I am so excited! Tonight on ‘So You Think You Can Dance – Canada’, the Top 20 Dancers perform on the live stage for the first time. I love all the different dance shows on TV: ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ (Canada and USA), ‘Dancing With The Stars’, and ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’. Before these dance shows were mainstream TV viewing, you could only watch dance on television as specials on PBS or movie musicals on a cable movie network. This year, the dance series are practically overlapping each other – Season 5 of SYTYCD ended then the next week, the Canadian SYTYCD Season 2 began. Now the first week of September, Season 6 of SYTYCD will begin while the Canadian SYTYCD will be showing the Top 16 Dancers. I think that even I will be on dance overload!
What I find is the most impressive attribute about the top competitors on SYTYCD is how they are able to learn dance routines that are not of their own dance genre. It seems that the classically trained dancers (that is, dancers with a ballet background) are able to pick up the choreography quicker and are able to handle the intricate steps of ballroom and latin styles. However, there always seems to be a couple of b-boys or b-girls that totally shock and awe the judges and audience with how well they are able to perform dance styles that are completely foreign to them.
Why is it that the dancers are able to perform dance routines that are so out of their comfort zone? And why are some dancers’ performances more successful than others? One reason why dancers are able to adapt to such different styles is that they are being taught by master choreographers who are passionate about their style of dance. Some choreographers are better able to communicate their movement to the dancers and they have a dance vocabulary that the dancers are able to understand – they can convey how the dancer is supposed to move their bodies and what emotions they are supposed to portray. The dancers that are more successful with their performances are the ones that have very good dance basics to start with and they are able to take what they have learned from the choreographers and carry it forward to their next dance routine. The most important thing the dancers can bring to their routines is to trust in the choreographer’s vision and dance with abandon. No fear! It is the dancers that hold back that end up failing to perform to the judges’ expectations.
A wedding is very much like a dance performance. I can just imagine the puzzled and perplexed look on your face wondering how these two different things could be alike, but think about it:
- a dance starts with an idea or a vision; a wedding begins with a dream and a vision
- a successful dance performance is as emotional for the audience as it is for the dancers; a well-thought out wedding day is as meaningful for the guests as it is for the bridal couple
- a well performed dance gives the audience a glimpse of the dancers’ souls and personality; a well designed wedding will give the guests an appreciation of the bridal couples’ personality and style
- a dance is designed by a choreographer; a wedding is designed by a wedding planner
To me, it is appropriate to compare a wedding planner to a dance choreographer. My business mentor, Ciara Daykin of Firefly Occasions in Calgary, has the title of ‘Event Choreographer’ in her business and it really describes her role as a wedding planner. The dictionary defines a choreographer as “a person who creates dance compositions and plans and arranges dance movements and patterns for dances and especially for ballets”. Choreography is described as “to plan out or oversee the movement, development, or details of; to orchestrate”. Ciara has adopted this title because she plans out or oversees the movement, development, or details of a wedding; so it is entirely fitting for her to be called The Event Choreographer.
If you have started planning your wedding and are beginning to feel a little bit overwhelmed, I am here to help you! Together, let’s choreograph a beautiful wedding day for you and your fiancé. You can reach me at (306) 244-8482 or email me at info@vivaweddingsandevents.com or vivaweddings@hotmail.com. Our first meeting together is free!
Thought for the day…
I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words.
- Ruth St. Denis
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