How to choreograph a yoyo performance for an upcoming fundraising event?

February 3, 2013 4:09 PM

So I am entering a talent show in the next few weeks to help raise money for the non-profit with which I volunteer (we mail books to prisoners, and postage isn’t free). I plan on performing with my response–less yoyo. It makes sense to perform to music, but how can I choose the right song? I know a decent number of tricks ranging from beginner to intermediate level in difficulty, but how do I put em all together and make it werk? How does one make this look good? Any tips or suggestions would be fantastic.
posted by anonymous to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

With only a couple weeks I wouldn't worry too much about getting exactly the "right" music or really great choreography. Choreography is tough especially when mistakes are a possibility. You have to know your routine and the music really well, and how to recover from mistakes so that you still hit all your cues at the right times. It's really painstaking work. Which is great if that's what you want to do, but "weeks" probably isn't the time frame you're looking at.

So instead, I'd probably just pick any piece of music that has roughly the same tempo that you do your tricks. If you do tricks lightening fast, then fast music. If you tend to be slower, slow music. For that choreographed look, there will be a few parts in any piece of music, a crescendo say or a sudden pause or whatever where it seems obvious to do "something." Pick maybe one or two spots in your music and start by planning tricks or short sequences for those spots.

From there the easiest thing is to just play with your yo-yo while you listen to the music. Do whatever tricks you feel like doing in whatever order you feel like doing them. When you hear those pre-planned spots in the music coming up, get ready to do the pre-planned sequences. You may need to kill some time just doing some basic throws and returns or whatever, but after a few times through the song, you'll probably be hitting your planned points fairly accurately.

As you practice, pay attention to what sequences of tricks seem to work well together. I would say build up short sequences of maybe 3 or 4 tricks and then work on way to combine those sequences. Longer sequences are okay too but the longer the sequence, the more chance something will go wrong. You want them long enough to be interesting but not so long that you're likely to get lost or screw up part way through.

There's lots of ways to combine your shorter sequences. The most obvious is to find a trick which bridges two sequences into on longer one. But there are other things you can do: stop and dance to the music briefly, pause for applause, theatrically mop your forehead to show how hard you're working, etc. One thing buskers do quite a bit is to intentionally screw up a trick a couple times to show how hard it is, and then nail it the last time. That might be harder to convey while performing to music but it's one more idea.

When you're doing this for the first time you're going to want to fill every last second with tricks. Resist that temptation. Pauses are good for you, but they're also important for the audience. Give them time to digest what they've seen and react to it. Mainly, remember to move around, build in pauses and make eye contact. Remember, you're the show, the yo-yo isn't the show, the yo-yo is just your primary prop.

If possible, have a second (and third) yo-yo handy. That way, if something goes horribly wrong, just toss your primary aside and pull out your secondary so no one has to watch you untie knots.

And finally, since you're doing this for a fundraiser it's highly likely you'll have a nice, easy receptive audience. So just relax and have fun. Even if you picked a completely random piece of music and just did whatever, you'd get people who thought it was choreographed because by pure luck you'd get some sequences that just "fit." So with some familiarity with the music and a rough set of short sequences, you'll be great.
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand at 5:20 PM on February 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

The opening trick should be big and as flashy as possible to grab attention. Then step back to basics and ramp up. Some repeats are ok, good even as most folks will not really see the first time. Is there a basic move like the core thee ball juggle that jugglers use to keep the rhythm? The build to your best trick for the finale.
posted by sammyo at 5:35 PM on February 3, 2013

Response by poster: Hey, it ended up going quite well. Some people claimed I was the highlight of their evening, and we raised over a hundred thousand pennies. I turned my act into a dance routine, and did just one yoyo trick as a grand finale.

Thanks for the tips!
posted by Anonymous at 5:23 PM on March 3, 2013