Choreography
Essays

Choreography sits at the intersection of movement, music, and meaning, making it a rich subject across arts, humanities, and performance studies courses. Students encounter it in contexts ranging from musical theater history to gender and sexuality studies, from Western civilization surveys to film analysis. It asks writers to think carefully about how physical movement communicates ideas to an audience, how a choreographer's style reflects cultural and historical forces, and how dance functions as both art form and social practice. The presence of figures like Bob Fosse, Susan Stroman, Michael Bennett, George Balanchine, and Marius Petipa in student work signals that choreography is often approached through the lens of individual artistic vision and legacy.

Papers on this topic take several distinct approaches. Some focus on specific productions, such as Dreamgirls, A Chorus Line, or Singin' in the Rain, analyzing how choreography serves narrative and character. Others are comparative, examining how two choreographers differ in style, purpose, and technique — as in contrasting Balanchine with Petipa. A number of papers situate dance within broader frameworks, including gender and sexuality studies, copyright law as it applies to movement, and the relationship between choreography and musical composition.

A strong essay on choreography establishes a clear, specific thesis about what a particular style or work accomplishes and why it matters. Evidence drawn from production details, music, staging, and the choreographer's documented intentions carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is describing movement without analyzing its meaning — strong papers consistently connect what dancers do on stage to the ideas and effects that movement produces for an audience.