How do choreography sessions usually run?

[Query]

When a choreographer specifies their choreography, to a skater or skaters, how is it typically run?:

Is the choreography usually explicit in writing?

If demoed, is the demo done more than once?

Does the choreographer explicitly correct the skaters?

For choreography modifications, does the choreographer re-demo the whole sequence, or just the sub-sequence?

I recently had to drop out of co-teaching (as a volunteer) show choreography to a bunch of (Basic 3+) Learn-To-Skate students, because I am not myself good enough at learning choreography to be helpful. The principle coach/choreographer would listen a few times to the music, then demo sequences once, while she said or sang the words. Then she would have the students try it, usually without re-demo or comment.

Then she would leave the class 5-10 minutes to be managed by her co-teachers. Then she would come back for a few more minutes, and introduce choreography changes by re-saying or singing the altered portion of the song, watch the students try it, again mostly without comment, and leave the class to her co-teachers again. And again. And again.

There was also an assumption from week to week that people would remember that which was taught before.

I'm not good enough at learning choreography to be helpful as a co-teacher in that setting, and have dropped out, because I will do more harm than good if I don't know the sequences.

I am not a particularly good visual learner in general. I probably learn best from a written dance pattern, with videos, which I can study at my leisure, followed by explicit correction. I can sometimes do fairly well, in an off-ice contra-dance (etc.) setting, from an explicitly called sequence, called through many iterations, especially if there is first a called demo by expert dancers. Accordingly, I chose coaches who not only could demo moves, but were good at describing them in words, and would correct or call out moves during lessons.

But it occurs to me that students who are especially good at learning motion sequences might be able to learn this choreographer's style.  Maybe it is in fact one of the main selection factors for good show skaters.

Very much like you see on TV or in a movie, where, at a dance audition, a choreographer demos a sequence once to music, and only a dancers who copy it well are selected. (Except that, for this Basic Skills student show, skaters will presumably self-select, rather than being forced out.)

I personally disagree with using a single-iteration demo-only choreography teaching style with Learn-To-Skate students. But is it in fact commonly expected that good skaters can learn from it, and is that part of how professional show skaters are selected?

[Clarice]

It depends on the choreographer.  I've worked with people who use a couple of different styles.  Some listen to the music ahead of time, plan out the program, and come in ready to teach it to the skater.  Depending on how quickly the skater picks it up, that might take one or two sessions. (I'm talking lower level skaters here; more intricate choreography for advanced skaters or for teams could take longer.) If the coach is a skater, they often demo, then have the skater shadow them, then have the skater try it on their own.  Sometimes they write it down, listing the steps in order, and sometimes they draw it out, kind of like a dance pattern.  It is expected that the skater remember from lesson to lesson, although, obviously, things get reviewed if they don't.  Some will video themselves skating the program, so the skater can watch and learn that way.

Other choreographers work more organically, and create the program as they teach it.  They watch how the skater does the first moves, and that suggests the next moves.  This process often takes longer.  When I've worked with choreographers who did it that way, they have been dancers, not skaters.  I don't know whether that's what made the difference, or whether it was just their personal style of working.  My Russian choreographers were dancers, and so couldn't do complete demos on the ice.  They would tell me what they wanted me to do, and could show me poses or arm movements, but didn't skate at all.  Sometimes they would physically move my body into position, if the language barrier failed us.  In both cases, if the choreographer doesn't draw out a map of the program for me, I do it myself.  That really helps me as a reference, but I learn kinetically rather than visually - through muscle memory, if you will.  The map helps, and the demo helps, but I learn the choreography by how it feels as I execute the movements.

In both cases, an outside choreographer will often place the jumps and spins in the program, but leave the specifics of exactly which jump or spin to the skater's technical coach.  Most choreographers I've worked with will modify the program as they go if the skater finds something particularly uncomfortable.

When I have choreographed, I generally work more in the first style.  I come in with a program planned out and drawn out.  It helps me remember, and helps me work more efficiently.  If things get added or changed as we go, I alter my map.  Eventually I give a copy of the map to the skater, but they can use it or not, depending on how they learn and remember.  (Sometimes it's mostly for Mom to have for their scrapbook!)  I work this way with classes, too.  The few times I've had to plan a program for a class I wasn't going to be teaching myself, I gave the instructor a written plan and map and left them to their own devices to adjust it as necessary.  For the purposes of a group ice show number, it wasn't important to me that my choreography be executed exactly as I had imagined it.  It was much more important that the class looked organized and presented well in the show.  If that meant the instructor had to change things, even a lot, well then, so be it.

In my ballet classes (adult, multi-level, including some beginners), it is routinely expected that we execute a combination of steps after seeing it demonstrated only once.  As you build up a vocabulary of steps, this becomes easier and easier.  The ability to pick up step sequences quickly is definitely something a professional skater or dancer is expected to have.

[Query]

Anyone else - what are your experiences with choreography?

In my ballet classes (adult, multi-level, including some beginners), it is routinely expected that we execute a combination of steps after seeing it demonstrated only once.  As you build up a vocabulary of steps, this becomes easier and easier.

So, I guess being able to learn this way is a specific form of intelligence, which to some extent has to be learned through practice.

Maybe it helps to practice learning to learn many different ways. Whereas I have chosen to learn using (and find teachers who can teach to) only those ways that I learn best.

[CaraSkates]

In my ballet classes (adult, multi-level, including some beginners), it is routinely expected that we execute a combination of steps after seeing it demonstrated only once.  As you build up a vocabulary of steps, this becomes easier and easier.  The ability to pick up step sequences quickly is definitely something a professional skater or dancer is expected to have.

This is how my ballet classes go - the teacher demonstrates once, sometimes using only her hands to show the footwork, we are expected to remember and then be able to reverse it for the "other side". It is easier the more you do it. I have picked up the habit of marking footwork with my hands and walk through my ice dances and my own step sequences this way.

The same is true of skating choreography. After 10 years of learning programs and being on ice theater teams/performing in shows, you get used to remembering the steps quickly.

When I choreograph or assist with LTS show numbers, if I am given the music ahead of time, I come up with a basic plan and then adjust when I see what the skaters can do. For tiny tots and very low levels, I might spent the first practice teaching them elements that will go in the program - pinwheel, splice, etc.

[Doubletoe]

I've only had private choreography lessons, never group, so I can't speak to your specific situation.  Having said that, I am very surprised that skaters at the Learn-To-Skate level are being expected to learn choreography that quickly.  I personally video my choreographer as she demonstrates the moves so that I can study it on my own later and get it in muscle memory.