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Choreography4 minutes

Create your own contemporary solo choreography

In a nutshell
  • A successful contemporary solo choreography is always based on a clear emotional theme or a concrete story.
  • Movement development starts with free improvisation, from which the most expressive key moments are selected and fixed.
  • The choreography is dramaturgically structured through conscious changes in dynamics and the targeted use of space.

Creating your own choreography is one of the most intense experiences in contemporary dance. With this guide, you will translate your personal feelings and stories step by step into an expressive solo.

What you need for your solo

  • A clear theme, an image, or a personal story in mind
  • An undisturbed room with enough space for movement
  • A smartphone or a camera for video analysis
  • Comfortable clothing that gives you full freedom of movement

How emotions turn into real dance movements

Developing your own choreography in contemporary dance is fundamentally different from classical styles. While those often involve stringing together fixed step patterns, the contemporary solo thrives on translating inner images and emotions into physical movement. It is not about showing as many difficult jumps or turns as possible, but about telling an honest, moving story. Your movements gain depth when you understand how to translate abstract feelings like farewell, longing, or pure joy into the dynamics of your body.

To prepare yourself optimally for this creative process, it helps to familiarize yourself with the differences between the various dance forms. A look at the difference between modern and contemporary dance shows you how freely contemporary movement language can unfold today. Learning specific techniques, such as the Graham technique for contraction and release, can also provide you with valuable tools and impulses for your own movement language. Use this knowledge as a foundation on which you build your very personal story through dance.

Five steps to your finished solo

  1. Define the emotional theme

    Write down your theme or your story in three sentences. Define the core emotion that you want to convey with your expressive dance solo to have a clear common thread.

  2. Improvise freely and film yourself

    Let the music play and move completely freely in the room, without thinking about fixed steps. Film yourself while doing so to capture unconscious, honest movements that fit your theme perfectly.

  3. Select and define key motifs

    Select three to four key movements from your video that best embody your theme. These motifs form the foundation and will recur throughout your own choreo contemporary.

  4. Shaping transitions and levels

    Connect your key motifs with fluid transitions. Use changes in levels to create additional depth, just as you learn in the Contemporary Floorwork guide.

  5. Incorporating dynamics and contrasts

    Bring structure to your contemporary dance solo by alternating fast, powerful phases with extremely slow movements or sudden stops. This captures the audience's attention.

The most important do's and don'ts for your solo

Like this

  • Develop movements from genuine feelings
  • Use pauses and silence as creative tools
  • Create a fluid transition between standing and floor work

Not like this

  • Just stringing together difficult favorite tricks
  • Dancing frantically the whole time without any changes in tempo
  • Completely ignoring floorwork and only standing

An overview of the phases of your choreography

Before you start

Preparation

While creating

Creation

Before the performance

Fine-tuning

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Choose a theme that currently moves or occupies you personally. This can be a concrete life event, an abstract feeling like saying goodbye, or a specific image in your head that you cannot let go of.

Contemporary courses near you

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