Troupe Blocking with Nail Polish- Success!

Hammond Horror Festival 2013
Photo by: Lady April

It's been awhile since I gave an update on the choreography I was working on using nail polish. Now, after we were able to practice and perform it, I want to give a analysis on the advantages and disadvantages of this unique method.

 Advantages:
- Visually beneficial- It was difficult to picture all 8 dancers (including myself) in the choreography together. By using a small, mobile visual to take the place of the dancers, I was able to capture a better idea of who was going to be where during a specific place in the music.

Hammond Horror Festival Performance 2013

Music by: Solace "Naga" Choreography by Lindory

Music by: Inkkubus Succubus Choreography by Lady April  

- Three dimensional- Before using nail polish, I attempted to form the choreography first through drawings and moving PowerPoint images. Neither methods captured the transitions of each dancer clearly while the choreography was in its developmental stage.
- Easy to Distinguish- As said in the earlier post, I used a different color for each element the dancers portrayed. When a transition did not work for me, it was easy to remember where each bottle was before the last decision.

Disadvantages:
- Only does so much- The nail polish could only work as placeholders. So if a dance move did not work, I usually found out in person with the dancers themselves.

This was the first fully choreographed group dance I ever taught (big thanks to La La Tribal teacher, Lady April!) so with this idea, I saved myself plenty of confusion and headaches. Take the time to watch our video from the Hammond Horror Festival and see the "nail polish method" at work.

Happy Holidays!

New choreography in process

    Very recently I have performed my own choreographed drum solo to the song "Desert Princess" by Hossam Ramzy. It felt amazing to complete a dance and present the finishing product. Now, I am ready to work on another choreography. It's different compared to the previous Triberet performances since this is more of a Tribal Fusion dance and I want the vocabulary to be smoother with more isolations. 

    Right now, I am in what I feel is stage two of choreography development. It is drafted, but nowhere near clean. I have  separated the movements into combinations to make corrections and practices easier. Since I prefer to save choreographing the opening of this dance for when I have a clear idea of my "story", there is no introduction yet.

    This experience should be fun since I am trying something different and challenging. I tend to gravitate towards using shimmies (hence my drum solo) but I want to focus on my underused movement vocabulary. I'll do my best to update on my progress.