---
title: Choreography
description: Choreography is the art of designing and arranging physical movements into structured dance sequences. Learners will understand spatial composition, musicality, narrative development, and movement improvisation to create original dance pieces for performance or screen.
category: music-audio
subcategory: dance
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/choreography
---

# Choreography

Choreography is the art of designing and arranging physical movements into structured dance sequences. Learners will understand spatial composition, musicality, narrative development, and movement improvisation to create original dance pieces for performance or screen.

## Available Resources

2 Books • 4 Websites

## Websites

### 1. Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced

**Author:** William Forsythe, Norah Zuniga Shaw, Maria Palazzi

Ohio State and William Forsythe's visual analysis of the ensemble work One Flat Thing, reproduced: 20 data-driven objects showing cueing, alignment, and counterpoint, plus full multi-angle dance video and process essays. Archive edition after Flash retirement.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://synchronousobjects.osu.edu/

**Tags:** choreography, william-forsythe, ensemble-dance, counterpoint, dance-analysis, data-visualization

### 2. Improvisation Technologies: The Lectures

**Author:** William Forsythe

Canonical toolkit for movement invention, widely taught in contemporary composition. William Forsythe's 63 lecture-demonstration clips on generating movement through lines, writing, reorganizing, and additions, with three essays and an interview. Free online edition of the 1999 CD-ROM, published by ZKM and Forsythe Productions.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://improvisation-technologies.zkm.de

**Tags:** choreography, improvisation, william-forsythe, movement-generation, contemporary-dance

### 3. Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive

**Author:** Jacob's Pillow Archives

Free archive of performance excerpts filmed at Jacob's Pillow from the 1930s to today, browsable by artist, genre, and era, with curated playlists and multimedia essays on choreographers. Choreographers learn by watching; this is the best free curated, contextualized repertory archive and replaces paid streaming such as Marquee TV. Useful for building a viewing vocabulary of choreographic styles.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/

**Tags:** dance-history, performance-archive, choreographers, dance-repertory, dance-video

### 4. dancemagazine.com

Dance Magazine is a premier dance publication featuring news, performance coverage, and in-depth articles, including practical technique tips and training guidance. The site offers tutorials, warmups, exercises, interviews, and videos across ballet, contemporary, and other styles to help dancers develop core fundamentals and artistry.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://dancemagazine.com

**Tags:** websites, arts-design, creative-arts

## Books

### 1. The Art of Making Dances

**Author:** Doris Humphrey (ed. Barbara Pollack)

Foundational primary source: its principles (design, dynamics, rhythm, ending) are still taught. Doris Humphrey's 1958 treatise on choreographic design, dynamics, rhythm, motivation, words and music, and form, ending with her checklist of compositional principles. Princeton Book Company paperback edition.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0871271583?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** choreography, dance-composition, doris-humphrey, modern-dance, dance-theory

### 2. The Intimate Act of Choreography

**Author:** Lynne Anne Blom, L. Tarin Chaplin

Workbook-style text that builds choreographic skill from time, space, and force through form, style, abstraction, and devices. Each concept is paired with improvisations and choreographic studies, so it doubles as a structured composition course.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0822953420?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** choreography, dance-composition, improvisation, choreographic-devices, dance-education

---

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