One thing strikes me after looking at hours of performances by Barbershop choruses throughout the world is that Choreography forms an essential part to a dynamic performance, a performance that gives a WOW factor and wins medals.
This I believe is not a mere gesture of an individuals attempt to bring the song to life but a well polished Military precision move orchestrated to match the performance.
Choreography or dance, whichever you prefer, has two main ingredients, one which involves the whole chorus to move as one as in a 'sway from side to side' and the other as an individual moving to form part of an overall picture such as a 'see-saw' move.
The latter being the hardest to orchestrate but has that special effect of dynamics which increases the visual power of the move. Although being a team effort, and to see the overall picture of the move, it is the individual that makes it happen, for example, if you have a five group word like (mis-be-hav-'in) and you require five moves during the course of that word, by five sets of people within the chorus, then each set of people should learn his own individual move for that part of the word, easy!!! To enhance the dynamics of the word even more then increase the sets to ten even taking set (1) and (10) for the first move, 9, and 8, as the second and so on.
I know that within the chorus you have "leaders" and "leaner's" but it is up to the "leaner's" to become "leaders" and not the other way around.
It is also my belief that GOOD choreography should be conceived right from the beginning. great thought should be given to each move and to each individual participating in the move, when and how. This should be handed out at the same time of the teach tape and music and form part of the learning process of the song. My thoughts that a dedicated Choreography team be formed within the chorus to achieve this goal.
Your comments please
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Sounds like a good idea to discuss and follow up. Possibly look at having someone attend both performance streams at Harmony College which might us with a starting point?
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is best attained with outside help to set it up and internal enforcers to make it happen.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea of choreography being part of the initial package. Perhaps the outside help could be somebody unconnected with Barbershop who could put a new perspective on it.
ReplyDeleteGraham, is it your daughter that instructs in choreography? it might be worth talking to her, someone who knows what they are talking about. plus any GOOD ideas from members.
ReplyDeleteBeware! too much choreography can destract from the overall performance and appear too busy, and the right choreography should be simple and everyone should grasp timeing and be prepared to work at what will become tedious untill they learn the rudiments of basic moves.
ReplyDeleteGood luck from an old hoofer