7 Dynamics To Create Contrasts In Your Dance

No matter if you are improvising or you are performing a choreography, knowing how to create contrast in your dance is vital to keep the audience engaged.

Here are the most important dynamics that you can use to create contrast in your dancing:

1. Speed – Changing your movement speed drastically in your dancing will easily grab the attention of the audience. If the song you are dancing to has a lot of energy and you are with your highest speed, the moment there is a change in the song (especially if it slows downs or decreases volume), make sure to accentuate that change with your movement. I have put my students do a single big hip circle for a whole part of the music (slow motion kind of movement). Practice that and you will see how awesome it will be.

2. Level – Going down or up in a music is also something that really creates contrast in a performance. I love going down in a deep sentimental part of the music and explore other areas of the stage or go my highest and expand my whole body in a powerful part. Some dancers also do floor work in slower parts of the music, which also brings a whole new dynamic to the performance.

3️. Perspective – Turning your back to the audience and showing different parts of your body also gives different feelings to your dance and shows a different side of yourself and of your dance. Take advantage of the more introspective parts of the music or even playful ones or mysterious and turn your back to the audience (and this doesn’t mean to stop eye contact, you can still do that in a diagonal).

4️. Intensity – Fluctuating from strong powerful movements to soft movements is also a way of captivating. I personally love to “play” with the music like that: do slow soft movements with little energy in one part of the music and then a big “explosive” movement to surprise (of course according to music) which I like to call “Tchanan Moment”.

5. Space – Moving on stage or dancing on one spot is an obvious one on how to create contrast, but be careful, don’t go and be always changing from moving in space to being on one spot, that is just confusing, try to keep it balance.

6. Stopping - Stopping dancing at all is also an easy manner to create contrast in dance, in order to do that, you need to give the audience your essence, your emotion, your energy. If there is no movement, there sure needs to be there something else that the audience will want to see, probably a facial expression that will allow you to express yourself.

Also On Transitions:

When the music is about to change energy and I am about to change completely my dynamic, I do a transition that will create more contrast, accentuating the contrast in the music. For example, if the music is playing but it will grow next, I probably will stop dancing or reduce my speed the second before it changes so that when the music accelerates or increases and I go along, the contrast becomes even bigger. The opposite is also true: if the music is at a high speed and the next part is a slow soft part, just before going along with the music and slowing down myself as well, I increase my intensity/speed/power so when I slow down the contrast is even bigger.

All of these dynamics are very important in your choregraphy but in order to put them, you need to understand how to create a structure. Read my post 5 Tips to Create a Choreography to learn more!

What did you think about my tips? Do you do the same?