Dance I choreographs one last time

Sarah Boutouis

Senior Diya Nariani practices choreography during a Dance 1 class last year. With courses held online, dance teachers and students have had to adapt to virtual instruction.

Thanmayi Bommu, Guest Contributor

Mini choreography projects done earlier in the year have set the stage for Dance 1’s final eight week project due May 24.

“The smaller choreography projects assigned earlier in the year, taught skills such as writing choreography notes, teamwork, and choreography requirements such as formations, travel pathways, turns, and leaps,” teacher Nicole Nothe said.

First, students have to decide on which type of dance they are going to do, lyrical, jazz, hip-hop, contemporary are some of the few options students have. Next, they choose a song that will match the type of dance they choose to do. 

“Choosing the music depends on the type of dance you want to do,” dance one student Joanna Boss said. “The match has to get approved by the teacher before you can start the choreography.”

The second week students start counting their songs and prepping for their choreography notes.

“The small choreography projects we did throughout the year were mostly like this one, they had minimum requirements of movement and time,” dance one student Ashwana Davis said.  “The main difference was it was not as formal as this one so we didn’t have to submit all the videos that we are now.”

Starting from the third week, students have to record themselves dancing for their song, 15 seconds more every week. 

“I feel like dancing every week has given me a way to remember the dance techniques as well as helping me get exercise during elearning,” dance one student Eva Guerra said.

Although, for the project students have all the freedom to show off their creative choreography ideas, students have to include a few guidelines, every week. 

“I decided to keep the choreography requirements to a minimum because of several reasons, minimal space at home, individual projects, and gives each student an opportunity to create movements they like best,” Nothe said.

The full choreography has to be a minimum of 1 minute 15 seconds, dancers are not limited to one song or one type of dance, they can remix their songs and create a movement matching their music.