Dance Team Routines

Creating dance team routines can be a daunting process, even for experienced choreographers. Many dancers go their entire career without having to create dances even for themselves. Dance team routines are more than the sum of their parts. It's not just the task of creating a dance that will fit the abilities and styles of multiple dancers – it is also treating the group as a single organism that is expressing an idea through movement.

There are a few different things to consider right away when beginning to create dance team routines.

1. Number of Dancers – How many dancers do you have to work with? Whether they are actually in contact with each other or not, the mass of bodies on the stage is going to convey a shape to the audience.
2. Ability of Dancers – Knowing the styles and level of skill for all your dancers is imperative before beginning to plan dance team routines. It lets you know what kind of movement vocabulary you have available, as well as what styles they will be familiar with.
3. Time Pressure – How much time do you have before the performance, not just to choreograph but also to teach your dancers the routine? This is another place where choices are important: whether or not to try complicated, unfamiliar choreography or stick with the tried-and-true steps your dance team can pick up quickly.
4. Performance Space – Most dance team routines are going to be performed more than once, and often in different venues. Consider how the choreography might need to be changed if done on cement or Astroturf as opposed to a basketball court or stage.
5. Music – More than just the type of music, but knowing how the music will be played in the actual venue is essential. It may be that there is no music needed, or that the dance itself will produce the rhythmic noise accompaniment.

With these basic criteria in mind, it's time to create a basic timeline working in reverse. Start with the date of the performance. Usually the day before that is going to be a "dress rehearsal," so mark that date. If you're lucky, the day before that is going to be a "technical rehearsal" (working with music, lighting, props, etc) and so that should also be marked off. Ideally both of these will be in the performance space, but that's not always available. Having a rehearsal space that you can roughly mark out the boundaries of the actual performance space is essential. There is nothing worse than creating dance team routines in a small space and then discovering that you need to fill a large area – except perhaps the reverse. With the key rehearsals marked out, it's time to evaluate the availability of your dance team for rehearsals and their ability to pick up new material within the time available.

At this point, it's time to stop thinking about logistics and just start creating. There are many resources for creating dance routines. Some are online, but the best resources will always be actual instructors and your fellow dancers. It's important to keep the dance your own, however – while collaborative dance creation can work, it can also lead to intense frustration, wasted time, and the dilution of a certain person's vision of a dance through compromise. Often it's a better compromise to allow one person to control the next dance team routine rather than change the one you're creating now.

Taking a look at difference dance genres such as ballroom, swing, tap or even country line dancing can lead to some fresh and unusual moves that will please the crowd because of their novelty. Also referencing culturally familiar dance routines, such as moves by Fosse or from Michael Jackson's Thriller will be sure to spice up a routine.

It is also perfectly fine to look at the dance team as a whole, and realize that different people may have different skills. Some may be familiar with Latin style moves to put a saucy tone to the routine, while others may be able to do fancy cheerleading stunts that can change the level of the entire dance.

Simply listening to the music, picturing the dancers in the space, and letting all of this planning percolate will almost certainly begin to inspire movement phrases and eventually the entire dance routine will fall into place. With a rehearsal schedule in place, your dance team will be well on the way to that cheering crowd after a breathless routine.

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