Dance Solos

[Chloedance]

Hi Everyone I'm a 13 year old who loves to dance. 

So i currently have 4 different solos: Tap, Lyrical, Song & Dance and Ballet

But i am wanting to do more different styles in solos next year. 

All the styles i am wanting to do are: Jazz, Lyrical, Song & Dance, Song & Tap, Tap, Neo-Classical, Contempary

I understand this is a lot but wanted to know what you would recommend with this. 
Should I try and convince my parents or should I do less? 

What styes from this list would you recommend?

All ideas appreciated. 

Thanks so much 

Chloe

[Pixiewoo]

I would talk to your teacher and see what they recommend. It may also depend upon which categories/sections are offered at the competitions you attend. 

 

In the competitions my DD attended, you could do any dance alongside your song in song&dance,  as long as they fitted together well... so jazz, lyrical, tap etc. 

Jazz, lyrical and contemporary could all be danced in the modern section, although there is usually a seperate lyrical section as well. (And you can usually only dance once in each section so you don't want dances that overlap)

 

Good luck. Remember, it is better to have a few dances that you have time to practice and work hard on,  than so many that they are all a bit rushed.  My DD (at 18) ended up with a lot of dances, including duets, but some of them she had had for at least 4 or 5 years by then! So just slowly building and adding to the repertoire. 

 

 

[HopelessMummy]

It depends. If you're up for a challenge and doing well with your solos, why not speak to your parents and teacher and see what they think. Without being rude, I think it's much better to excel at fewer dances than to be mediocre at more. If you are doing All England and qualifying all, why not try another style? The thing I would say, is that the more dances require more commitment, time, costumes, money and not always on the same day so you may find yourself going to a festival for four separate days.

 

If you excel at ballet, contemp and neo classical are obvious choices. If tap and song and dance is more your bag, jazz might be a nice one to go for. Good luck

[FlexyNexy]

My advice would be speak to your teachers what they think.

If this would be question my daughter is asking me, I would say that rather than focusing on all of the mentioned styles, choose the ones you stand out and paying more attention to the dance choice. Depending on where your strength is i.e.. are you a natural turner? are you good at leaps (jetes)…etc.

And of course, choreography is very important. You might be fantastic contemporary dancer, but if the choreography is poor or bad choice of music it will not show you well no matter what you do on stage. My daughter once worked with very great choreographer and by end of her performance whole row of people I have been sitting next to was crying how moved they were by the story she portrayed.
If you are thinking competitions, also think what others are doing...is everyone choosing Paquita? Be different to others, often judges get bored seeing the same dance over and over.

Finally, performance skill is also good to master. You can be technically perfect dancer, but if you do not perform your selected character in the dance, it’s like dancing robot.

Edited November 16, 2023 by FlexyNexy
spelling error

[MCOS]

My DD loved competitions!  So I sat

through a lot of them.

 

My experience is
1.  Some competitions will limit the number of solos a competitor can do.  Most competitions will have a website

which will have details of rules,

this will be mentioned there.  Perhaps look this up in advance for the competitions you know you will be attending.

2.  You need time to polish each solo.  
Make sure quantity doesn’t impact quality.  Will you have time to polish more than 4 solos??   Better to do 2-3

solos really well than so 6  solos at a mediocre standard.

3. For important competitions, eg Dance World Cup, I have seen really strong soloists drop to just 1 solo to make sure it is in best possible shape.  Maybe consider doing less but better prepared solos for important competitions, eg maybe for

regional finals which have a national final.

4.  A solo is great opportunity to push yourself and improve.  Either introducing new technique or trying new styles.  A solo is a fantastic way

to drive improvement as you will spend more time practicing.  But these solos take even more time for

practice…. So you might need to drop some of the four you already do to make time to perfect new solos.

5.  Lastly, are you also doing duets or

trios, or many group dances?  How much practice time will these require?

 

And lucky you, at 13 years

old, you have years of competition ahead of you!!  Enjoy and best of luck.

 

 

 

 

 

[mumtotwoballerinas]

On 11/11/2023 at 07:58, Chloedance said:

Hi Everyone I'm a 13 year old who loves to dance. 

So i currently have 4 different solos: Tap, Lyrical, Song & Dance and Ballet

But i am wanting to do more different styles in solos next year. 

All the styles i am wanting to do are: Jazz, Lyrical, Song & Dance, Song & Tap, Tap, Neo-Classical, Contempary

I understand this is a lot but wanted to know what you would recommend with this. 
Should I try and convince my parents or should I do less? 

What styes from this list would you recommend?

All ideas appreciated. 

Thanks so much 

Chloe

My daughter used to do a lot of solos and had 6 whilst still in baby section. She picked things up very quickly - one lesson in some cases and remembered them she had 10 solos in the end and duet trio group

Ballet,Character, Modern, tap,Greek, National, Lyrical,  Song and dance musical comedy and Acro

Not all these were eligible for some comps (AED) but she loved them all 

talk to your teachers and see what they think and your parents as there is a cost implication. If you feel you want to push yourself and love learning definitely try and do more