Students interested in developing their choregraphic skills have many options for pursing venues to show their work in, classes to develop their skills, technology to support their work. To choreograph the basics you need are space to work in, people to set movement on (which could simply be one person: yourself), and optionally, a show or place to perform the work in. For notes on reserving space to work or perform in, see the Facilities page. For details on how to get pieces into performance shows, or make your own show, see Performance page. To get people to set movement on, you can go through classes or student groups, officially, or simply by asking friends and classmates. You also can post an advertisement on the Body&Sole Listserv, the Ashamu bulletin board, and schedule space for an audition if you choose. Beyond these basics, the following is an overview of resources and opportunities available for choreographers at Brown.

Choreography classes: The TSDA department offers an introductory and an advanced choreography class, TSDA 0320 and 1320, respectively. In addition, choreographers may find TSDA 1330: Dance History of the 20th Century and possibly other performance studies courses offered in the TSDA department useful for getting a sense of others' ideas to build off of, though of course as with other art forms, inspiration can come from anywhere.The choreography classes give students an opportunity to develop choreographic skills as well as actually set pieces on their fellow students and perform the pieces in Ashamu with lights and sound.

Groups: Student groups use all student choreography, so members of any given group generally have opportunity to set works on their company and show them in the group's shows.

Classes: All the classes in the modern dance series have final performances made up of pieces choreographed by small groups of students. Generally there is just one at the end of the semester, but the Beginning Modern class has been known to have a choreographic midterm.

The Fall Dance Concert: The Fall Dance Concert is entirely made up of student choreography, and anyone interested in showing their work can audition. The way it works is that there are three meetings: the first an informational one where choreographers and interested dancers can meet and talk about possible collaborations, and Body&Sole can explain the process and answer any questions. The second is a first showing, where dancers perform a segment of the full piece (as much as possible) and choreographers get constructive feedback from the Fall Dance Concert Board. The third is the Final Showing, an audition of the finished pieces, when the Board selects who will actually perform in the show. Choreographers can find dancers any way they like, by asking friends or holding auditions or by finding people at the first meeting, and offer submissions in any style or genre. Body&Sole tries to make the Board representative of Brown's dance community by including faculty and students, independent dancers and dancers from a variety of styles and groups, and are open to other ideas about how to accomplish this.

Other Shows: Often shows that include works from many different groups will be open to showing works choreographed by independent choreographers as well, and this can be an additional space for choreographers of all stripes to show work. For more details, see the Performance page.

Technology: It can be useful for choreographers to have a video camera to document their efforts as well as to generate material by watching their own improvisation and selecting the parts that they find effective. Media Services lends out cameras for free to students working on a class project, and will rent them to people working extra-curricularly, though it's fairly expensive. For people who intend to choreograph a lot, buying one might make sense, or if not, borrowing from a friend. To check out what Media Services offers, see: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/mso/ .

Start Something New: The resources exist to have more shows of student choreography, more student groups, choreographic workshops, forums for sharing and criquing work, the sky is the limit.