Recently there was a post in the Ruby Hooping group on Facebook of doing a little project where everyone choreographs a hooping routine and we share our videos afterwards! A lot of hoopers in the group and other groups have said that they have never choreographed a routine before, so I figured I would give some tips from my experiences of creating routines!
Generally speaking, I think that most HOOPERS like to freestyle and just flow with whatever music their listening to or whatever mood they’re in. And flow is wonderful! It’s a really great skill to have to be able to freestyle and just go with it! But I also think it’s really important from a dance perspective to to be able to add that structure to your hooping and memorize the steps!
Creating a choreographed routine will also help with nervousness or anxiety when it comes to performing! Whether it’s in front of a camera or in front of a crowd, most hoopers can identify with the fact that you never do your best when you’re being watched! If you create a set routine that you can practice, even if you drop your hoop you will be able to jump back into that routine. And of course, you won’t have to be afraid of “spacing out” and forgetting all your awesome moves that you’ve worked so hard to accomplish!
So without further adieu, here are my 6 tips for choreographing a routine!
1. Pick your song first. Don’t try to create a routine off of nothing. Figure out what kind of feeling/mood you want your routine to have, and a general idea of how long you want it to be. Then go find a song that best fits those ideas! Once you start creating your actual routine if you find that you don’t like the song or its to short/long or it just doesn’t fit for whatever reason, you can always change it. But it’s good to have a general idea of what you want to accomplish with your routine and have the song for before you really get to work!
2. Listen to your song. And I mean repeatedly. Listen to it over and over again. If you’re going to choreograph a routine to this song, you need to be familiar with the tempo, the verse and chorus lengths, how long the intro and outro are, and everything about the song. As you’re listening to it over and over, start to visualize yourself hooping to the song. Picture the moves you think will go well together and where, and how you might want to start and finish your routine. Visualizing yourself doing something before you actually do it is a great exercise that sets you up for success! (This is a tip that I follow with everything, not just hooping!)
3. Freestyle to your song. Now that you’ve picked your song and you’ve visualized yourself hooping to it, let’s get hooping! It’s good to freestyle to it a few times, that way you can get a good feel for what goes well together, and where. By free-styling, you naturally will do what feels right. If you need to, take a video of your free-styles so you don’t forget what you did! See what looks and feels good and goes with the flow of the song. Also visualize the way that you would like to start, and finish, your routine.
4. Write your ideas down. As you freestyle to your song and you start to practice the ideas that you have, write them down. Make an outline for the song and write down where you want to do what. I usually break down my outline into parts of the song – Intro, Verses, Bridges and Outro/ending. In each section I briefly write my ideas down. Of course, this is all subject to change! This is just a basic rough draft so don’t worry if it’s not perfect yet!
5. Start your structure! Now it’s time to actually set this routine to a structure. I fully suggest sticking to an 8-count, but this is totally optional, although in my experience, having the moves go along with specific counts can really help with your memory of the routine! Figure out how many 8-counts are in each verse, chorus, bridge etc., and then take it one 8-count at a time. It’s going to take a little time, but eventually you will start to see it come together. You don’t have to choreograph the whole routine from start to finish – it’s okay to have an idea for what you want to do during the chorus or at a certain point in the song. It’s also okay to leave a couple 8-counts open to freestyle as well! This will give you a chance to dance more and show the audience your own style a little better! The best recommendation I can give you is to either write everything down or to take a video. You don’t want to forget what you just worked so hard for an hour to put together!
6. PRACTICE! As with anything else, practice is key! Once you’ve come up with the structure and basic choreography of your routine, then it’s time to do some tweaking and fine tuning! Change things that you don’t like, and add in those little dance moves to add some personality and style! Practice your routine so much that it becomes second nature so if you do slip up, you are able to easily and quickly get right back into it!
Now that you’ve successfully choreographed your own unique hoop routine, show it off! Take a video and share it wit your friends because you’ve just accomplished an amazing feat that you should be proud of! All that hard work has paid off, so get hooping!! Don’t forget to point those toes, strike that pose, and SMILE!!
DONT LEAVE YET!
If you’re planning on choreographing a routine for a special performance or just for fun, you may want a new pretty hoop to show off to go with your hard work! Or maybe you just have a hoop hoarding obsession and want a new hoop like me Either way, Ruby Hooping is the place to go! Top quality hoops and excellent customer service, I promise you won’t be happier with any other company!
If you’re planning on choreographing a routine for a special performance or just for fun, you may want a new pretty hoop to show off to go with your hard work! Or maybe you just have a hoop hoarding obsession and want a new hoop like me Either way, Ruby Hooping is the place to go! Top quality hoops and excellent customer service, I promise you won’t be happier with any other company!
Go check them out! just read their reviews and you’ll see they’re the best 
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