From moves to a dance: how choreographers build a piece

A dance doesn't arrive all at once. Choreographers build it the way a writer builds a story: from small ideas, arranged, tested and rewritten until it works.

Start with a motif

A motif is a short movement phrase that carries your idea, like a hook in a song. Choreographers often start with an everyday gesture (waving, rowing, shading their eyes) and change its size, speed or level until it becomes dance. Then they repeat and vary it, so the audience recognises it each time it returns.

Use devices

Give it a structure

Most dances have a strong opening image, a development, a climax (the moment of greatest energy or change) and an ending the audience remembers. Draw the structure before you rehearse it.

Transitions matter

Transitions are how you move from one section to the next. If dancers stop and walk to their spots, the dance switches off. Good transitions keep the energy flowing and can shift the mood on purpose.

Choreographers in Aotearoa

In 1995 Neil Ieremia, a New Zealander of Samoan descent, started Black Grace. His works have explored rugby, family violence, racism and the Samoan diaspora, blending Pacific and contemporary dance. Auckland choreographer Parris Goebel coined the word 'Polyswagg' for the energy of her crews, which have won world hip hop championships. And Touch Compass, set up in 1997, was New Zealand's first dance company for disabled and non-disabled dancers together.

Test and refine

Film your dance, watch it, get feedback, and change it. Every professional choreographer does this over and over.