2025 Lunar New Year X Dance Club: the story behind the first choreography work
- Elsa ding
- Jan 29
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 18
On January 25, Ridley college celebrated 2025 year of the snake in Mandeville Theatre. its is also the first time in my life brought a original choreography performance to the stage. this blog i will bring you to the story behind this wonderful performance experience, including the creating process, the challenges i faced, and the members who always trust me within the performance.
1.Creative Process
Early stage of creation
During Christmas vacation in December 2024, I returned to my home, Beijing China, where I began music/costume selection, and choreography.
Mid-creation
We had many alternatives and went through many revisions and viewings. Before returning to school, I prepared all the costumes and props for the show.
In Progress/Post Production
Upon returning to school three weeks before the performance, I immediately began planning and scheduling meetings. Two weeks before the performance, I finally finished the choreography and recorded the video, which was a daunting task for me. I sent the video to my mom, who gave me a lot of feedback and comments. After repeated revisions, I finally finished the dance with all the actors. With everyone's joint efforts, I brought the piece to the stage.
2. Biggest Challenge
The initial music choices were “Huo Yuanjia” and “Time”. I took the edited music and had my first practice with the cast, which was to realize the ideas in my head. It turned out to be great, with each member perfectly realizing what I had mapped out in my head, and it should have been a pretty perfect start, but heaven forbid I hit a serious creative bottleneck. I was under a lot of pressure, not only because the dance in my head was stuck, but also because I believed in my members.
Due to jet lag, I often woke up at 4 a.m. and used this time to choreograph. Because of the creative bottleneck, I saved all my existing ideas. I started over with new ideas and creations, and changed the music to Coco Lee's “Knife and Horse Dan”.
*刀马旦(horse and knife) is a song released by Coco Lee in 2009, I chose this song for two main reasons, one is that the chorus of the knife and horse Dan is widely known to represent the traditional Chinese cold weapon, the knife and horse Dan. The second is a personal connection, maybe it's my temperament, when I was in Beijing I was often told by my family, teachers, that I looked like Coco Lee.
Final Adjustments
The first time I danced on stage, I realized that the dance was too nervous and rushed in its presentation. After watching the video many times, I think there was a problem with my choreography. The position changes were too quick and caused the movement to be too tense. I removed one of the positional changes and changed it to a fan stroke
3. It's not just a solo performance, it's also a team honor.
First performance meeting
At the end of November 2024, I posted a recruitment message through the @ridleydanceclub account. Together with the existing members of the dance club, a total of 18 people joined the meeting. Together with the existing members of the dance club, a total of 18 people joined the meeting. I taught simple Chinese dance clips (about 4 eight beats)
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