Editing Choreography (section)

==Dance choreography techniques==
Dances are designed by applying one or both of these fundamental choreographic methods:
* '''Improvisation''', in which a choreographer provides dancers with a ''score'' (i.e., generalized directives) that serves as guidelines for improvised movement and form. For example, a score might direct one dancer to withdraw from another dancer, who in turn is directed to avoid the withdrawal, or it might specify a sequence of movements that are to be executed in an improvised manner over the course of a musical phrase, as in [[contra dance choreography]]. Improvisational scores typically offer wide latitude for personal interpretation by the dancer.
* '''Planned choreography''', in which a choreographer dictates motion and form in detail, leaving little or no opportunity for the dancer to exercise personal interpretation.<ref name=EEEglossary>{{cite web|title=Glossary (dance)|url=https://eee.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Glossary(Dance) |publisher=Electronic Educational Environment (EEE)| work=UCI Wiki |access-date=2012-02-19}}</ref>

Several underlying techniques are commonly used in choreography for two or more dancers:
* Mirroring - facing each other and doing the same
* Retrograde - performing a sequence of moves in reverse order
* Canon - people performing the same move one after the other
* Levels - people higher and lower in a dance
* Shadowing - standing one behind the other and performing the same moves
* Unison - two or more people doing a range of moves at the same time

Movements may be characterized by dynamics, such as fast, slow, hard, soft, long, and short.