts within the movement and behaviour of the observed subjects. After careful observation and replication of the efforts, the actor can begin to apply what they observed to the creation of a character, borrowing elements of what they observed and rehearsed. Text work: The actor can carefully analyze the text and look for speech patterns that are similar to the Eight Efforts. Our language is a representation of our inner lives. By looking at what and how the character expresses themselves, the actor can find clues for which one of the Eight Efforts to explore. For example – in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the character of Peter Quince speaks in monosyllables. QUINCE “Here is the scroll of every man’s name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his wedding-day at night.” His text is made up of short quick words. This could be a clue to the actor to try vocally playing Dab in the voice and seeing how vocally playing the Effort affects the body and the physicality of the character. Playing off this same idea of using the text to find the Effort, Oberon (in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) talks a lot about aggressive hairy animals and seems to be aligned to the animal world. Many of the animals he speaks of have Alpha Males in their social hierarchy, which tend to be Heavy, Direct, Free and Quick. This might be a clue to the actor playing Oberon to play around with a Slashing quality in the voice. Emotional work: One can look at the personality of the character and the emotional makeup of the character to look for what kind of Effort to experiment with. We can look at a character’s personality and think of them in terms of the Efforts. On the TV show South Park, the character of Carman is pushy and aggressive with his friends. He tends to try to dominate any situation he is in and is quick to anger. You could think of his personality as a Punch. Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh is light and indirect in his personality and the way he interacts with the world. He could be described as a Float or a Glide. Ask your actors to look at their characters’ emotions or how they react to the world around them. This can help them find an effort to play. Costuming: Finally, we can play around with costuming. What kind of costume is the actor called upon to wear or how does the period clothing inform the actor as to what effort to play? If we think of Gwendolen from The Importance of Being Earnest She is usually costumed in light dainty fabrics that tend to have a great deal of lace on them. How can the actor translate the delicate nature of the fabrics and lace into an Effort? It is light and free – so could the actor play Glide? Or does the actor find the clothing light but binding and play Dab? By experimenting with the Laban Efforts and ways to interpret them, you can create a language to give your students to get them out of their bodies, out of their shells and into a new physicalization. What do the Eight Efforts look like?If you’ve never used Laban before it is definitely like learning a new language. What does it mean to Punch or Glide?

Donalda McCarthy posted this intriguing question on our Facebook page: “Should Choreographers copyright their work? Discuss.” i.e. If a high school does a musical and pays the playwright royalties to use their book, then they get all their ‘ography off of YouTube, should the choreographer, equally an artist, also receive a Royalty payment? Before I answer, let me point out that I’m not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice. My instinct was that of course the choreographer should receive payment if you’re using their work. After all, they’re artistic creators just like writers, actors, directors, musicians, etc. But I did a little bit of digging around and was quite surprised to learn that the law isn’t very well-defined on the subject of choreography and copyright. If you want to learn a bit more, here are some resources I found: • Copyright and Choreography: What Constitutes Fixation? • “Urinetown” Creators Get Pissy about Midwest Productions If you want to be safe then I really don’t think it’s a good idea to steal someone else’s choreography. And at the end of the day, I’m confused as to why someone would want to use someone else’s choreography anyway. What’s the joy in that? What’s the point in being a choreographer if you don’t want to create choreography?