Composition, Choreography and Devising
What the exam tests
Composition, Choreography and Devising tests your ability to generate, select, structure and refine original material. Composition usually means music, choreography means dance, and devising means drama, but the exam values the same process: a clear stimulus, research, motif or phrase development, structure and evidence of revision.
Core rules
- Start with a clear intention or stimulus and research its context.
- Generate material through improvisation, writing, movement tasks or role play; record and select the strongest material.
- Develop a motif through repetition, variation, inversion, retrograde, canon, augmentation, level or space change.
- Shape structure: opening, development, contrast, climax, resolution; motivate transitions.
- Keep a process record showing decisions, feedback and changes.
Worked example
A group builds an eight-count stamping motif from a wedding rhythm. They move it off the beat, set it as a canon between two groups, change facing and level, then add a vocal call. Reasoning: the motif stays recognisable; canon creates contrast with unison; the vocal call sharpens the climax; the dance, music and drama support the community theme. Each choice is justified by intention, not decoration.
Traps that cost marks
Stringing unrelated ideas together; no motif development; ignoring transitions; copying existing choreography or script; no clear stimulus; leaving process evidence until the end.