My darling dancers, I've tried and tried to get this point across to MANY dancers and I'm here to try again (I'm stubborn AND persistent, isn't that charming?):
Keep it simple.
You are a ballroom dancer. You are not competing in jazz, modern, tap, or ballet. (Yes, yes, you can have glimpses of those genres, but only with winks and nods, not bodyslams and punches in the face.)
Your choreography should be mostly identifiable ballroom dance patterns. Otherwise, you will have Sam Sodano shaking his head at you from the judges' table saying
This is bullsh*t. What am I supposed to mark?
No lie, people. Sam f*ing Sodano will roll his eyes at your choreography.
Here's my Professional Open Waltz routine-
8 measures of introductory, schmoopy stretchy bullsh*t.
4 measures of grapevine in shadow position with a throwout
2 measures of emoting and a bending thing
4 measure Standardy piece- open telemark, syncopated open telly, chasse, and turn
4 measures consisting of a trace turn and standing spins
6 measures of rondé, bendy thing, pretty apart work to a big ol' developpé
2 measures of side by side grapevine and fallaway
2 measures of spin turn and turning lock
4 measures of flip-flops (flip-flops for God's sake!)
2 measures of pivots
2-3 measures of runaround thing with my leg all up in the air
Total: 18 measures of things, 22 measures of patterns with names.
Silver patterns. Bronze patterns.
And the routine? It's the same one that we started with. Five years ago.
Before changing your routine to be more "open", ask yourself if you're doing everything you can to make your current one look amazing.
- Are you standing up through your center always?
- Are you doing all the footwork correctly?
- Maintaining a great frame throughout the entire routine?
- Do you have seamless transitions from open to closed position?
- Playing with the timing to show your musicality? (ex.: holding that 2 out to show a fast 3-1 in Waltz))
- Looking up, smiling, "acting out" the dance?
Man, there's a million other things that would make your current routine shine. Do you have the guts to work on what really counts?
