choreography

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American Heritage Dictionary:

cho·re·og·ra·phy

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(kôr'ē-ŏg'rə-fē, kōr'-) pronunciation
n., pl., -phies.
    1. The art of creating and arranging dances or ballets.
    2. A work created by this art.
  1. Something, such as a series of planned situations, likened to dance arrangements.

[French chorégraphie : Greek khoreia, choral dance; see chorea + -graphie, writing (from Latin -graphia, -graphy).]

choreographic cho're·o·graph'ic (-ə-grăf'ĭk) adj.
choreographically cho're·o·graph'i·cal·ly adv.


Art of creating and arranging dances. The word is derived from the Greek for dance and write, reflecting its early meaning as a written record of dances. By the 19th century the term was used mainly for the creation of dances, and the written record became known as dance notation. In the 16th century dance masters at the French court arranged their social dances into specific patterns. In the 17th century such dances became more complex and were performed as theatrical ballets by trained professionals. In the late 18th century Jean-Georges Noverre and Gasparo Angiolini introduced choreography that combined expressive mime and dance steps to produce the dramatic ballet. This was further developed in 19th-century Romantic ballets by Marius Petipa, Jules Perrot, and August Bournonville. Radical change in the 20th century began with choreographers of the Ballets Russes, including Michel Fokine and Lonide Massine, and continued with George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Frederick Ashton, Jerome Robbins, Merce Cunningham, and Twyla Tharp. Alvin Ailey; Agnes de Mille; Serge Lifar; Bronislava Nijinska; Salvatore Vigan.

For more information on choreography, visit Britannica.com.

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Derived from the Greek for dance and writing. Although the term originally referred to the actual writing down of the steps of a dance (which today is called dance notation), ever since the late 18th century it has meant the art of composing dance.

The art of arranging dance movements for performance.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'choreography'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to choreography, see:
  • Ballet - choreography: art of devising form, sequence, and purpose of ballet movements


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Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" (circular dance, see choreia) and "γραφή" (writing). A choreographer is one who creates choreographies.

The term choreography first appeared in the American English dictionary in the 1950s.[1] Prior to this, movie credits used various terms to mean choreography, such as "ensembles staged by"[2] and "dances staged by".[3]

Choreography is used in (but not limited to) the fields of cheerleading, cinematography, dance, gymnastics, fashion shows, ice skating, marching band, show choir, theatre, and synchronized swimming.

Contents

Techniques

In dance, choreography is also known as dance composition. Dance compositions are created by applying one or both of these fundamental choreographic techniques:

  • Improvisation, in which a choreographer provides dancers with a score (i.e., generalized directives) that serves as guidelines for improvised movement and form. For example, a score might direct one dancer to withdraw from another dancer, who in turn is directed to avoid the withdrawal, or it might specify a sequence of movements that are to be executed in an improvised manner over the course of a musical phrase, as in contra dance choreography. Improvisational scores typically offer wide latitude for personal interpretation by the dancer.
  • Planned choreography, in which a choreographer dictates motion and form in detail, leaving little or no opportunity for the dancer to exercise personal interpretation.[4]

Choreographic techniques are: mirroring (facing each other and doing the same), retrograde (performing a sequence of moves in reverse order), canon (people performing the same move one after the other), levels (people higher and lower in a dance), shadowing (standing one behind the other and performing the same moves), unison (two or more people doing a range of moves at the same time).

Dynamics are: fast, slow, hard, soft, long, short.

See also

Articles

Categories

References

  1. ^ Presented by Amanda Wilde (2006-10-26). "Frankie Manning: Lindy Hop Pioneer". Radio Intersection. 12:31 minutes in. KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio. http://kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=11649. 
  2. ^ Mark Sandrich (Director) (1935). Top Hat (DVD). RKO Radio Pictures. Event occurs at 00:01:15. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/. Retrieved 2007-08-08. "Ensembles Staged by Hermes Pan" 
  3. ^ Edward Cahn (Director) (1942). Our Gang in "Melodies Old and New" (DVD). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Event occurs at 00:00:20. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035055/. Retrieved 2007-08-07. "Dancer Staged by Steven Granger and Gladys Rubens" 
  4. ^ "Glossary (dance)". UCI Wiki. Electronic Educational Environment (EEE). https://eee.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Glossary(Dance). Retrieved 2012-02-19. 

Further reading

  • Blom, L, A. and Tarin Chaplin, L. (1989) The Intimate Act of Choreography. Dance Books. ISBN 0-8229-5342-0
  • Ellfeldt, L. (1998) A Primer for Choreographers . Waveland Press. ISBN 0-88133-350-6
  • Minton, S, C. (1997) Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisation. Human Kinetics . ISBN 0-88011-529-7
  • Tufnell, M. and Vaughan, D. (1999) Body Space Image : Notes Toward Improvisation and Performance. Princeton Book Co. ISBN 1-85273-041-2
  • Smith-Autard, J, M. (2000) Dance Composition. Routledge. ISBN 0-87830-118-6

External links


Translations:

Choreography

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - koreografi

Nederlands (Dutch)
choreografie

Français (French)
n. - chorégraphie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Choreographie, Tanzgestaltung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - χορογραφία

Italiano (Italian)
coreografia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - coreografia (f)

Русский (Russian)
хореография

Español (Spanish)
n. - coreografía

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - koreografi

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
舞蹈术, 舞台舞蹈

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 舞蹈術, 舞臺舞蹈

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 무용술

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 振り付け, 舞踊術

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تصميم الرقصات‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אמנות הריקוד, תעוגה, כוריאוגרפיה‬


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Mentioned in

Szell, George (Quotes By)
La Fille Mal Gardée (Dance Film)
Swan Lake (2005 Dance Film)