How do you begin to choreograph the dances for a production?
Sian leading a dance rehearsal with the actors.
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I don’t come with a pre-choreographed dance, but it’s great to know about the concept for the play in advance. Bill, the director, talked me through his vision for the production before they actually started rehearsal. It’s always nice to hear at that stage because when things start to develop and change, you can understand where they have come from. Bill’s requirement was to have a dance that could be very peppy but also something that could then be taken down into a smooth low key thing. Because in Romeo and Juliet there isn't a named dance that underscores dialogue you’ve got to have something that can be present, but not too overpowering.
I also have a conversation with Olly, the composer, because the music tends to influence the movement, the style of movement in a dance tends to follow the way that the rhythms work. So Olly told me that he’d been listening to Herb Alpert music and getting this Latin vogue, mixed up with the idea of drum and base; it’s quite a punchy version of that. So it keeps evolving, and my role of making dances in this kind of production is very influenced by the music, because the music has to come first.
