31 Dance Ministry Choreography Tips
I challenged my friends on Twitter & Facebook to come up with dance ministry choreography tips in 120 CHARACTERS or Less. These tips were then published everyday during the month of November on Twitter & Facebook using Tweet Later to schedule my posts in advance and the Twitter Facebook Application that pulled my tweets to Facebook. The responses have been very positive, and there have been many requests to have all the tips in one place. Here you go! All 30 (plus 1) dance ministry choreography tips!
If there is a name following the tip, then that is the person that authored that tip. (FB) means the tip was submitted via Facebook. If there is no name, it is a tip that I contributed. A special shout out to the top 2 contributors: Poetry Daughter & Dawn Churchill! Thank you to everybody who contributed!
| Tip 1: Be conscious of your spacing |
| Tip 2: PoetryDaughter (FB) – All movements should be clear and clean! |
| Tip 3: SarondaJackson (FB) – Be conscious of the skill level as a group and individually |
| Tip 4: Cearthur Clavon Moore (FB) – seek your performance/song that ministers to you first |
| Tip 5: Antionette Thompson Turner (FB) – seek ye first the Kingdom of God |
| Tip 6: Antionette Thompson Turner (FB) – Know who you are ministering to |
| Tip 7: Telleha Howard (FB) – Don't rely too heavily on the technical |
| Tip 8: @PraiseDancer -Use simple steps for beginner dancers so they are not required to master more than they can handle. |
| Tip 9: Poetry Daughter (FB) – Better to do simple movements well than complex ones poorly. |
| Tip 10: Poetry Daughter (FB) – make sure that everyone knows the movement and is doing it the same way. |
| Tip 11: Desiree Griffin-Berry (FB) – With every movement, give HIM reverence. |
| Tip 12: Poetry Daughter (FB) – Encourage those who are not confident, don't put them down! |
| Tip 13: Dawn Churchill (FB) -ALWAYS find scripture(s) that correlates to your chosen song" |
| Tip 14: Amanda S. (FB) -Utilize the nuances in the music / don't focus on movement for every word being sung. |
| Tip 15: @DancingMinister -Choreography is not about teaching technique. Include flags, banners and other tools. |
| Tip 16: Poetry Daughter (FB) -avoid straight line across..use windows, diagonals, circles, triangles, and levels! |
| Tip 17: @PraiseDancer – Break the choreography into sections. Begining, chorus, ending etc. |
| Tip 18: @PraiseDancer Choreograph a strong ending, so your dance is memorable leaving a lasting mental impression of worship. |
| Tip 19: @Vioree: Spoting is very important… |
| Tip 20: Poetry Daughter (FB) Generally, anytime your foot leaves the floor, it is either pointed, or flexed |
| Tip 21: Sukky (FB) Factor the garment in. Overly long and superfluous garments can trip you. |
| Tip 22: Sukky (FB) Make sure space is large enough to accommodate dancers, and tall enough to accommodate flags. |
| Tip 23: Sukky (FB) Don't choreograph around one person in group presentation. |
| Tip 24: Don’t worship the dance…worship HIM that created the dance |
| Tip 25: Remember, you do not need a move for every word |
| Tip 26: Use all 8 directions (front, back, left, right and angles) |
| Tip 27: Don’t look at the floor when you dance unless that is part of the choreography |
| Tip 28: Dawn C (FB) Make certain to research the WORD for scriptures that correlate to your chosen song. |
| Tip 29: Dawn C (FB) ALWAYS choreograph instrumental parts of music. |
| Tip 30: Dawn C (FB) ALWAYS choreograph your entrance and exit. ALWAYS dance as soon as the music begins |
| Tip 31: Krishondra G (FB) You don't need words to dance. Dance to The Word that's in your heart. |
This was challenging to do in 120 words or less!
I'd love to hear from you! Do you have a dance ministry choreography tip that was not mentioned? Do you have a comment or suggestion on a tip mentioned above? Let us know in the comments!
I'm thinking about a part 2 of this "project" for January 2010….stay tuned…
Posted by Lakita Humber
Lakita Humber serves as the founder of Paneh Praise Dance & Mime Ministry and host of the Equipping the Saints Dance & Worship Arts Conference. Find out more about her or follow her on Twitter (@Paneh).
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Overall this is an awesome list. "One sticking point for me is Make certain to research the WORD for scriptures that correlate to your chosen song." I have asked people on different occasions what scripture inspired the song they chose and I'm amazed at how many times there was no answer or worse…they had no scripture base and I could feel I offended them when I asked the question. Seems simple but I really don't think God is going to give us ministry to do with out backing it up in His Word. We might have to do research to find a scripture to meditate on but if a song is on our heart, there should be a Word in our belly to match.
I love it, thank you for doing all this work for us to reap the rewards.
Be blessed and keep it coming.
@James – I agree! WORD study is an important and often overlooked aspect of dance ministry choreography. I'm glad it was brought up by Minister Dawn in tips 13 & 28 and by Krishondra in tip #31
@Jocelyn – I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of all the contributors including yourself…so thank you!
Lakita & the contributors:
Thank you for this. great idea: the 120 limit.
Good job! Thank you for blessing the Body of Christ with your communication gifts.
Joan OC
I have a dance ministry choregraphy tip: YOUR FACE REVEALS WHAT'S IN YOUR HEART; WORSHIP WITH IT!!