By Wendy Rosoff

When I decided to write, co-choreograph, and star in a one-woman show called Confessions Of A Christmas Banshee, I truly had no idea how valuable the journey would be…and continues to be. Here’s what I’ve learned as a choreographer.

If the piece you’re working on is plot driven and the dancing doesn’t enhance or move the story forward, it has to go. Now sometimes that’s easier said than done. After spending many, many hours finessing the finer points of a specific piece, just letting it go can be downright painful. Here’s a wonderful piece of advice that was given to me by a writing teacher. Write fat and edit thin. Get everything down and then see what works and what doesn’t and just start whittling away at it until you’ve got the essence of what you want to say. What a brilliant way to learn to deal with all aspects of creating original material, whether it’s writing a play, composing an original song, or of course choreographing a new dance piece. Allowing yourself to indulge and explore creatively, knowing all the while that it’s probably going to get pared down, makes it that much easier to go through the process.

At a certain point I decided I should add three back up dancers to the show. That meant re-choreographing. When my partner and I went back into the studio we now started choreographing for four dancers and there were only two of us. We jumped back and forth being different people, and finished the pieces. When rehearsals began with all four dancers the choreography looked completely different. Some pieces were better than I could have imagined, and some simply fell apart! I went back to the drawing board. Staying flexible is such an important part of successful choreography. What looks best on the dancers? What has the best flow? And of course, what tells the story?

Try to remain objective and look to those you genuinely trust for honest feedback. During a creative process it’s very easy to become myopic about how you want the project to look, feel, and sound. Something that seems abundantly clear to you might be clear as mud to an outsider. Ask questions and brace yourself. This is valuable information, and we must try to stay open to it. You want the best product, so training ourselves to be collaborative with those we trust implicitly can prove to be extremely important to overall quality. And speaking of trust, start with yourself! Trust that you can communicate what it is that you want to say in an effective way. And last but certainly not least, ENJOY THE PROCESS. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Make every moment about the joy of being a creative individual and celebrate the opportunity to express yourself.

Wendy Rosoff has done everything from singing with the Metropolitan Opera to tap dancing on the Broadway stage to being a series regular on the hit comedy web series “Goodnight Burbank.” Wendy’s original show “Confessions Of A Christmas Banshee” will have its world premiere this December at the historic Lankershim Arts Center. For more info go to www.christmasbanshee.com. To contact Wendy visit www.wendyrosoff.com.