solo dancer sab

solo player sab

normie trash
AKA
Sab
So back in my undergrad years I was a part of a collegiate competitive hip hop dance team called Common Ground (CG) Dance Team and we competed, year round, against other collegiate teams across Southern California. I spent two years dancing with CG competitively before moving onto more philanthropic pursuits teaching beginners through dance workshops/classes as well as coaching and choreographing for beginner dance teams as they prepped for their annual competitions. To date, I still coach and teach once a year (typically in the February thru April timeframe) and it is by far one of the most fulfilling and rewarding experiences I've ever had and will probably ever have. To have dance as a creative outlet paired with the opportunity to lead and inspire young people is, quite frankly, a dream.

That said, I wanted to share with ya'll some of my original choreography that I've taught in dance workshops and/or provided to college dance teams to use for their competitive sets. Hope you enjoy!

Song: Trey Songz - Panty Droppa
Description: Sab's original choreo, beginners dance workshop, ~30 in attendance

I choreographed this piece for a "dance class" social hosted by a national co-ed community service fraternity that I was involved in. This is a video of my solo at the end of the class when I finished teaching the entire piece.

The social was intended to "break the ice" between the members of two different chapters (universities), so everyone in attendance had seldom danced or never danced before. With this in mind, I wanted to ensure the choreo was fun and playful and something that they'd want to play again and practice at home. This song, in particular, was always a hit when I was in college, so it was recognizable and loved by everyone immediately.

The class was a ton of fun! I recall trying to teach the piece slowly and a few of them were able to pick it up fairly quickly. Other struggled, of course, but the point was to have fun and break out of your comfort zone a little bit anyway, which I believe they did :mon:

Song: Ja Rule - Clap Back
Description: Sab's original choreo, beginners competitive piece, ~40 dance teammates

I choreographed this piece for a team to use in their set against other teams during their annual dance competition. Although only a beginner's dance team, I always try to make my pieces for them challenging and "flashy" enough to be competitive (I only coach winners). So this was a little more intricate and hard-hitting than my workshop pieces.

If you're curious, you can see the final result of my piece on stage being performed by the actual team during competition!:

Song: Omarion ft. Jhene Aiko - Post To Be
Description: Sab's original choreo, beginners dance workshop, ~10 in attendance

Another fun and simple workshop for a group of beginners! It was a smaller class overall but a TON of fun since it was so intimate. This is a video of one of our final run-throughs as a group at the end of class.

Song: Sara Bareilles – Gravity
Description: Choreo by CG alum/Sab’s teammate, Sean Dasaad, select group, beginners dance workshop, ~30 in attendance

So this piece was NOT choreographed by me! My old CG teammate was kind enough to teach a training piece for the dance team I was coaching at the time. I absolutely LOVE his choreography style so I jumped at the opportunity to take his class and learn his choreo!

Typically at the end of these workshops, the choreographer will choose a “select group” from the participants who executed the piece to his or her liking. Sean picked me!!!! I was SUPER excited and nervous! Also you probably can’t tell from the video but I’m wearing a Holiday FF7 sweater :P
C0F3CCF5-0923-41D3-B571-0BC7D2B44C8B.jpeg

I’ll leave it at that but I’m happy to share more if ya’ll are into it. I’m starting to choreograph again so there’s more to come.

Thanks for watching!
 
Last edited:

CrashOuch

she/her
AKA
Sara
I think I feel like one of those DANCEMOMS (probably I should say I've never watched that so this is entirely my assumptions of how that goes) where they're just on the edge like watching, entirely unable to make their bodies do those things but they're jumping up and down and screaming with pride like 'THAT'S MY BABY! THAT CAME OUT OF MY HOOHAH!' by which I mean I feel super proud of your talent, Sab, like as if I was your mum, even though that's not as sexy as I'd like it to be. Please understand from my in-eloquence how impressed I am by you and your dancing.

<3
 

Flare

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Flare
You're so good, Sab! Very nice stuff! It's fun to watch you, I can tell it's something you enjoy doing. <3 If you lived closer I'd totally attend one of your classes, that would be fun. :D
 

solo player sab

normie trash
AKA
Sab
Ah shucks thanks so much everyone!!! :properhug:

I want you to know I've never said this to anybody else ever but

YAASSSSSSS GIRL, SLAY

I wish i were a girl so I could be in lesbians with you, you look damn right awesome. :monster:

Joe that is the sweetest thing any straight boi has ever said to me :sob::sob::sob::sob::sob::sob::sob::sob::sob:

Also I am so honored to be the recipient of your first YAAAAAS GIRL SLAAAYYY :sob::sob::sob::sob:

The Jhene choreo always gets me feelin some type of way :geek:

Good thing you have your own personal video eh babe

YASSSS I’VE BEEN A FAN FROM THE START!! Teach me, sensei!

Is the shoe tossing typical in dance communities?

You were the very first person I showed these to :sob: you my Day One!

And yes the shoe thing is custom! At least down here in the SoCal community. The shoes always come out at the end of class when the choreographer performs his or her solo. Not sure where or how it originated, tbh...

I think I feel like one of those DANCEMOMS (probably I should say I've never watched that so this is entirely my assumptions of how that goes) where they're just on the edge like watching, entirely unable to make their bodies do those things but they're jumping up and down and screaming with pride like 'THAT'S MY BABY! THAT CAME OUT OF MY HOOHAH!' by which I mean I feel super proud of your talent, Sab, like as if I was your mum, even though that's not as sexy as I'd like it to be. Please understand from my in-eloquence how impressed I am by you and your dancing.

<3

Crash I don’t deserve you :sob:

If you lived closer I'd totally attend one of your classes, that would be fun. :D

Screencaptured for evidence. You heard it first y’all, if I teach a dance class up north, Flare is going to take it ayyyy
 

solo player sab

normie trash
AKA
Sab

I don't think I can top Joe and his use of slay queen but goddamnit that was impressive to watch!

10000000000% FOR THE FRIENDS GIF

Do you invent stories to remember the dance moves?

Hmmm not so much stories per se, but the lyrics help with remembering sometimes! I typically choreograph moves to the beats/sounds (snare drum, bass, cymbal, swwwsshhh sounds, cowbell, etc) or the lyrics—and of course in the latter case I incorporate some interpretation of them, so they’re always easier to remember.

Really the key to remembering is just a lot of repetition, I guess!
 
Last edited:

solo player sab

normie trash
AKA
Sab
@wander thanks dude!

This one's for all my weebs out there...


Song: RADWIMPS - Zenzenzense (English Version) from the Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name) soundtrack
Description: Sab's original choreo, intermediate competitive piece, ~40 dance teammates
This is the latest piece I came up with during my coaching stint last year. I really wanted to challenge myself by choosing a song that was entirely not hip hop and see what I could come up with. At the time, I was SUPER obsessed with Your Name and its soundtrack and this song really stood out to me as a great 'intro' song for a set.

I always try to make my intro pieces for competitive sets really challenging and 'explosive' in a way -- like a memorable start to a story, y'know? It's one thing to see me perform this as a solo (in fact I feel like it's a little silly being performed alone), but the piece itself is exponentially better performed as a group. So if you're interested, I'd really encourage you to check out the full performance of this piece during competition to get the full experience:
Since the song is so expressive, I incorporated a little story into the piece featuring two 'leads' hahaha I think they did a good job in the end product :P

Oh -- and my kids ended up getting 3rd place at this competition! Whooooo!
 

solo player sab

normie trash
AKA
Sab
Found an oldie but a goodie!

Song: Jeremy Passion - Lemonade (Ukulele)
Description: Sab's original choreo, beginner's competitive piece, 43 dance teammates

I choreographed this back in 2013 when I was actually on the team as an artistic director! So not only did I coach and choreograph, I also built the whole show and participated as a dancer in the set. If you have some time, definitely check us out on competition day (skip to 1:30):


I actually choreographed two pieces for this set: Lemonade (starting at 6:42) and the intro piece, Snapbacks and Tattoos (starting at 1:33). Unfortunately I can't find my solo video from when I first taught Snapbacks and Tattoos - otherwise I'd share it here! In any case, we're all wearing the same outfit but I shouldn't be hard to miss...I'm the smol girl in the middle (choreographers are typically in the middle of their own pieces).

I was also involved in choreographing the 'transitions' between pieces, specifically the first, second, third, fifth, and last transitions.

FINALLY, in case you're interested...in addition to my two pieces, you can also find me in:
- Boy's Piece (Steezin by Wes Nyle ft. Cliff Savage) @ 4:30 - front center/left
- Girl's Piece (Put Your Graffiti on Me by Kat Graham) @ 5:44 (but I don't come in until 6:03ish) - front right
- Outro (Everybody by Backstreet Boys) @ 8:13 - front left

We got first place that year! <3
 

solo player sab

normie trash
AKA
Sab
Hiii! So the dance team that I normally choreograph for and coach is starting up their competition season and this year they've asked me to come in and choreograph/teach two pieces for them!

I thought it'd be cool to share with ya'll my "Process" and document the entire journey from conception to execution--or in this case, competition. I plan to post videos of the major milestones of my piece as its being developed (kinda like when artists post WIPs!), leading up to the big day when they perform it on stage during competition in May. Cool eh??

Without further ado...!!!

THE SET
The 'set' refers to the entire 7-10 minute competitive routine that a dance team puts together and performs on stage. A set can contain multiple 'pieces,' which refer to the different snippets of songs that the dance team members perform. I met with the team's artistic directors and they informed me that they want to attribute an overarching theme to the set this year, as opposed to putting the set together with random, non-related songs. They chose the theme of 'Empowerment,' so they've asked me and the other choreographers to select songs that illustrate this.

The song I selected for my first piece was Mirror by Madison Ryann Ward. It's slow and expressive and represents, in my opinion, the concept of moving on. That's empowering right?? Anyway I hope to be able to make someone cry by the end of all of this. WISH ME LUCK.

STEP 1: Freestyle
As with any creative process (I'm assuming), the first step is typically some sort of brainstorming session. For some dancers/choreographers, that usually comes in the form of a freestyle, when we put on the song and just dance and move however we feel. Nothing is choreographed - we just listen to the music and come up with moves on the spot. B likened it to how artists doodle and shit, so think of it as a 'dancing doodle,' if you will.

I caught my first couple of freestyles to Mirror on video back in November, before the kids even asked me to choreograph. I was really feeling the song back then and just wanted to freestyle for fun. Now that the kids have asked me and they're good with me using this song, I'm using this freestyle as a baseline for my actual choreography...I hope you enjoy it and don't forget this is just the sketch!!! Also pls excuse my nips I might've been cold and this was never meant to be shared :tongueout:


NEXT STEPS...
I'm scheduled to come in to dance practice to teach this piece on Monday evening, February 18, so I have about a week to choreograph and finalize and be ready to teach. Not a lot of time because I'm a miserable procrastinator but I've done worse in past years so I'm confident I'll get it done!!! Please expect to see my first attempt(s) at choreo in the next couple days!
 
Last edited:

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
EEERRRMMMMMEEERRRDD
giphy.gif


bruh i've always wondered about this process, i'm so excited to see how this progresses!!!!!!!
 
Top Bottom