On Learning Choreography

On Learning Choreography

One common question that students often ask is why does Actfa Dancers all look the same: their variations are the same; their stunts are the same; their styling are the same; the way they spin are the same….?

This must be taken in a positive light that the school has taught its students so well that they look identical when they dance! As a teacher, we proud that we have taught students who have put in so much effort to learn and perfect the steps, stunts and styling that people can tell which school they are from.

Some people may think that it’s silly to have ‘clones’ of Person X dancing on the dance floor; or to have 5 couples performing exact same moves. But there is a reason for doing so.

From the point of view of a teacher, all students need to go through a training process within the school to understand the fundamental techniques of certain steps. Naturally, all schools teach a certain of set variations/ shines/ stunts to its students when it trains its students for a group choreography. At the initial stage, all the students will learn a similar set of variations/ shines/ stunts in the class. Also, at the initial stage, the student will not have enough knowledge in the dance to vary much from what he/she has learnt in the class. Hence, he/she will look similar to the teacher and other students when he/she dances.

Those who comment about looking the same when they dance are missing the essential point in this aspect: When a student begins to learn about a variation, stunt or shine, he is not only learning the steps (on the surface), but is also learning the fundamental techniques to the steps (the underlying aspect). For example, a student learns how to shimmy his shoulders in a particular shine. The teacher may only ask him to shimmy at one point in the shine, but once he has learnt how to shimmy, he can actually put it in anywhere he wants to while social dancing. In the case of a stunt, eg, the death drop, the student is not only learning the technique and execution of the death drop (on the surface), but more importantly, he is learning how to keep his body stable, how to watch out for potential injuries while doing the stunt, how to protect his partner so that she feels safe while doing the trick, how to execute the moves cleanly and with precision, etc (the underlying aspect). Another crucial factor when learning dips and tricks is that the student also learns to believe in himself, and discover that he is actually able to execute such a stunt. Most people don’t believe that they can ever dance like professionals, and teaching the trick is not as important as convincing the student that he can actually do the amazing stuff that professionals do. And once the student believes that he can do these higher-level moves, the door opens for him to try all sorts of things in the dance like other shines, more complex variations, more difficult spins and other dips and tricks.

Actfa teaches its students to perform many shines, stunts and variations and is dedicated in pushing its students to execute them cleanly and precisely so that they look good while dancing. I feel that the school has done its job in opening the doorway for its students to explore the different aspects of dance but it is eventually up to the student to take the initiative to perfect, practice and later on try out new things on their own. The teachers are always there to encourage, teach and guide the students through them, but it is up to the students to decide what they want to learn and try. And if all else fails, the student can at least fall back on what he has learnt from the school.