How to remember choreos ?

[khanjar]

Go on how do other remember them ?

In class learning a choreo, it comes back slowly from the week before and the week before that, but as soon as one leaves the class the memory goes again until the next week.

During the week I try to remember, bits I can but they are all in the wrong order and I cannot ft them to the music, but I did learn something, a series of movements I was struggling with I devised a notational method of drawing the movement on paper and once I saw the pattern I found I could do it no problems and as if I could always do it, so now am looking for ways to turn the current choreo into a drawing, as I know I thrive on patterns and see patterns in everything.

Drilling also works, but an hour a week is not working this time, have to find another way to remember ?

What do others do to remember choreos being learned ?

 

[Darshiva]

If I'm reading this correctly the only time you're practicing this choreo is during class. If so, no wonder you're not remembering it!

Write down notes during class as an aid to memory. Run through the choreo in your mind whilst listening to the music. Get up & dance it out from beginning to end and don't stop or berate yourself if you mess it up, just wait for the music to catch you up to the next bit you know.

 

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

Khanjar, I'll tell you what I tell my students. First start with the music.

I insist that my students draw what I call a "music map" of the song I'm teaching a choreography to. It's basically a visual representation of what happens in the song.

My first draft for Hakim's "Yaho" is here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...9180564190.276122.118451319189&type=3&theater

Basically my theory is that if you REALLY know the music, you won't forget the choreography, because you will "hear" the choreography in the music. I think most students don't actually listen to the music enough. If you can't sing it backward and forward in your sleep, you don't really know it. If you're a "pattern person" this kind of visual mapping of the movement might REALLY help you.

Once you know the music, you will hear the phrases in it. Then you can isolate individual combinations to those phrases.

Also, drill every day. Not just once a week - lol. If you spend 10-20 minutes drilling every day you'll get father faster than if you spend an hour on it once a week.

 

[Kashmir]

For me I must get it in my body first - and I do that with repetition - lots of it. Only then can I stand back and take notes etc.

I also often work on chunks - I went out of my to replace my old CD player with another with a muso-mode ie an A-B repeat so I can work on a section at a time (I'm told there is now "an app for that") If I'm struglling it might only be 20 seconds. I also cut tracks into sections with no gap between tracks.

But as above - you must know the music and practice frequently. I became very angry when I discovered some students who were in my show not only were only practicing in class, they did not have copies of the music (I buy bulk lots of the CDs but they said they'd get it cheaper on line), and for a veil dance most of them did not have their own veils but only worked with them using the class loaners.

 

[shiradotnet]

There are a couple of articles on my web site with advice on how to remember choreography.

Here's one I wrote: How to Learn Choreography

Here's one Arabella wrote: Hints for Remembering Choreography

 

[khanjar]

Useful stuff thanks Shira, but I keep forgetting most of what I seek is to be found on your website. Am thinking next lesson am taking my old DV camcorder and record the entire piece and there break it down into my patterns.

 

[Aniseteph]

For me, getting familiar with the structure of the music is really helpful as it gives you a mental structure to fit it all in to. We do this for the intro, next bit will be this, then chorus... maybe there's a repeat when you only need to remember it's the same, maybe you need to remember that at the second repeat it's to the other side, or you do a variation or have to remember to get ready for that tricky bit next.

For writing down you can do anything! I'm patterny and spatial - I draw little arrows to record where I move about the stage. Or hip patterns if they are more complicated than a circle or 8. You can use your teacher's terminology or anything that clicks for you. My mental labels range from JCB diggers to Eman Zaki.

Thinking about it spatially is very helpful for me for remembering lefts and rights and gives me another framework as well as the music... running through the choreography and thinking how you move through the space - here I am doing something static front left (by the computer desk/ my usual corner in the studio). Then when the next phrase of music happens I go to my right (garden door/ studio door) and travel round to the back tracing a C shape on the floor and turning to face the back (sofa/ studio windows. Mind the coffee table.)

The other thing that works for me is repetition repetition repetition, thinking about the transitions while I'm learning (what comes next? - there are always sticky patches while I'm learning where I blank out and need to THINK "here it comes, CONCENTRATE!", and forcing myself to be self reliant and not watch the teacher or someone else who I think has got it. If I keep watching the teacher my lazy old brain doesn't bother to learn it!

 

[Dunyah]

Do you have a smart phone or a video camera? Would the teacher allow you to record the choreography in class so that you have it to refer to when practicing? I think it is essential to work on it outside of class, once a week is not enough to learn such a complicated thing as a choreography.

Oops, just saw that you already posted that idea.

 

[LilithNoor]

I'm a very wordy person, so I like to write the choreography out in my own words, and preferably then type it up.

I break the music down into sections, note the 'feel' of each section, and the moves that go with it, and then cover the whole thing in scribbled notes and circles and exclamation marks.

So I end up with something a bit like this

2.08 (widdlywiddly) camel R for 8, L arm up R arm out skirt in R hand. Repeat L don't crash into wall. Rib liftlift drop big torso rotation, hands come down to throw skirt out do not let chest cave in!!!

 

[Bast]

I'm a very wordy person, so I like to write the choreography out in my own words, and preferably then type it up.

I break the music down into sections, note the 'feel' of each section, and the moves that go with it, and then cover the whole thing in scribbled notes and circles and exclamation marks.

So I end up with something a bit like this

2.08 (widdlywiddly) camel R for 8, L arm up R arm out skirt in R hand. Repeat L don't crash into wall. Rib liftlift drop big torso rotation, hands come down to throw skirt out do not let chest cave in!!!

:lol: that's what my notes look like along with little drawings. When I pass them on to fellow students I get teased mercilessly for it. Yet they still want my notes

 

[Bast]

For the OP alot of great ideas have already been posted and I have used some of those myself.

I used a different method recently. I knew the dance in chunks but for the life of me I kept mixing up the chunks. The dance was to my favourite song El Hantour so I knew the music backwards for some reason this was not helping me get the chunks in the right order.

So I got some large sheets of paper and in note form (decipherable only by me I'm sure) I wrote the dance in large writing and stuck it to the wall. Then I identified the patterns or shapes in the choreo e.g. If the chunk of the dance formed a T shape or I shape on the floor I drew that too.

Then I got different coloured highlighters and highlighted all of the repeated bits, or very similar bits in a matching colour.

While dancing I could look at my wall and see the blocks of colour and the shape and it was enough to jog my memory without breaking the flow.
It worked! Once I had it I then focussed on the most troublesome chunks and only practiced the transitions between these bits.
I had four choreos to perform that week and I think my brain needed all the help I could give it.

ETA: I forgot to mention I think you are already doing this with drawing patterns, but try adding colour. As a school teacher we were told to use colour to help our students as the brain likes/pays attention to colour.

 

[Farasha Hanem]

Useful stuff thanks Shira, but I keep forgetting most of what I seek is to be found on your website. Am thinking next lesson am taking my old DV camcorder and record the entire piece and there break it down into my patterns.

Khanjar, I have a terrible problem with short term memory, and this is exactly what I do. If your teacher doesn't mind, record your classes, that has been a tremendous help for me. That way, I can use the video at home to help remember the moves, and if I'm in the video frame, I can also see what problems I may be having, and what I need to improve on.


Aziyade's suggestions are also important. You need to know your music inside and out. Eat it, sleep it, live it, breathe it. I have 3 mp3 players and a smart phone, and guess what kind of music they're all full of? xD I take my music wherever I go, and listen to it every chance I get, even in my sleep. This habit payed off immensely in my class this past week. Our teacher usually does a "freestyle dancearound" at the end of the class right before the cooldown. Usually it's Shakira or Christina howeveryouspellhername, and that always makes me unhappy. -_- But last class, she played Hakim's "El Wala Wala," and I nearly leaped for joy! I know all the musical phrases, and if I knew Arabic, I could practically sing it! :lol: I danced in time to the phrases, and my teacher noticed, and said, "VERY goooooood!"

Play the music in your car, on your work breaks, whenever you take a walk, EVERY MOMENT YOU GET THE CHANCE! You'll be amazed how the music gets into your brain and body!

 

[PracticalDancer]

There are a couple of articles on my web site with advice on how to remember choreography.

Here's one I wrote: How to Learn Choreography

Here's one Arabella wrote: Hints for Remembering Choreography

Arabella has some VERY good advice in here! I have found, personally, that hearing the music over and over again and thinking through what to do helped immensely with choreo; and, it is even MORE helpful when planning an improvised performance. (No, that is *not* an oxymoron.)

And, the singing of steps does wonders. There is a marvelous dancer named Miraj, now based in Florida, who teaches this way. I still remember her steps, and even about 1/4 of a choreo she taught ~5 yrs ago, because she sang it the whole way through as she taught it. In fact, she stated that she used patterns / combos of movement over and over with her troupe, calling them (and calling them out) the whole time they danced together, so that the troupe could learn a new choreo VERY quickly because there were established patterns with standard names that could be "plugged" in to music to create fabulous numbers.

Sigh, Miraj, if you are out there, come back to Virginia -- I miss you!!!

 

[Safran]

Everybody has already posted great ideas - you will just have to figure out what will suit best for your learning style. For me, it helps a lot if I break down the music into chunks. I could know the music inside out, but sometimes when learning a new choreograpy I map the music out. This way the sequence that already exists in my unconcious part of brain will make more sense to me, and it is easier to "attach" choreography to it.

 

[moonshine]

inspiration,focus,dedication,repetition

repetition is the mother of skill

do the work!!!but make it into play