COMMERCIAL DANCE IN A NUTSHELL
Choreography Videos
My Video
How we created it
To create this video we looked at lots of research. We chose to use a jazz approach with the use of isolations which are originated from the choreographer Jack Cole. We then decided to look as the theme of Halloween and how we could use the dark theme to make an interesting piece of choreography. We looked into both the songs that are mixed together and looked at the two videos separately to get inspiration. The first video (Heads Will Roll by Yeah Yeah Yeah) uses bare brick walls which gave us the idea to use the ally way. The second is ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson in which there is lots of dance where we gained inspiration, for example the static walking and the lack of head movements were inspired by the backing dancers. There is also a video of the mix we used in which the cast of “Glee” are filmed dancing and singing with backing dancers. The dancers are all wearing ripped clothing and the makeup is used to show bruises and blood which can be seen in our video.
My Inspiration
1. Micheal Jackson (Thriller)
2. Yeah Yeah (Heads will Roll)
4. Glee (Thriller and Heads will Roll mix)
“Dance is the hidden language of the soul”
- Martha Graham
Thoughts Behind the Video
For this chroreography we wanted to take a more lyrical/contemporary approach. We used the popular song "Breathe Me" by Sia. we looked at the lyrics and saw that they held an emotional message behind them and so we wanted to have a message behind our video too.
We have chosen to show that people struggle every day for support but sometimes the things we turn arent good for us. The chair in this video shows an addiction, something we cant run from easily. The white dress (me) symbolises help and purity, someone offering help.
Original song with Lyrics
Tutorials
The videos below will teach you two skills that I believe are very important in the commercial dance industry. GOOD LUCK
Time Step
This tutorial teaches the basic time step. This is a short sequence of steps put to togetherin order to make a small phrase. The time step teacher the dancer about rythmn and can be built on to make much more complex phrases such as double time steps and triple. You can also perform pick up time steps, open time steps and many other ways. This step can also be adapted, sped up, slowed down and syncopated to fit any style of tap.
Splits
Splits are a movement used in many dance styles. It shows off the flexability of the dancer and can be adapted to fit any dance style. Splits can be performed on both legs and, when the dancer has the ability, can be taken into over splits by lifting the back or front leg. The splits also help with leaps and is generally a good stretch to gain more flexability in the legs and hips. Dont forget to look for tutorials on box splits!
“Dance for yourself. If someone understands, good. If not, no matter. Go right on doing what interests you, and do it until it stops interesting you.”
-Louis Horst