squirrel said:
ok... I don't know if I've heard it... but my advice is this:
I sort of disagree with all you have said here, sorry :?
Don't do acrobatics unless you are very good is the only part I can fully agree with.
Then again, when you want to put on a show, don't do ANYTHING you are not very good at ! Especially since you have so litle time to prepare everything, only do stuf you are very good at. What ever performance you will put on, chances are someone, somwhere, has already done it, or is about to do it. And someone, somewhere, is better at it then you are. So why throw in moves you can only perform half way ?
Go for the things you are best at, you may not turn out the best looking show of the evening, but you will turnout the best looking show you can produce, and no one can ask you to do more than that.
But I do not see why acrobatics should be only for professionals. Well, we will have to agree on the definition of it, but I do believe I can perform a few myself, and though I obvisouly don't do them while social dancing, I do not see a good reason I should not give it a try should I get to choregraph a show on my own. (and by "give it a try" I mean "see how it looks". If you look terrible, then back to the above rule : don't loose time getting bad at something you are awfull at, spend that time getting perfect at something you are good at)
Now, only do things you can (OK, got that covered) and arrange it to fit the music. Wrong way to go for me. You should listen to the music, over and over, and get a feel for what to do. Don't dance it. Just listen to it. All the time : while driving to work, while showering, while cooking, while mowing the lawn... And what ever you do, REFRAIN FROM DANCING for at least four or five days (I'd say much more, but hey, you allready got 4 more weeks to go right...)
This should have 3 results :
1. You will be dying to dance to this song, and know every single beat of it, every single instrument, and have a perfect timing on it.
2. Chances are while sitting out frustrated, moves are going to pop into your head. "Men, if only I could dance, THAT is what I would do to that drummer"
3. The knowledge of the instruments of the song will give you ways to change the way your choregraphy adapts to the music, by picking instruments to follow that may very well not be the leading one you heard the first time you listened to the song. And probably no one usually hears it that way. But if your moves are timed right, every one will be taken aback when they realize you ARE dancing to the music, they were just not hearing it right.
Onto "shines"
Though I love shines, and would love to be able to do them right, I can't say I care to much for long shine passages in a choregraphy, because it is very hard to keep the show consistant. Either you do choregraph the whole song to be shines (and you'd better be very very good at it) or you should limit it. It can way to easily break the rythm that is very hard to build on stage, and it so often looks like "
OK, I was out of ideas there to fit the music, so I just decided to throw in 1mn23 of shines"
Than last, but most important :
Why the hell would G-string look unprofessional ? (and besides, who cares if it does when you are not)
But hey, I really do not understand why it is such a big "no no" in states. Out of all the shows in LA, I believe I only saw like 4 or 5 performers wearing G-strings. What is wrong with wearing 'em ? Most dancer do wear some anyways to avoid the marking you get from other garments, and then when you put on a show you should wear grand'mas panties :shock:
A dance show is supposed to be beautifull, seduce you, excite you, keep you on your toes. Grand'mas underwear sure as hell does not do that for me...
But yeah, we were planning on 2 minutes or so, of one song then a hit or two, then another song + finale. It's just that all the performances we've seen have that little "extra" something that makes it original. Like a theme or a super original idea.