Choreography vs Improvisation

Some people state that Oriental Dance is an improvised dance, a spontaneous result of what the music makes us feel in that exact moment, while others can’t perform without a structured choreography, otherwise they feel lost on stage.

In my opinion, both methods are amazing and as a teacher I motivate and teach my students to master both. They are quite complementary and practicing both will improve your ability to dance in general. Here go the advantages of developing both 😊

Choreography allows you to think more thoroughly on how you want to express yourself. You have time to think where and how you want to move so you can better pass the message you want to pass to the audience. Like an author who thinks of a structure before writing a book and changes the words constantly so to better tell his story.

How It Will Improve Your Dancing? Choreographing will allow you to practice creating a structured and dynamic piece with different movements and dynamics. That way you will broaden your vocabulary by leaps and bounds while also practicing changing dynamics while dancing. Practicing the choreography will also make you improve your technique and make those new movements and dynamics become automatic in your body, which will highly improve your improvisations.

Improvisation allows you to express your true you. For me it is the purest form of dancing as it is what spontaneously comes to your body from hearing that music and from being where you are. It’s a result of a deep connection with the music and the people around you. Your improvisation will tell a lot about who you are.

How Will It Improve Your Dancing? It will free you from thoughts and help you create movements never done before. It will set you free and let your heart decide on when and how you want to move. It will allow you to get to know yourself better, and to define your style. If you master improvisation, you are confident you can dance whenever and wherever, and that for sure will make you a better choreographer and dancer.

For these reasons, I love both methods, and I teach and practice them both, as together they can create great dancers, full of emotion and expression ❤️

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