Hello all and welcome back to the Blog! The Ealing Pole Studio and Integrated Movement Studio are collaborating once again for our next SHOWCASE on Saturday of 14th June and with a showcase comes showcase rehearsals and creating pole masterpieces. This Blog is a step-by-step guide to creating a solo piece for a showcase or any other event that requires you to shine your absolute brightest on that pole!
Step one: Find a song! This can't just be any song, it needs to be one you can listen to on repeat and not get frustrated with. A song that makes your body want to move and inspires you. You will want to aim for a song that is between 2.5-3.5mins long or can be easily cut.
Step two: Trawl through your videos from class and pick a handful of tricks, combos and transitions that you like, have previously done, and think you can realistically nail in the time you have till the performance. Generally, unless you are doing a competition and have months to practice, I wouldn’t recommend picking skills you can’t do yet or haven't tried. What I have always found is the audience is usually most taken back by the simplest but best executed moves, rather then super hard tricks that look unpolished.
Step Tree: Freestyle! Put the music on LOUD and dance around. It doesn't have to look any particular way at first, you just need to feel out the style of the song and figure out what type of movement works best. Is it delicate and flowy or is it hard and fast? Be sure to film this bit as it can be really helpful to use your initial freestyle as a jumping off point to create the choreography later on.
Step Four: Bundle tricks and transitions together to create full combos, then pick where you want each combo to be in the music. Is there a particularly heavy bass drop where you want to hit that layback? Or is there a soft instrumental section where you want to do your spinning pole floaty combo? Practice theses sections with the music and see if they fit the timing you want or if you need to swap out or cut some tricks. Just note, your tricks don't have to be perfect at this point. You just want to check you have enough time in the music to do each combo without having to rush or having loads of extra time to fill.
Step Five: Fill any gaps between combos with choreography. Whether that's floorwork, swapping from spinning pole to static or and just a few counts of 8 to give yourself a little breather before the big final showstopping move.
Step Six: This is where you start to polish your routine and run sections of tricks and choreo together. Split the routine into quarters and start practicing each quarter full out. Check that the flow from up the pole to the floor is seamless and doesn't feel clunky, make sure your tricks are doable when put together with the rest of the routine. This is where you would veto skills that aren’t working or move tricks around if you need to do them earlier because you are worried you will run out of grip or strength by the time you get to them.
Step Seven: Start to practice your routine in two halves. By this point, you shouldn't have to work on any of your tricks or clean any of the choreo. This is where you build your stamina to be able to do the entire routine and start adding your performance and pizazz to the piece.
Step Eight: Run the entire routine and make any final changes needed. Be sure to check you can hit all the bits in the music you wish to hit, and make sure you are happy with the overall flow and feel of the piece. Film every full attempt you do and rewatch the videos to see what the audience is going to see and check you are happy.
Showtime: This is what your hard work has all been for! Go out there any make YOURSELF PROUD. You have worked so hard and put so much time and effort into creating something incredible. SPARKLE BABY!
I can't wait to see you strut your stuff in front of our amazing community and your beautiful friends and family! If you have been considering doing a solo but aren't sure, this is your sign:
You deserve that spotlight and we are here to help you as much or as little as you need.
If you have ever performed, leave us a comment telling us your favourite part of the process, we would love to hear from you!
Cheers
Alex
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