CHOREOGRAPHY!!

When did I first start choreographing? I think I have been choreographing since Junior High, but back then it was more stealing steps than choreographing. The first dance I ever presented was a jazz piece to Yello's "Tied Up". The dance had 3 woman and 2 men (me and a good friend on the swim team. Where are you Ted?). The dance was basically a collection of my favorite moments from Star Search.

I choreographed my second dance and got 5 girls to dance with me in front of a video camera. I then sent this to BYU in hopes of getting a scholarship. Again the dance was star search concentrate and the Modern Department at BYU wasn't overly impressed. So, I took an academic scholarship instead and majored in Graphic Design.

My third dance was choreographed at BYU using 5 women (2 of whom I dressed up like men...what was I thinking?). The dance was performed to the Art of Noises's mix of "Dragnet". It was about cops and hookers but at BYU I called them "glamorous ladies of the evening". This dance was about 50 percent star search and 50 percent me. I finally made the break from Star Search and choreographed my next piece using 5 women (This time I let them stay as women.) The dance was to "Macavity" from Cats (again, what was I thinking?) The tempo at the end of the music was too fast for the choreography so I slowed it down to the point where the vocals sounded like Kathleen Turner on an acid trip. Luckily I stopped short of dressing the girls like cats.

It was at this point that I begin performing with BYU's The Dancers' Company. I got the chance to choreograph again when the director of the company wanted the company to put together a fun show-off dance to tour with. I volunteered to put the thing together. The dance was called "Up Front" and it won best choreography at the next years ACDF (American College Dance Festival) and was presented at the Kennedy center.

When I wasn't working with the Dancers' Co. I choreographed some of the small music theater productions I was involved in "Once On This Island", "The Robber Bridegroom", and "The Baker's Wife". In an attempt to bring more concert dance into the music theater I choreographed a contemporary ballet for the story portion of Meadowlark in The Baker's Wife and a dream ballet for Human Heart in Once On This Island.

I somehow talked the dance chair into allowing me to present a piece in the dance majors Senior Concert. Although I wasn't a dance major, I signed up for the class and argued that it was an open enrollement class. The dance was set to the Art of Noises's remix of Kiss (Tom Jones) and features 5 of the most beautiful women imaginable and me. Ain't dance grand? The dance was called "Currently on Display" and got me into hot water with the faculty at BYU because of skirts slit up to the hip and some sexy movement. (The dance would be considered tame anywhere else, but this was nothing compared to the debate over my poster design (At Risk in 166) for the next concert I was presenting in.)

My last dance at BYU was "Pepto" and was performed in Dance Ensemble's At Risk in 166 Concert.

After a 8 month stint at Busch Gardens I decided to get my masters in Dance from the University of Utah. My emphasis was choreography, so I had lots of time to choreograph during my two years in Salt Lake City. "Mercury" later to be called "Merc" was choreographed, and re-choreographed, for a solo pilot study but never met the faculties approval. It was set to Holst's Mercury from the Planets and included a lot of running, falling, and rolling around on the floor for the dancer. I later choreographed "Officemate" for the solo pilot study. (Thank Terpsichore it only had to be choreographed once.) The score for Officemate is St. Ives' "The Swan" played on a Thermin. I choreographed a trio pilot called "The Waking Hours" to a score by Jan Garbarek which was originally intended for Holst's Saturn (The Planet's again, I was on some kind of Astronomy kick.) And I choreographed a group pilot to The Balanescu's rendition of Kraftwerks "Robots". The piece was called "Hoyle Cubed". For my Graduate thesis I choreographed a mammoth piece called "Vacant Reflection" which I may retitle Miscellaneous Body Parts (the name of the concert in which it was presented). The last dance I choreographed at the UU was called "Runs with Scissors" and got me in trouble with the presenters of the concert because I had water balloons hanging from the lighting grid and they were afraid the balloons would burst and spray water over the marley which could then seep down into the wood floor underneath and warp the floor. A perfectly legitimate concern. So I tried rice...but have you ever tried to get rice into a balloon? I managed to accomplish it using water displacement, but then the rice was wet and after soaking in the balloon for hours under the warm lights it smelled really bad when it hit the floor and burst. So I tried split peas but the balloons just looked way too lumpy. My origianl idea was for the balloons to fall at the end of the piece and burst, but I discovered that the friction from the ropes made the balloons fall so slowly that the balloons did not burst. For extra safety I double bagged the balloons and although the presenters were anxious, the balloons did not burst when they fell. I would like to perform the piece again (if I can find a stage with a low enough lighting grid) and see if I can get the balloons to burst when they hit the floor. Maybe I could strategically place a sniper in the audience?

So I haven't choreographed since graduation, almost 2 years now. I have some ideas a brewing. I'd like to choreograph a quriky dance to the old 60's hit "The Boys Watch The Girls while the Girls watch the Boys..." I'd also like to do some more multi media work this time projecting images on the dancers. And if I save up my penny's I can buy a digital camera and present some dance for the camera work on this site.

I also want to do an evening length work called "The Suit". It would combine some of my previous solo work with some new material and would be a sort of contemporary the "The Red Shoes" meets "The Mask". But as with anything I do, I have to find the funding first. Donations graciously accepted!