The Choreographer's Process

Nancy Romita, Choreographer

Romita's definition of a choreographer: "The choreographer is someone who helps support the vision of the director through movement design and dance forms."

For Romita, the choreography process begins with research. In preparation for the Heartfield production, Romita read about John Heartfield, photomontage and the Third Reich. "The first part of the process is to be informed by the text and then listen to the music," Romita says, "The music drives my thinking in this project because each piece has a distinctly different style and flavor." In addition to taking tango lessons to prepare for the show, Romita also studied German caberet, Bing and Bob, and Fred and Ginger for soft shoe source material.

Romita believes that the choreography process is a joint effort between both the choreographer and the actors. "Working with the performers, I teach dance steps," Romita says, "but interspersed in the steps are tableaus and spacing issues in which the actors have to make their own choices and improvise to discover the movement."

Although audiences love to be entertained by well-planned and well-executed choreography, Romita asserts that the dances aren't incorporated solely for entertainment. "The dances also help to move the plot forward and provide content and contrast to the text," says Romita.