Does anyone have any tips for choreographing on skates? I have a ton of experience choreographing for dance, but I've never put a piece together on ice...

For our holiday show I wanted to do a duet with my skate buddy and we have very different skating styles...it's just a showcase/spotlight type of thing but I was just wondering if there were any suggestions about what to include, what to avoid etc.

Thanks in advance

i do interpretive in some competitions which is when you hear a peice of music once off the ice and twice in the warm-up and then you have to skate a routine that you just then choreographed to it... so i think i might have some tips...

include what you are good at... it doesnt make sense to include like a jump that you can barely do

use the whole ice surface

use a whole variety of types of moves... (ie- jumps, footwork, spins, gliding maneuvers)

make it so the routine isnt all forward or all backward and go in all directions...

hope this helps!

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~Dreams Can Come True~

Hiya, I have background in dance as well. Have somebody tape you while you improvise and put together a program. Try to do it by these sections: the first minute, the end and the middle part. Before you tape them, look at yourself in the mirror while you are doing the movement. If you have nobody to tape you, just set the camcorder at an angle on the board.

Good luck, let us know how it is working out.

What music piece are you doing?

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Tim David's Website

The professional choreographers I know will orient a program so that it is primarily presented to the judges--in other words, you don't have your back to them most of the time. Especially beginning & ending poses.

When my most recent program was done, the choreographer even reflected this in the straight line footwork; after it crossed the center line, it went mostly backward, so I was still facing the judges. If you were just watching the program as an observer, it wouldn't be obvious, but it defintely was there & was done intentionally.

oops----just re-read your post & saw this isn't for competition! Oh well, for future reference I guess........ other thing I'd add would be it's helpful to do stuff off-ice in front of a mirror as you're getting ideas, just like you would for dance.

Just play the music and improvise around it for awhile. If you've experience with dance, you'll know what "feels" right. If both you and your friend improvise together, you'll be able to bounce ideas off one another and find out what each of you can do, and what each of you finds hard.

If in doubt, err on the side of simplicity - simple steps, done well always look better than complicated steps done badly!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Thanks for the advice - especially about keeping it simple when in doubt. I'm not sure what music we'll be using, but something christmas/holiday/snowy. Right now I'm thinking "What's This" from Nightmare before Christmas. Fits our personalities perfectly in terms of tempo. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm excited to start working on it.

Don't be red-faced, this is a very good point. Too few people play to the judges. In a show, the AUDIENCE are the judges, so to speak. That's important to remember when you're skating a competition program in the show. Turn it around so we can all see!

I would suggest picking a few key elements that both fit your music and that you can do comfortably. Tuck them in. Take the tape deck to a room, preferably one with lots of mirrors, and just dance it out. If it's from a movie, rent the movie. Really get into the music, which will give you gestures and feeling.

One of my twins skated to music from The King & I last year. Really cute program for a Tot because I had her start in a kneeling bow and do lots of poses / gestures from the movie's choreography.

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I'm going to tack on to my old thread -

I'm still on the quest for music - the Nightmare Before Christmas song I was thinking of seems a bit fast.

Basically I'm looking for something that can be cut to 1:30 or so...will work for two adult females in their 20's, holiday/christmas/snow related, or something that would fit in well at a holiday show, upbeat and peppy but not TOO fast.

Tall order...but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know !