why does this happen to me?

[Ravenhairedbellydancer]

Now i have definitely noticed a trend... it started with things that have nothing to do with dance... a few yrs ago i didnt know my social security # and i wrote it down on a card and it happened to be left on my table in a spot where i looked at it just randomly every day,, after a few weeks i realized i knew the whole thing by heart.... well for months i was trying and trying to learn hip drops and the more i practiced the worse i got at it sometimes.... i stopped dancing for close to 2 months recently and when i go and practice again, my hip drops are better than ive ever done them , without trying at all.... I also find that after things happen i may not remember certain important details until days later,,i think i learn a bit differently than some people or is this normal? I honestly dont know what this is...?

 

[Yasmine Bint Al Nubia]

Hi Ravenhairedbellydancer...I'm going to call you Raven whew! Sometimes this happens to me and it's perfectly normal. When I was in nursing school, I would study for a test right until the day or two before. Then, I would just relax and do other activities and I would pass the test w/o any problems. The same with dance and music..it's a different set of memory skills you are using: short term vs long-term. It's good to develop both.
Yasmine

 

[Aisha Azar]

Why?

Dear Ravenhairedbellydancer,
My theory on this is that our brains and bodies have to make some kind of neurological connection, and that it takes time for those connections to develop. We all have dance epiphanies, and just seem to wake up one day, able to do a movement or grasp a concept that just did not work for us the day before. You are perfectly normal in this, so don;t worry!
Regards,
A'isha

 

[*elly belly*]

no worries darlin!

i second the motion! i know this isnt a very good example but if im continously doing science homework on and on i start making a bunch of mistakes and it gets worse and worse, you need to rest and bounce back! thats happened to me with dance moves too dont worry! <3 hope you feel better about it

 

[karena]

Raven, your post made me think of this book, which talks about different ways people learn, with a view to improving the way you learn. I suppose a main premise, it that yes often you learn better when you try less hard

Amazon.co.uk: NLP for Lazy Learning: How to Learn Faster and More Effectively: Amazon.co.uk:: Diana Beaver

 

[Souzan]

Now i have definitely noticed a trend... it started with things that have nothing to do with dance... a few yrs ago i didnt know my social security # and i wrote it down on a card and it happened to be left on my table in a spot where i looked at it just randomly every day,, after a few weeks i realized i knew the whole thing by heart.... well for months i was trying and trying to learn hip drops and the more i practiced the worse i got at it sometimes.... i stopped dancing for close to 2 months recently and when i go and practice again, my hip drops are better than ive ever done them , without trying at all.... I also find that after things happen i may not remember certain important details until days later,,i think i learn a bit differently than some people or is this normal? I honestly dont know what this is...?

Raven, what you are talking about is called "latent learning." All the practice you did when your hip drops were not good was actually putting the wheels in motion. Your body was learning the muscle memory for hip drops. At the time you were doing all that drilling, you didn't have the muscular strength and flexibility to do the move properly. Your emotions kicked in when you were frustrated at not being able to do them. And that meant that you were trying to use your brain to do a hip drop rather than the muscles. During the break you took, latent learning continued. When you started again muscles took over before your brain could even get in the way.

Souzan

 

[charity]

Dear Ravenhairedbellydancer,
My theory on this is that our brains and bodies have to make some kind of neurological connection, and that it takes time for those connections to develop. We all have dance epiphanies, and just seem to wake up one day, able to do a movement or grasp a concept that just did not work for us the day before. You are perfectly normal in this, so don;t worry!
Regards,
A'isha

yes this was on "sport science", espn just recently. it is a mind-body connection. you practice, muscle repitition trains/hones mind memory for the action...in time mind memory executes muscle memory. something like that.

that is why you should always practice in proper form, you will execute the move as it has been practiced.

 

[Aisha Azar]

Dance etc.

yes this was on "sport science", espn just recently. it is a mind-body connection. you practice, muscle repitition trains/hones mind memory for the action...in time mind memory executes muscle memory. something like that.

that is why you should always practice in proper form, you will execute the move as it has been practiced.

Dear Charity,
Nice to have one of my pet theories validated by Sport Science!! Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[jenc]

I have similar problem, but related. when I dance choreos, I can't remember them and I seize up. when I free dance my hips have a life of their own but in class doing routines, I am at best mediocre.
but this explains one thig I noticed. The longer we practise something the worse I get. The first dance class I attended we learnt one dance over 20 weeks and i just got a complex. The class I go to now, I am expected to pick up dances in the back catalog on the fly, and I pretty well can. The more you use your brain, the less well your body works
Jen

 

[charity]

well this is beginner related but i noticed in my class, new dancers, like myself would want to do so well and pick up immediately on new moves/dances and it puts a lot of pressure on themselves. things will come to you naturally when you relax and enjoy what you are doing. and maybe they wont, but at least you will have more fun being relaxed and calm rather than beating yourself up over not being able to do something exactly how the teacher is.

 

[Aisha Azar]

Dance

Dear Charity,
And there are literally hundreds of variations and layers based on those ten fundamental concepts, so if you can't get them all, there are countless other options available! Some of the best dancers do not necessarily have a huge movement vocabulary. When you see wonderful dancers who don't know a million moves, I think in some ways that they really prove that movement is only one element of what makes it dance. I am coming from a physical place of being able to layer like nobody's business, so this is not a self-serving remark.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[karena]

I have similar problem, but related. when I dance choreos, I can't remember them and I seize up. when I free dance my hips have a life of their own but in class doing routines, I am at best mediocre.
but this explains one thig I noticed. The longer we practise something the worse I get. The first dance class I attended we learnt one dance over 20 weeks and i just got a complex. The class I go to now, I am expected to pick up dances in the back catalog on the fly, and I pretty well can. The more you use your brain, the less well your body works
Jen

As silly as it may sounds, have you tried asking your brain to remember them? Unless you tell your brain that's what you want to do, it might not realise. Personally, I am renowned for remembering choreographies, but that is only if I specifically tell myself to remember. Sometimes, I don't specifically do so, and then it doesn't go in so readily.

 

[jenc]

THanks I'll try that. I had an amazing experience though when I realised that I knew something. My new egyptian teacher does lots of dances and if you are new you just get told to follow everyone else. I have done this dance in a square formation initially, reforming into lines with different dancers doing different things. I got to do it quite well, but following split second behind and not always sure that I was following the right dancer. Last time there were only 3 in my lie. The girl my side is newer than I am, so I just turned my head straight forward, said "Right", and did it perfectly!! YEAH!!

 

[karena]

Sounds good Jenc! :clap: With the way I see the world, I would think that that is because it had gone in there, and then when you really needed to remember your brain thought "right I need to use this knowledge not just store it way back there". There used to be someone in my class who I could always copy when I forgot, and then she went abroad for a year, and I thought "oh dear, I'll have to remember myself now", and since then everything goes in, and comes back out when I need it if that makes sense.