[found on egouvernaire.wordpress.com]
“Introduction : a dance scene is more about the conversation the characters are having through the medium of the action. The physical actions of your characters are really just another form of expression, like a secondary conversation, underlying the primary verbal conversation. The most important thing to figure out is what the characters’ intentions are and how your characters can express them through their dance – oriented interaction.
1) Preparation
First of all, the objective is to collect all informations you need about your dance scene (technical, history, habits etc.)
- Looking at videos for learning how the dances you’re using work and look
- Understanding the community and history that surrounds them
- Read some interviews, chat or book with some dancers about dancing, so you can figure out how your characters might think about it
- Taking a dance class could also help to experience it
- Search for references : Titles, habits, cloth etc. – I can be very useful to select a track for your scene
- Consult various scholar references, including specialized glossaries or images about dance movement and steps etc.
2) Identify Character Intentions
See, all things flow from the characters’ intentions, objectives and desire –setting up some obstacles. So all you need to figure out then is :
- What each character wants- define a want list for each or a clear goal (and, of course, what there is to know about it)
- What each character knows about the other character’s intentions
- What each character would do to get what they want
- How each character would react to the other character’s actions
- Define what is the nature of the conflict : an object, money, love, power, social or psychological conflict etc.
- What each character is going to do in getting what he wants – to reach his goal – what are the intensity of their desires
- What each character is going to Win / Loose – what is the reward
So basically, just make sure to nail down the flow of information, intention, goal and interaction between your characters on a high level.”
For the rest of the steps to writing a great dance scene, with tips from Egouvernaire, click HERE.
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