WAG Floor Routines

[gymjunkie]

I will say however while "artistry" certainly plays into a good routine, many choreographers have a distinctive style. When they choreograph over 10 routines at a time, the routines start looking alike. Even great dance choreographers who have a larger pool of steps, skills, leaps to pull from, they have their preferences of skills and steps that they use more often. Hence, I don't think they start from scratch with every gymnast. I am certain they use a lot of similar moves, leaps, turns they feel have worked in the past. So there really isn't a lot of creativity happening all the time. IMO

We have a fantastic choreographer, and none of the above is true for the work she does. Each and every routine is completely unique and fits the gymnast, not the choreographer. She comes in without the gymnast for anywhere from 5-10 hours to do the initial choreography (I know this, because I open the gym for her and watch bits and pieces and provide feedback), then spends 1-2 hours with the gymnast teaching it. She charges less if the kid is more of a power house and mostly tumbles throughout the routine to score well, more if they score well by dancing their little hearts out. She always comes back after the first meet and does a private to fine tune (after watching their recorded performance). One private after the first meet is included in the initial cost. The girls score very high and we have floor champions at every meet. At meets I see the types of routines you are describing above, so I know what you are talking about, but that should not be the norm!

 

[kandkfunk]

I would be willing to pay more for the services that Gymjunkie describes. Someone who really takes the time to choreograph, teach and refine the routine over several sessions is worth the money. However, flying someone in who doesn't know the kids or even have time to learn anything about them and then pay $500-$1000 for a few hours of choreography just seems over top.

 

[Natasha]

At our previous and current gym, the coach determines the tumbling passes and the required dance and the choreography is to plug in all the "extra" stuff, so I guess that's where I would have trouble paying a bunch of money. My dd had her routines choreographed for $150 although her choreographer was also her PT floor coach at the time. For last season she had the routine choreographed right before she ended up changing gyms. She ended up changing quite a bit of her routine to make it fit better and ended up winning floor at state. Her last year at previous gym another coach started choreographing as well, I think she charged less than $75. This year dd and a teammate have done the choreography for her routine (with coach plugging in all the essential stuff and other coach/judge providing feedback as needed). We do not have the option of a professional choreographer who will work with them more than a 1x session or who knows the girls. My dd likes to be able to play around with her routine and change it. She has been working on it for about a month now.

 

[Hayleigh]

We do our own beam routines and are given 1 weeks worth of beam rotations to do them and check they are ok with our coach.
Our floor is done for us. We find the music we want, either on the gyms CD collection or on YouTube etc. Then we can pay £10 for 3 hours of floor work per gymnast for the team. So £10 each for 3 hours of team training focused on floor. We then work 1 on 1 on the floor while the others think of ideas for their routines and help with ours. We find it great. And our routines never look the same.

 

[AmandaLynn]

Do we have the only gym that recycles music and routines? We don't pay for music or routines. My dd hasn't gotten her routine yet, but it will likely be one that a girl had for the past 2 years in L7 & 8, and someone had before that, and someone had before that, etc. That girl is now moving on to 9, where she will get a "new" routine that was used by someone else.

Actually, this violates the copyright laws. The music is typically sold to be used for one particular gymnast and isn't typically transferable.

 

[BlairBob]

Ridiculous.

I'm pretty sure Geza Poszar and Emilia Eberle only charged like $350-400. Geza would fly everywhere though, especially to Japan where they liked him.

I'll dig around and see if I can confirm what Geza or Trudi used to charge. It wasn't anything insane though. $350 was what the girls paid for at Novato and those were some of the best in Norcal at the Optional level. Hillary really did a great job.

 

[cbifoja]

I think that we paid $200 for choreography and the two hours of private lesson time to have the coach teach the routine. I feel like DD, and all of her teammates, got very distinct routines that fit their particular personalities and strengths quite well.

And our owner and other choreographer gave a couple of the girls with strong dance backgrounds AMAZING routines! One of my DD's friend received just the cutest little floor routine.

 

[wsg13]

We don't have to pay anything. We make it up with our coach. No one in my area gets choreographers. Recently at a comp a club that had there routines choreographed came and that just looked silly. There routines were awful. We also make our own beam routines up.

 

[shelovestoflip]

We pay $300 for floor. I think it's very important for each girl to have music that fits them! So some of our girls have classical, ballet type, some have international sounds and some have strong, powerful music. So, you need a good choreographer to make the routine fit the music and the girl! My daughter is a powerful tumbler and classical music wouldnt work for her. I'm glad to pay $300 for a routine that suits her!

 

[emilykatherine]

I forgot to add we don't pick the music and we have to pay $50 for it so total now is $120

 

[GymMom4]

We are still a couple of levels from needing an optional routine but I sure hope it doesn't cost what some of you have said!

One of our coaches puts fantastic routines together for the girls on our team but I have no idea how much she charges.

 

[Muddlethru]

Ridiculous.

I'm pretty sure Geza Poszar and Emilia Eberle only charged like $350-400. Geza would fly everywhere though, especially to Japan where they liked him.

I'll dig around and see if I can confirm what Geza or Trudi used to charge. It wasn't anything insane though. $350 was what the girls paid for at Novato and those were some of the best in Norcal at the Optional level. Hillary really did a great job.

Two of my daughter's floor routine was choreographed by Geza. We paid $450. Don't know if all that went to Geza.

 

[profmom]

DD's gym recycles routines, but a recycled routine is about half price. It's actually kind of sweet -- if the previous owner of the routine is still in the gym, she helps to teach it and gets a cut of the $$. Sometimes our college girls come back to teach their old routines to current gymnasts over the summer.

DD's former routine was a recycled routine, but it was a great fit for her.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Ridiculous.
I'm pretty sure Geza Poszar and Emilia Eberle only charged like $350-400. Geza would fly everywhere though, especially to Japan where they liked him.

Well I hope Emilia was PAID to compete this floor monstrosity...

 

[BlairBob]

Yeah, Trudi's old routine. I was told it was something they wanted to experiment with at the time.

Geza charged 400 + expenses. Trudi and the other optional charged half that. No idea what she charges now or what she did at her other gym in Central CA.

 

[3rd_time_around]

Our choreography is free. The girls help with their own routines (so they can truly be their OWN). HC, one of our former Optionals who now coaches part time, another coach, the other Optional girls and I help fill in the blanks. If they are stuck for some fluff, their music is played and everyone freestyles what they feel while the gymnast watches and takes it all in.

YG's routine is ready... choreographed by OG, YG, and myself in one day. Now we just have to take it to a space bigger than 12 ft x 8 ft... a spring floor would be nice, lol - someplace that she can actually DO her tumbling passes

Last season, we did 16 routines this way and it worked well. All it takes is knowing the requirements and putting them into a routine where they fit the music... not worth anywhere NEAR $350 - Unless the choreographer is supplying a completely original piece of music AND a GUARANTEED winning routine - meaning the gymnast can execute EVERYTHING perfectly!

This cannot be a very good way to do the floor routines. The requirements get more stringent every year, and the choreographer really needs to know what needs to be in each routine, each level, dance connections that are legal and not, whether the dance is too advanced for the tumbling, it has to fit the gymnast and according to our very knowledgeable choreographer last season, the routine is now supposed to tell a "story" through the dance. High level gymnasts need someone who knows what they are doing, because a poorly choreographed routine can ruin the score. We had a gymnast that had a beautiful routine, but a visiting judge told her/the coach that the dance was too difficult for her tumbling, therefore it had to be reworked to match her skill level. There is more to a floor routine than fluff and pretty dancing with some tumbling and leaps thrown in. You said it took a day? A good C. can do an excellent routine in 2-3 hours.

 

[3rd_time_around]

Holy cow!!! 500 dollars for a floor routines is crazy! I think my gym asked for $250 last year for floor and maybe $100-$150 for beam? I was the only xcel and one of my coaches (not the head coach) choreographed mine for $100. We were very close and she knew that xcel was supposed to be a less expensive program. I made up my own beam routine, using the format of the one from the year before. Not sure how the new gym goes about choreography.

This is normal. My dd that was PrepOp (old Xcel) only paid $100 for a routine while my level 9 paid $300. And her PO beam routine was made up by her and the coach during practice.

 

[raenndrops]

This cannot be a very good way to do the floor routines. The requirements get more stringent every year, and the choreographer really needs to know what needs to be in each routine, each level, dance connections that are legal and not, whether the dance is too advanced for the tumbling, it has to fit the gymnast and according to our very knowledgeable choreographer last season, the routine is now supposed to tell a "story" through the dance. High level gymnasts need someone who knows what they are doing, because a poorly choreographed routine can ruin the score. We had a gymnast that had a beautiful routine, but a visiting judge told her/the coach that the dance was too difficult for her tumbling, therefore it had to be reworked to match her skill level. There is more to a floor routine than fluff and pretty dancing with some tumbling and leaps thrown in. You said it took a day? A good C. can do an excellent routine in 2-3 hours.

1. It is a great way to do floor routines. It seemed to work well for our Optionals... Most of them were scoring in the 9s last season choreographing this way.
2. We all know the requirements for the levels we were choreographing... and all that other stuff you mentioned.
3. Our routines DID tell stories through dance. It is not hard to choreograph for L6-L7 and Xcel Gold and Platinum. We used dance and tumbling that fit their skill levels. Since we are with them all the time, we know what they are capable of and what the
I said it took a day for OG and YG and I to come up with YG's routine. That day was AFTER practice and dinner... it might have been an hour to figure out the choreography and sync the routine to the music and another hour for YG to remember what to do... so MAYBE 2 hours. In my world, a day just means that something is done before I go to bed... no matter what time I start it.

 

[3rd_time_around]

1. It is a great way to do floor routines. It seemed to work well for our Optionals... Most of them were scoring in the 9s last season choreographing this way.
2. We all know the requirements for the levels we were choreographing... and all that other stuff you mentioned.
3. Our routines DID tell stories through dance. It is not hard to choreograph for L6-L7 and Xcel Gold and Platinum. We used dance and tumbling that fit their skill levels. Since we are with them all the time, we know what they are capable of and what the
I said it took a day for OG and YG and I to come up with YG's routine. That day was AFTER practice and dinner... it might have been an hour to figure out the choreography and sync the routine to the music and another hour for YG to remember what to do... so MAYBE 2 hours. In my world, a day just means that something is done before I go to bed... no matter what time I start it.

OK, you don't have to get mad about it. But my dd has had 7 years of optional floor routines (and she has ballet training), our gym trains elites, and I'm a judge. When we got a better choreographer, her floor showed so much improvement. I'm just saying that having gymnasts make up other gymnasts floor routines is not a great way to have great floor routines. You can tell the difference at meets, you really can, which gyms have good choreographers.

 

[emilykatherine]

OK, you don't have to get mad about it. But my dd has had 7 years of optional floor routines (and she has ballet training), our gym trains elites, and I'm a judge. When we got a better choreographer, her floor showed so much improvement. I'm just saying that having gymnasts make up other gymnasts floor routines is not a great way to have great floor routines. You can tell the difference at meets, you really can, which gyms have good choreographers.

I think she has a right to get mad about it, your criticizing a floor routine you've never seen. For all you know it's the best floor routine in the world.