Choreographing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The practice of organizing body movements into a cohesive sequence for performance purposes
2. Creating and arranging a sequence of dance steps and gestures for a performance
3. Planning and composing coordinated movements to be executed by dancers

Etymology: "Choreographing" is the present participle of "choreograph," a verb that did not exist first. It was formed by back-formation from "choreography," which in turn was built from Greek elements: "khoreia," meaning dance, and "graphein," meaning to write. Writing dance, in other words, came before the verb for it. Back-formation works by reading an ending as if it were a suffix and stripping it off. Speakers saw "-ography" in "choreography" and treated the "-y" and the "-ography" pattern as a sign that the root was the verb, so "choreograph" emerged as a new verb meaning to arrange a dance in writing or, more broadly, to design its movements. The "-ing" ending then attached as usual, giving the form used to describe the activity of organizing movement into a performed sequence.

Synonyms: designing, planning, orchestrating, staging, directing

Antonyms: disorganizing, dismantling, ignoring, overlooking, neglecting