It was raining last sunday. In addition to the cold and gloom, was the usual inertia one felt when the weekend?was ending. We had already performed on sat night for the Summer Dance Fit that was held outside the indoor stadium. We had just one more to go that Sunday evening, to end off the whole event. Tien yew and myself were rushing down from Parkway after dinner (and after a heated discussion on entrapment and infringement of personal rights…) for fear of being late for the performance. Everyone seemed a little listless and tired that night…so were we….
And halfway through our performance, our brains failed us. I knew the exact moment Tien Yew deviated from our choreo…when he was supposed to do a hamelock but somehow we ended up doing a cross body lead turn… Yup and we just socialled for like 4 or 5 sets? I didn’t think the audience noticed that we forgot the choreo…until Tien Yew tried to make me do a stunt…just which one?? Cos we have 3 stunts that have the exact same starting moves, so I couldnt tell which one he wanted me to do. I suppose that part was the most disastrous but somehow we had a spark of our usual telephathy and managed to do our signature tunnel stunt.
Its amazing how fast you can forget the entire choreo despite having done it countless times…Poor Tien Yew was so bothered by it but it didn’t really matter to me. Such things do happen and in a way I was glad that it happened then, since there weren’t many people present anyway. Nevertheless, it was a priceless experience. One that we can draw many lessons from.
Therefore, here are some tips which I hope might be useful when you forget your choreograph during a performance:
1) Social dance. Guys, pls have at least 10 variations which you can execute easily and well. Gals, if your guy forgets, don’t stone and stare open-mouthed at him. Just follow. He’s stressed enough having to remember the entire choreo, so don’t fly into a rage and blame him when he forgets.
2) Guys, if you forget but still want your gal to execute certain moves or stunts, tell her. Shout it/scream it,?cos it must register in her mind amidst all that panic (dont worry, the music is so loud that nobody will hear you holler). Don’t give her some eye power and expect her to interpret what you want her to do, unless of course you both have incredible telepathy. Give your stunts/moves names such that both of you can identify easily what you want each other to do.
3) Fake it. If you both forget and come to some awkward pauses/ moments, do something, anything in fact! Pose, pop, shimmy, comb, do whatever you can to make it look like the mistake is planned. The music is probably so fast that?the audience won’t catch it. Stoning is a dead giveaway.
4) Smile!! 😀 Haha this is something which I can’t do myself…yet… Yup most likely the audience won’t know that you screwed up your choreo if you don’t miss a beat (social!!) and smileeee (and i mean a Kodak smile). A frown on your face or sticking out your tongue will easily give you away.