This can work either way – either you have a set of moves or have a song in mind to choreograph to. There’s a new track you just can’t shake, OR you want to revisit a throwback. Freestyle dance can be applied to optimize various aspects of music and dance videos, providing valuable insights and improvements. Here are some ways Freestyle methods can be utilised in this context, but first:
“Freestyle dancing is improvisation. It’s when you do moves on the spot that weren’t choreographed ahead of time. You probably freestyle all the time already!” – Charise Roberts, Steezy
How to choose a sample track to choreograph to and what are its components?
In addition to Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube (free!) Charise Roberts from Steezy, says in the post, “Best Ways for Dancers to Find New Music”, that if you want to seem like a hipster who knows about artists before they become “mainstream,” use SoundCloud! This underground platform has a “repost” feature which allows users to repost someone else’s content to their followers; similar to “sharing” a Facebook post on your own timeline.
So, now, you’ve probably found a sick track to choreograph to on SoundCloud, but what are its components, and how does Freestyle Dance help you to unlock the right choreography for your assignment or deliverable?
A Song’s Components
The key components of a song are:
Melody: The main tune or sequence of notes you sing or hum.
Harmony: The chords and notes played underneath the melody, supporting it.
Rhythm/Beat: The pattern of sounds and silences, the pulse of the song.
Lyrics: The words of the song, telling the story or expressing feelings, written by the lyricist.
And the structure or form of a song is the organizational layout which creates flow and impact, and often includes an:
- Intro
- Verse
- Pre-Chorus
- Chorus
- Bridge, and
- Outro
For example, Ne-Yo’s Closer can be broken down here.
Other components of a song which are integral to understanding layers in a song include:
- Instrumentation: The choice of instruments like bass, drums, or guitar, and how their parts fit together.
Composition
So now that the basic components of a song are covered, let’s go over composition – literally putting it altogether to create something unique. Firstly, you create a journey by arranging sounds to take the listener on an emotional journey – from silence to sound and back. Then you make choices and ask questions like a composer – they make deliberate choices about elements like dynamics, tempo, and instrumentation, asking “what if” questions to develop ideas.
Freestyle Dance as the Bridge to Choreography
Freestyle techniques can be applied to create and optimise dance routines. By randomly generating and evaluating different sequences of dance moves, you can find combinations that flow well together, captivate the audience, and match the rhythm of the music. See “” blog post for more details.
Another way to use freestyle techniques, is to use them to help assess the emotional impact of different combinations of music and dance moves on the audience. This can be useful for optimizing your dance video to evoke specific emotions or responses from viewers. And of course, these responses can be measured, but more on that in another post.
