In simple terms
A friendly intro before the formal notes — no formulas yet.
Choreography: From Idea to Embodied Intention
Dance composition is the art of crafting movement with purpose. It's not just about creating interesting steps; it's about using those steps to explore an idea, tell a story, or evoke an emotion, and then structuring them into a coherent and impactful whole.
Think of choreographing a dance like writing a formal essay. Your 'choreographic intention' is your thesis statement—the core argument you want to prove. Your 'movement vocabulary' is your evidence and examples. The 'choreographic devices' (like repetition or contrast) are your rhetorical tools, and the 'structure' (like ABA form) is your essay outline. A successful dance, like a successful essay, presents a clear idea and supports it with well-organised, compelling material.
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Conceive: Select a stimulus (an image, a poem, a concept) and develop it into a specific and perceptive choreographic intention. Ask 'what is my dance about?' and then 'how will I explore this idea uniquely?'.
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Create: Generate movement material through improvisation and structured tasks. Explore the elements of dance—space, time, and energy—to create a rich movement vocabulary that relates to your intention.
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Craft: Organise your movement material. Select the strongest motifs, develop them using choreographic devices, and arrange them into a clear structure or form that creates a journey for the audience.
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Critique & Refine: Analyse your work as you create it. Film rehearsals and ask for feedback. Does the dance effectively communicate your intention? Be prepared to edit, re-sequence, and refine your choices to strengthen the final work.
Explore the concept
Use the live diagram and synced steps — play it or tap a step card to walk through.
Full topic notes
Formal explanation with the rigour you need for the exam.
Deconstructing the Assessment: Composition and Analysis
This internal assessment task requires you to choreograph a dance of 3-5 minutes for either a solo performer or a group of 2-5 dancers. You will submit a video recording of the final dance, accompanied by a written analysis of no more than 800 words. The task is worth 35% of your final SL grade and is assessed internally by your teacher and moderated externally by the IB. It is marked against three criteria.
Criterion A: Choreographic Intention (5 marks)
Criterion B: Application of choreographic principles (10 marks)
Criterion C: Communication of choreographic intention (10 marks)
Criterion A: Choreographic Intention
This criterion assesses the quality of your core idea. A top-band response requires a 'clear, specific and perceptive' intention. This means moving beyond a general topic. For example, 'a dance about grief' is too broad. A perceptive intention would specify the aspect of grief being explored, such as 'the cyclical nature of grief, exploring the tension between private sorrow and public composure'. This provides a much stronger foundation for generating specific movement and structuring your dance.
Criterion B: Application of Choreographic Principles
This criterion assesses your 'choreographic craft'—how you use the tools of dance making to build your work. This includes your selection and development of movement vocabulary, your use of the elements of dance (space, time, energy), and your structuring of the work into a coherent whole. Examiners look for the 'skilful' and 'imaginative' application of principles like motif, development, contrast, and form (e.g., ABA, narrative, episodic).
In your written analysis, do not just list the devices you used. You must justify your choices. Explain why you used a specific device and how it serves to realise your choreographic intention. For example, instead of saying 'I used canon', say 'To communicate the spreading of an idea, a gestural motif was performed in a three-part canon, visually representing the ripple effect of a single thought moving through a collective consciousness.'
Criterion C: Communication of Choreographic Intention
This is the 'so what?' criterion. It assesses how successfully the final dance (as seen on video) communicates the intention you laid out in Criterion A, using the tools you described in Criterion B. A top-band work is 'highly effective' and 'coherent'. The choreography, structure, and performance must all work together to create a powerful and legible artistic statement. The whole should be greater than the sum of its parts.
Coherence is key: Every section, phrase, and gesture should feel like it belongs and contributes to the overall intention.
Performance quality matters: The dancer(s) must perform the choreography with technical clarity and appropriate expression to make the choreographer's vision clear.
Consider the audience: How will your choices be 'read' by an observer? Film your work from the audience's perspective to check for clarity.
Effective structuring: The beginning should establish the world of the dance, the middle should develop the ideas, and the ending should provide a sense of resolution or poignant finality.
Your 800-word analysis is crucial for helping the examiner understand how the choices you made in the choreography are meant to communicate your intention. Use precise timestamps from your video to refer to specific moments, linking the visible movement directly to your conceptual goals. This demonstrates a reflective and analytical creative process.
Worked examples
See the formulas applied — reveal one step at a time, like the exam.
A student's initial idea is to create a dance inspired by the painting 'The Persistence of Memory' by Salvador Dalí. Refine this into a 'clear, specific and perceptive' choreographic intention.
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An adequate intention might be: 'My intention is to create a dance about melting clocks and the surrealism in Dalí's painting.'
For the choreographic intention 'to explore the cyclical nature of grief', provide an example of how you would analyse your use of 'motif and development' in your 800-word analysis.
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A model paragraph for the analysis could be: 'The central theme of cyclical grief is embodied in a recurring floor-based motif introduced at the beginning of the work. This motif consists of a slow, contracted curl into the foetal position, followed by a strained, arching push away from the floor, which ultimately fails and collapses back into the initial curl. This movement sequence serves as the core emotional anchor of the piece. Throughout the dance, this motif is developed to reflect different stages of the grieving process. In the central section, for instance, the tempo of the motif is dramatically increased and performed with sharp, percussive energy, communicating a sense of anger and resistance. Later, it is developed through diminution, becoming a small, repetitive hand gesture of clenching and unclenching, signifying an internalised, persistent ache. This skilful development of a single motif ensures thematic coherence while allowing for the nuanced expression of a complex emotional journey, directly serving the choreographic intention.'
How it all connects
The big idea sits in the middle — tap a linked idea to explore the link.
Tap a linked idea to see how it connects back to the main topic — that connection is what examiners reward.
Glossary
Try to recall each definition before you reveal it.
Quick check
Answer in your head first — then tap to check. No pressure.
Revision flashcards
Flip the card. Test yourself before the exam.
Choreographic Intention
The purpose behind the dance; the central idea, theme, or concept that the choreographer aims to explore and communicate to the audience. A top-band intention is 'perceptive' and 'specific'.
Key takeaways
Review these before you close the topic — retrieval beats re-reading.
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Criterion A: Choreographic Intention (5 marks)
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Criterion B: Application of choreographic principles (10 marks)
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Criterion C: Communication of choreographic intention (10 marks)