how to learn choreography faster
Dancers, we’ve come to that point in the dance competition season when conventions are coming and choreography is being taught quicker and quicker, on a high rise stage that you can barely see, while you’re fatigued after hours of dancing. But, you still want to do well and comprehend choreography, of course. So, here are three actionable habits to implement to get there.
Understanding ways to learn choreography
In school, there’s four main types of learning; visual, auditory, verbal, and kinesthetic. The ones that apply to dance are defined below; be sure to keep these in mind as you read this blog post with habits to implement whenever you take class to increase choreography retention.
Practice, practice, practice
Another type of learning style is active learning, where you learn by doing. When you think about it, that’s what dance class is; learning choreography by doing it. So, whenever you’re learning choreography, whether it’s during a dance class, a convention, or while watching a video, actively repeat the steps as the teacher is teaching and when they’re not, to better retain them.
2. Listen
Going back to auditory learning, as you are learning choreography and listening to the music whenever a teacher plays it, correlate certain steps to a lyric, beat, or count in the music. As you’re doing the choreography or replaying it in your brain, actively tell yourself, Okay, on that bass there’s this and on that lyric I should be doing that to get the choreography and timing.
There isn’t a type of learning associated with this tip; you just have to do it! Dance is all about expressing yourself through movement and truly feeling yourself. By getting so caught up in learning and memorizing choreography to do it the best or get called out in a convention setting, we tend to forget this. So, yes, by truly feeling and loving the choreography and performing it as you’re learning with facials and dynamics and textures, you can better remember it because you are truly doing and performing the choreography.
3. You have to feel it
There isn’t a type of learning associated with this tip; you just have to do it! Dance is all about expressing yourself through movement and truly feeling yourself. By getting so caught up in learning and memorizing choreography to do it the best or get called out in a convention setting, we tend to forget this. So, yes, by truly feeling and loving the choreography and performing it as you’re learning with facials and dynamics and textures, you can better remember it because you are truly doing and performing the choreography.
Actionable habits to pick up choreography faster:
Now that you know three simple habits to implement while you are learning choreography, here are some actionable steps to take:
Download the Goal Growth Guide or Habit Tracker from DanceVibes to track your progress towards implementing these habits and retaining choreography faster
Ask your dance teachers and mentors for other tips to learn choreography quicker
Actively pay attention in class to understand and retain the choreography
While learning choreography, find a story that you and the movement are telling to better feel and embody the movement