My first belly dance teacher used to tell the story of a belly dancer who would perform the same choreography in the same costumes to the same music every night—and every night it was different. Other dancers swear by improvising their performance every night they’re on stage. But who’s right?

The skilled belly dancer will learn how to do both. While some dancers might be afraid that choreography will look too wooden or rehearsed, the right dancer can put a lot of emotion into her choreographed piece. Here are some of the benefits of choreography:

* As a beginner dancer, your teacher’s choreography will help you learn how to put dance moves together. You can also see how you can take something simple, like a hip circle, and shift your weight or walk around to make it look different.

* Choreography helps you maintain your memorization skills. Believe it or not, your memorization skills will get rusty if you don’t practice them.

* Choreography forces your to listen to your music so you can best plan out what you’ll do where. Carefully choreographed moves help you hit all the right accents in a song, and you’ll never get caught doing shimmies while trying to think of what to do next, or miss a great accent.

* If you join a troupe, choreography will help you contribute and participate in the performances, as most non-ATS troupes choreograph their dances.

Once you’re comfortable with your dance skills, it’s time to start learning improvisation. While improvisational skill is most useful while dancing to live music, there are many other benefits as well:

* If you are dancing to recorded music, listening to it over and over again will allow you to know the song well enough that you can anticipate beats and accents, but still make each performance unique.

* Improvisation also gives you the most creative control over your dancing. If one night you feel like interpreting your music differently, you can change your performance.

* If you get to your performance location and discover that it’s smaller or larger than you expected or won’t work with your props, you can adapt easily without panicking by improvising.

* Improvisation is the core of ATS. Learning how to think up moves on the spot will help if you join an ATS troupe. You’ll learn how to think on your feet and not panic if you find yourself leading the group.

Every dancer should have these two tools in her arsenal. You’ll always favor one or the other, but with improvisational and choreography skills, you’ll be prepared for whatever comes your way.

Source: http://www.shira.net/chor-impr.htm