Telling a Story

“A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.”

-Robert McKee

Dances are meant to tell a story, move an audience to feel a certain emotion portrayed by the dancers, entertain the crowd to the point they want to hop on stage and join them, as well as force observers to evaluate themselves on a controversial issue.

To achieve this point in a piece of choreography, dancers must not only have great technique, but powerful movements, facials and connection. Connections must be made in many different ways, between dancers, between the audience, between the music and between their movements. When all of these main components are achieved, you can be sure to feel confident that no matter the dance, dancers will create a bond to their subject, others will see and understand that passion and begin to feel in the same way the dancers do.

To better understand what I mean by dancers telling a story I will give some examples. Some may tell a story in simple terms, maybe through musical theatre, like the story of The Wizard of Oz. However a story may be told in broader terms, not so easily expressed like a jazz for the Great Gatsby, with a song from one of their recent tracks. Other stories are told to move an audience, bringing emotions they have bottled up from experience to be completely poured out in a packed performance hall, example being a contemporary about the effects of drunk driving. Other stories are more positive booster ups like a highly entertaining jazz dance that uses a lot of highlighting facials, big leaps, kicks and jumps as wells as energy from every dance. These stories make you want to get up and dance and be just like everyone performing them, you can compare this to a performance brought to you by Beyoncé. Finally, stories can be told to bring awareness about controversial issues, possibly a hip-hop on the stance of gun control, a lyrical about cyber bullying, even a tap on the issue of school dress codes. These are only some examples on how stories can be told through a dance performance, there are of course several others.

Telling a story is a very important concept in the dance world. Choreographers are not looking directly for that silenced, pin dropping audience, standing ovation or jaw dropping moment when they are creating these routines, but more for showing off their dancer’s talent through an idea that is important for them to show the world. It is the message that they want their dancers to convey that is the most important to them. With that message, dancers can make an audience, laugh, cry, smile, or silence.

~Julia Brewer