Choreography for Reliably Making the Initial Cuts

My partner and I are need of some learned opinions. The issue is the most reliable way to make Bronze-level cuts, getting into the final heat but not necessarily winning it (yet). We have not been making cuts consistently, and if this keeps up we'll not be long for the world of competitive dancing. It's just no fun. We are of course working hard on style and technique (posture, frame, and so forth) but the issue now is choreography.

Let me throw out the theory of an approach we'd like to take:

-- "The most reliable, fail-safe way to make preliminary cuts is to do a few, perhaps basic, figures but do them with great style and technique. For example, in Standard Waltz: Natural & Reverse Turns, Whisk & Chasse (for at least a modicum of variety), and Spin Turns in the corners. Period. End of story. Adding more figures gains nothing in making these cuts, and only runs the risk of impacting our style or even screwing them up."

Of course, we know this won't reliably win the finals. To do so you need a more impressive variety of figures (although not a huge number), and, more important, figures where you can demonstrate certain techniques, like heel pulls, heel turns, and pivots. But for us, this comes later.

Is this a sound strategy?

First opinion: practice
Second opinion: work with a caring and competent coach
Third opinion: practice more

Its generally a sound strategy. If you're looking to tailor it, at least for bronze, I would probably leave out whisk/chasse. (i.e. leave out any promenade figure). "Just" establish and hold a great closed position. You won't need to worry about getting to PP from CP or any Outside Partner steps.

In bronze, you don't need a lot of or a magic combination of figures. You need to dance the figures you do better than the other couples on the floor. If you have good technique, you will make the cuts. If you're not making them, it's not the figures you're dancing, it's how you're dancing them.

I would add, though, that if you attend five comps over a semester and don't make it past the first round at any of the five, then maybe some work is in order. I second (or third? or fourth? or fifth?) the notion that it's not about steps, though -- it's about technique. You can dress up your routines with back whisks and double reverse spins and progressive chasses to the right in bronze, but if they're done badly, a well-executed closed change will probably get the mark instead.

I've seen a couple get marked dancing bronze American foxtrot in a standard foxtrot round. Complete with underarm turns and everything. They had nice frame though, and I am pretty sure that was what got them the mark. Such is the power of good frame and posture.

Fair enough. Just cautioning against throwing in everything but the kitchen sink into a routine at the expense of working on basic actions -- quality over quantity of the steps you do use.

I personally am not a big fan of any complex of fancy figures in bronze. Which is also why I oftentimes have issues with comps like MIT which allows gold syllabus for every level, so little bronzies are attempting sometimes gold steps and it looks awful.

My first thought is, do you REALLY want to have 6 or 8 routines to which you are remembering choreography? (If you wanted to have basic routines for the first few rounds and more complex for finals?) A teammate of mine would often double register (if allowed) for silver and gold and had both silver and gold routines and I kept telling him just have silver routines, do them freaking well and you can win. My partner had a completely silver routine for cha-cha (there used to be a gold step in it but we couldn't really make it work right so we took it out) and won gold (as I had mentioned in another thread). Stick to the basics and work them until they bleed clean and clear.

My next thought is, everything everyone has said, if you aren't making cuts then its time to reassess. Its most definitely not the choreography. Choreo in syllabus never will determine whether you make a cut or not. Its the technique. Choreo begins to matter a bit in more open levels because that's when a judge will usually start putting in their opinion if they like the choreo or not because the difference in technique of 2 champ dancers could be minimal, yet the choreo can rub a judge one way or another. But like I said, choreo will not determine your placement or making it to the next round in syllabus levels.

Another thought, maybe it could just be personality. It sounds like you are focusing so much on the choreography and steps that you aren't putting any personality into your dancing. Dancing is about having fun, and in the lower levels, I've noticed (at least at collegiate comps) that its not necessarily the one with the best technique who does well, but sometimes its the one with the best personality/having the most fun.

This is just my opinion.

If you can stand straight and stay on time, you will make finals in bronze every time.

This, but I want to add that you need to move. Just standing up straight and being on time won't beat couples who actually move around the floor.

Also, make sure you incorporate plenty of figures that get you turned around, otherwise the judges will never see your number.

hmm, having spent "time" in Bronze - in several disciplines
1) Posture/frame/timing 2) does it look like both of you are enjoying yourselves or is there tense scared to death thinking about the next step body language going on 3) do the simple figures with excellence as well as the transition between the figures 4) get at least two different coaches to smooth out things possibly the two of you are not aware of, 5) purchase a DVD of your best rounds and show your coach so they have a film to view as well as watching you in action. We did very simple figures, not alot of figures, knew the pattern quite well, and when boxed in by other(s) I could follow him no matter what in order to start moving again.
Sidenote: go to a comp/ small or mid sized - and watch as an audience ticket holder. See if you can notice those couples that you feel will make the finals and those who will not - that dance in your category...simply viewing...not competing is a lesson in itself...write notes on what you viewed...and talk about it with partner and coach.

Thanks to EVERYONE who kindly took the time to respond. All great comments. You could almost bind this thread as "How to succeed at Bronze (or maybe more.)" It confirms that we should put our effort into posture, frame, musicality, smiling and clean footwork.

Replacing the Whisk/Chasse (which gives us fits) with the Weave is one of those, "Duh, why didn't I think of that." We plan to adopt this sequence as our basis (we like the Weave), perhaps adding just a bit.

Thanks again everyone!

I would like to say that the whisk and chasse should be a temporary replacement. It's a move that never really goes away entirely and it's a great move to improve. So take it out of your competition choreography but still practice it

That's because none of those figures has any contrast.

But it's a simple figure at low levels to work on promenade postion (which never goes away). I should have stated that the technique gained from this move haunts you for the rest of your dance life rather than the move per say.