Dance Choreographer

A dance choreographer can be easily described as a dance instructor. They don’t normally follow the set of rules that is commonly found in fixed dance routines, like ballroom dancing, but follows their own experience to come up with unique dance notations that is quite common in dancing competitions where  originality is a criteria.

Choreography

A dance choreographer bases its teachings in the art of choreography. It is considered as an art due to the various innovations that is mostly limited to the creativity of an individual.

By definition, choreography is the process of designing various form and movements of the human body -- much like a person teaching you new body motions through their own unique experience. Dance choreography has a more specific scope -- integrating new and unique dancing techniques and maneuvers through the inclusion of set dancing styles today. 

For example, a dance choreographer can incorporate various dancing styles for a cheerleading competition -- like ballroom, Rock and Roll, and the likes to come up with a new dance maneuver. 

Dance Routines

A dance choreographer teaching new dancing moves that involves various body movements -- not necessarily dependent on fixed dance moves today. In most cases, dance routines taught by a choreographer includes events, like cheerleading, gymnastics, cinematography, fashion shows, marching bands, ice skating, stage shows, and even in competitive dancing, like dancesports. 

The technique of coming up with new dance moves is termed as dance composition. This includes 2 fundament techniques, namely improvisation and planned choreography. 

The fundamentals of improvisation can be easily defined as "impromptu" dance lessons. No specific steps are followed and choreographers base body movements depending on the type of music used for the dance.

In most cases, improvisation is mostly determined by the personal interpretation of the instructor or the dancers itself. Planned choreography is purely the work of the choreographer. Movements and scores are all directed by the instructors without any need for personal interpretation from dancers. 

Passion In The Art

The success of dance choreographers in coming up with highly unique and quality dance routines is devoted to their passion in the art of dancing. If you ask dance instructors in how they come up with unique body interpretation to music, they will just smile and tell you that it's more on creativity than actual learning of fixed dance styles. 

In some ways, we can say that this statement is true. Passion makes up 90% of their creativity and only 10% comes from their knowledge on fixed dance routines. 

Another requirement of a dance choreographer is the need to go beyond the boundaries of dancing and into the realm of art. This is one reason why they are all unique -- coming up with their own dance routines with only a moment of thought. If you find a dance competition with only a single music as its theme, you will see that each choreographer will have their own interpretation. 
