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Permalink Reply by Snowflake on March 12, 2010 at 9:00am

First off that's awesome, congrats on the performance... if it's in Ny I'd like to come see you preform. As per advice about choreography, I preform once a month at a bar in Brooklyn and this is what I do. I will usually pick a song and then I practice a few times what I'm going to do before hand. I try to focus mostly on how I am starting, how I am ending and if there is a big change in the music (for instance the music speeds up or the bass drops or something like that) for these pieces I try to do something a little flashy or something a bit more complicated. I don't recommend winging it for a performance because the times that I have done that I noticed I do the same moves over and over again. Try taping yourself then trying to duplicate it, also be aware of times when you are being repetitive. I hope this helps, good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Amanda of Hip Flick Hoops* on March 12, 2010 at 9:34am

Awesome advice! Pretty much the same that I was going to give.

Having a solid beginning and ending is key I'd say :) Great advide by snowflake

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Permalink Reply by BenaeQuee on March 12, 2010 at 10:40am

Thanks for the advice! Where in Brooklyn, I'd love to come watch some time?

I'll be performing in FL.

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Permalink Reply by Traci "CircularPraise" Bonney on March 12, 2010 at 11:03am

Whether I'm working on a dance, hoopdance or interpretive signing piece, I generally follow the same process Snowflake outlined. I'll pick the song, listen to it once or twice before I start practicing it, just to get an idea of what I might want to do, then practice it several times.

In the practices, I'll usually just freestyle to see what develops, because sometimes what I thought I wanted to do and what I end up doing are entirely different. After going through the song a few times, I'll take the best moves from each run-through and put them together for the final version. That's what I did with my "Who Dat Hoopin" video; I must have run through it six or seven times on video before I finally got the one I ended up posting.

Because I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal, I'll practice a piece until I'm comfortable with it, but when it comes time to actually do the piece, I don't try too hard to get every little bit just like I practiced. If I get too hung up on exactly reproducing my practice version, I find I get awkward and stiff.

So, short version of all that - pick a song, figure out what you want to do to interpret it and practice that, but when it comes time to perform, relax and enjoy the flow. After all, if you go off your choreography, who's going to know besides you? ;-)

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Permalink Reply by shimarella* on March 12, 2010 at 5:44pm

Congrats!

OK because you haven't really choreographed in a while, my suggestion is based around giving you a simple structure. WHen you get more comfortable you won't need it.

For the first few hoop solos I choreographed I broke it up like so:
1) Off the body moves ( simple ones) for the intro. WHen the song really starts ( vocals etc)...
2) ...is when I transfer it to my waist and rock out, being sure to spin around, travel, make eye contact & have as few T-Rex arm moments as possible
3),,during the first chorus I move into chest hooping & rock out there
4) Transition at some point to off-the body ( isolations, weaves etc)
5) Back to chest or waist hooping
6) Vortexes
7) From vortex float the hoop off your body so you can pose for your big finish.

Listen to your song and figure out where good places will be to move from one series of moves to the other. Write it down and practice.

I just found this useful & logical when I was first dancing with the hoop. The hoop travels up & down your body & you get to show off a few of your moves. Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by serena on March 13, 2010 at 11:28am

I did a 5 minute choreographed LED hoop show with a friend. We picked a song (Hermetico by Balkan Beat Box), and we both just started brainstorming as we listened to the song, and figured out what moves/tricks looked good for each part of the song. Being that it was 5 minutes long, it was hard to remember everything, and be able to sync our moves together. We practiced a lot for about 2 months before the show.

If you are going to have a practiced routine, write it down as you go!

Make sure you change things up in your routine; go slow in some parts, fast in others, make sure you hoop in the other direction, and hoop high and low (near the floor). Move around a lot and make your audiences' eyes follow you! :-)

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Cara Zara on March 29, 2010 at 6:51am

"I don't recommend winging it for a performance because the times that I have done that I noticed I do the same moves over and over again." --- SaFire

So true!

When I practice at home I have a variety of moves/music and feel really comfortable with my routines/choreography.

I did a performance this weekend and although I have cool tricks in my bag and have a couple of sequences (this move follows that move) I felt a few times -- "whoa way to many corkscrews!" It's easy to fall back on what's safe and easy when your mind goes blank. Afterwards I kept thinking of all these things I wish I had done and saying "I can't believe I forgot that".

They also asked me to bring my own music and then my iPod wasn't compatible with their system - so I ended up picking a song on the spot from their music. I definitely recommend having a "routine" in place for a popular song in case you don't have the option of bringing your own music. It increases your odds of knowing what's coming.

This was the first time I did a performance in a place and with a group that was unfamiliar. I'm hoping experience shakes out the repetition jitters.

The crowd was ga ga for the performance and I'm probably being a perfectionist. --- Afterall I see all these amazing performance videos on this website! The people that saw me Saturday have never seen any kind of hoop dance before so they didn't have anything to compare me to.

Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Traci "CircularPraise" Bonney on March 29, 2010 at 7:01am

I haven't done any hoopdance performances, but I have done some sign language and dance specials at church, as well as preaching the message on Wednesday nights occasionally. Based on those experiences and the feedback I've gotten, I think we tend to be harder on ourselves than other people are on us.

The last time I did a sign language presentation in church (to Acappella's "A Tiny Child" for our Christmas program), my legs were quaking the entire time and at one point my smile turned into an Elvis Presley-like look thanks to a nervous tic in my upper lip that I didn't even know I had. However, no one in the congregation noticed any of that. They were just watching my hands signing, and all the comments I got afterward were about how beautiful it was.

I think most of the time, our audience is so impressed by the fact that we'd be brave enough to get up there and do whatever we're doing, that they don't notice any mistakes or repetitious moves we might make, especially if the repetitions fit the mood of the song and the lyrics being sung.

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Permalink Reply by Scunshine on September 10, 2010 at 4:14pm

I have the same nervous tick!!! craziness

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Permalink Reply by Scunshine on September 13, 2010 at 6:54am

So I totally looked at this thread before starting a routine of mine- The tips here totally work! I'm really perfectionistic at times so I also wrote out the lyrics to the song (noting the breaks by how many measures there were) and put stars next to points when I wanted to do something cool to punctuate the music. Then I worked out what would flow best using those points to remember (I taped the sheet to my wall, lol). When I figured out what I really wanted to do, I wrote each trick down at the stars. Now I can almost remember the whole thing without the cheat sheet, so I listen to the song in my car and go through the moves in my head.

I know it's past when you've performed, so what worked best for you?

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