January 26, 2007

The Limits of Video for Learning Dance Routines

There's one type of dance video that I'm glad I don't have access to - video of the choreography that's taught at the end of dance classes.

I'm always impressed by how dancers in the jazz and modern classes I take can watch the teacher demonstrate a series of dance moves and then perform the new choreography right on the spot.

When I started taking Beginner 1 and 2 drop-in classes at Joy of Motion the choreography completely overwhelmed me to the point where I couldn't even figure out what direction to move in and I forgot the difference between my left and right side - essentially that meant I ran into people.

Now I'm beginning to get the hang of seeing the choreography demonstrated and then performing it. I'm not saying I'm close to getting the technique down. I just mean that either my mind or body or both capture the overall structure and form of the choreography - so I generally know the moves and direction of the piece. I'm actually pretty amazed that I've picked-up this skill because it seemed impossible to do just a few months ago.

In yesterday's jazz class with Maurice Johnson, he taught a new piece of choreography. My technique has a long way to go and I can't yet focus on the music, but I know the routine well enough that I can practice it over the next week in preparation for next Thursday's class.

And while I'm thinking through the choreography from Maurice's class, I'm delighted that I don't have video to watch of his routine. The video would help me improve my technique and I could quickly learn how the moves were synchronized with the music, but it would be counter-productive in terms of mastering the most important skill for new dancers, which seems to me to be to develop muscle and brain memory for capturing and recreating dance movements.

Part of the process of working on a routine in between classes is being able to figure out how to fill-in the missing parts - even if I'm just thinking through the piece in my mind. While I know the routine pretty well from last night's class, there are still sections that I have to figure out. And I'd rather figure out these gaps on my own than have a video clip to turn to.

The possible downsize to my video-free approach to learning choreography - the standard approach to learning choreography - is that my technique will not improve that quickly. But I don't really look at it that way. Within a few more months my ability to capture and perform routines will be much better and I'll be able to start focusing on technique even during the first day that the new choreography is taught.

By the way, once I write about four more posts about last week's APAP conference, I'll get back to the remaining sections of my draft for my upcoming e-book on dance and video.

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