How do you remember CHOREOGRAPHY???

On the Day 1 Questionnaires the students filled out yesterday, they were asked about their strengths and weaknesses.  I was shocked at how many students wrote things like:

• Current goal: I would like to improve my ability to pick up choreography 
• Challenge: Not enough attention to detail 
• Challenge: My memory... I have to go back so many times to understand 

And then I came across this article about Dr. Ruth Day, a former dancer who is "interested in how the mind works."  The article mentions the obvious reason as to why a dancer would want to be able to pick up choreography quickly: 

"Being able to quickly grab choreography immensely increases your visibility in auditions and, once hired, your value to a company; many companies have dancers who serve as choreographic sponges, keeping track of movement as the choreographer invents or alters it."

She goes on to mention some important things to note: 

• Modern dance is especially hard to remember because of its potentially infinite range of motion   
• Modern dance lacks specific names for all steps (like ballet)

So what should students do to help remember this tricky choreography??? 

• Use words, mental images, or kinesthetic feelings to help memorize the steps 
• Share ideas with the other dancers and use similar words/ideas to create a shared language

Even audiences struggle, she goes on to discuss, when seeing an overwhelming amount of dance in one piece.  What to do? Dr. Day recommends:

• "Chunk it" -- group an entire section together and identify it as one thing 

Many ways to help our NYSSSA students retain their choreography, especially with upcoming auditions next Monday... but there's one strong constant in all that is said here: 

YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR MIND AND BE THINKING 

DURING THE ENTIRE LEARNING PROCESS -- 

Be active when listening and creative when naming.  Happy Dancing!!!