What is ‘Chairography’?

Chair Dance Choreography is a dynamic dance form which uses the chair as the central point for the choreography. It is used for storytelling, fitness classes, dance and drama exams, people in wheelchairs who love to dance and modern dance pieces. The chair creates new and interesting movement opportunities.

‘Rosas Danst Rosas’ by choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is a modern chair dance routine. The dance is a powerful and gripping sequence. The dancers sit on chairs which are arranged facing the same direction. The dancing is powerful, sharp and compelling as they repeat a simple motif to create polyrhythmic patterns by speeding up, slowing down and repeating elements of the main movement motif. The movement is dynamic with sudden strong gestures mixed with pauses, breaks and moments of letting go as they relax and then whip back. I found it mesmerising.

Inspired by this modern dance piece I decided to incorporate a choreographed chair sequence into a ‘Matilda’ musical theatre workshop in 2016. Small groups brainstormed their feelings and thoughts on ‘A day at school’ which were used to influenced and create a series of movement phrases. The groups performed the sequence alternately to a repetitive beat. This turned into one of the most enjoyable parts of the children’s, and the Dazzle teams, experience. One child developed her own routine for a school show.

I am returning to this dance form as I work with the KS1 students at St Josephs in Nympsfield on their Contemporary Dance Courses.  ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and ‘999’ are the class topics and we are working together on these themes over five weeks to produce two routines using chairography to be performed to the school on the final week. We will be working on rhythm, beats and working together as a team. We will be exploring isolated, detailed poses and moves, the importance and power of stillness within dance, how we can vary our moves using a chair and the transitions between each move or pose. I love challenging the children but also challenging myself.