How to pick up choreography faster

Picking up choreography can be a stressful and frustrating experience and it might take a while until you can fully remember the combination. Picking up choreography is important during auditions or convention class so that you can do well. Here are some of my tips for picking up choreography quickly.

-The first thing to do in a class is to separate yourself from people who will cause you to talk or distract you. You should be focused on the choreographer teaching and not on your friends in order to have a good and productive class.

-As soon as the teacher starts, be focused and locked in to what they are doing. When they first do it, focus on the big picture stuff, such as the movement. At first don't focus on all of the small details, such as hand placement. When you first do the dance, watch the teacher and all of their movements. Then, if you have a mirror in front of you watch yourself in the mirror. Don't get too involved in the mirror though, just use it to check your movement. After that, watch nothing at all. You absolutely do NOT want to watch other people though. It takes too long for your brain to watch the person, register the movement, and then do it with your body. It takes too long and will just cause you to be late.

-If there is one part that you can't get, just move on. Although you may not like this and want to perfect it. You don't want to spend a bunch of time on one move and be so focused on it that you miss another part of the combo. Just come back to that move later on and perfect it.

-When you are going over a section, you can do it with friends, as long as you are productive. But don't go over just one section. Go back a couple of counts of 8 before that section and do that part, continuing into the new section.

- When you mess up a part, lightly drum your fingers that body part associated with the movement. Drum your fingers on that body part 20 or so times. Tapping will cause the movement to register in your mind. Then, the next time you do it, I find that I fixed that part that I had previously messed up. Of course, you might mess up on other parts, but just repeat the process and the feeling will register.

-If there is one move that you can't get, don't stress and just move on. You don't want to be so focused on getting that move that you accidentily miss the next move in the sequence. Just go back to that move when you have a bit of time to practice on your own.

-DON'T FREAK OUT! The most important thing is to remain calm and believe in yourself! If you think positive, the outcome will be positive. If you think negatively, then you will have a negative energy and the class won't be a good learning experience.

-When you are doing the dance, don't mark. Get your body used to doing the movement full out. It helps you to remember the choreography better and more efficiently.

-The more classes and styles that you take, the easier it will be to pick up choreo. If you take different styles of dance, it makes you a very versatile dancer.

-listen to the music and match the movement to what is happening in the song. For example if you do a double pirrouette on the a specific line in the song, use that lyric to remember the move that comes with it.

-If you are trying to remember choreography for a dance that you have to do all year long or at competition, ask to video it. If you don't want to ask the choreographer to video it, you can ask a friend who knows it to record them doing it. You can use that video to study the choreography, but don't get so addicted to the video. Then you won't be able to do the dance as well without it.