How to Learn Choreography From a Video

 You know that feeling you get when a teacher asks if anybody needs to repeat the sequence one more time and you feel like saying “at least 10 times more, please”?

Or when you see dancers who immediately pick up the choreography, while you can't remember a single move?

We've all been there.

Learning choreography is a skill and, like a muscle, it can be trained and strengthened.

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Memorizing movements is a huge and sensitive topic for many dancers, let alone learning choreography from a video.

Whether it's for online dance classes or independent rehearsals, the skill of learning choreography from a video format is becoming a must for dancers.

Below are a few of our tips for how to deal with memorizing choreography from a video.

1. Get Rid of Distractions

It may sound obvious, but learning choreography deserves your full attention. 

To start, create a comfortable space (physical and mental) where you can really focus. Once you have your space, take some time to clear your mind and, as always, warm up your body.

On the flip side, you could conduct an experiment wherein you challenge yourself to learn from a video when there are many distractions around: 

Let the TV play in another room, leave the door open so you can see and hear what's happening outside of the room you're in - create distractions for yourself and see how it affects your learning process. 

Such practice can also be valuable, for example, in terms of auditions where you don't have perfect silence, a lot is going on and you're feeling stressed.

Take advantage of the fact that learning from a video can happen within your four walls. Play with these conditions, change them and test them to find what works best for you. 

2. Take Advantage of Technology

Our reality is not equipped with a pause button. But your video is! And it's not a cheat to use it. Pause, rewind, speed up or slow down, loop or mirror the video. Check, explore, play.

Use the opportunity to make your life easier.

3. Watch, Analyze & Simplify

You can learn so much by simply watching! Enjoy this exclusive one-on-one time with the video. Dance is a multi-layer action, but even the most complex choreography consists of simple elements.
Here's a way to break down what you're seeing into 5 separate categories:

• Body 
  it's position, shape, (a)symmetry, distance between body parts, initiation of the movement, gaze, expression
• Actions 
  all the movements, shifts in space, gestures, moments of pause or stillness
• Space
  levels, directions, orientation, range, planes of movement
• Time
  pace, rhythm, relationship with music, counts, groove, pauses
• Energy 
  qualities, tension, effort, weight, flow, force

As you continue watching, try to notice these elements in other dance videos. The more you practice, the more intuitive it will become to pick them out.

4. Big Picture, Small Picture

Watching the whole choreography gives you an understanding of its structure, internal dynamics and logic - The Big Picture.

Watching smaller parts allows you to notice the details - The Small Picture.

There is so much to learn from watching dance videos and the way you watch can have a huge effect on how you digest the information. Explore both the big and the small picture to get the best possible overview of the choreography.

5. Create a Mental Map

Instead of just repeating the choreography over and over again, sit or lie down and visualize the moves. Close your eyes and play the music from the video. See it in your head as you listen.

Your muscles listen to your thoughts, even if they are not in motion. What's more, you develop new connections between your mind and your body. Train smart, not (just) hard.

6. Think 3D

Who knows, maybe soon we will enter the era of 3D availability for all videos and 2D will be a thing of the past - the new VHS, in a way - but for now, 2D videos is what we have to work with.

When you're watching choreography for the purpose of learning, consider all dimensions of the dancer(s) body in the video. Translate this dimension to your own dancing.

The video provides you with guidance, your task is to create a 3D realization.

7. Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

Watching an entire choreographic piece and attempting to learn it all at once is a big ask and we're here to tell you - don't bite off more than you can chew. (It's a bit of a riff off the original meaning of this phrase but, you get the idea.)

Divide the choreography into digestible chunks.

Challenge yourself, but don't overwhelm your mind and body. Learning from a video is a great tool to adjust the pace of learning and the amount of information to your needs and current mental capacity.

8. Find Your Workflow

If you learn better by spreading the work out over several smaller sessions, that's great. If you prefer to work less often in larger doses, that's great too.

By learning with video, you have a chance to adjust the mode of work to your needs.

9. Digest the Information

Give your body and mind time to digest the information you are learning. Spend a few minutes after each session to unwind, relax and let the choreo sink in.

Go for a walk. Take a day off. Sleep...

Your mind will process information in the background and you will come back to your work more confident and refreshed.

10. Explore Different Styles of Dance

Learning a new way of moving is great for training your body and your mind. It expands your movement vocabulary and makes you more sensitive and attentive to what each individual dance instructor or choreographer requires. It's also a perfect way to rediscover the joy of moving - a catalyst for progress.

Check out our wide variety of Dance Masterclasses with the world’s greatest dancers and choreographers to learn new skills, progress and deepen your knowledge. Learn from those whose passion for dance is contagious!

11. Drive On, Despite the Black Spots on the Map

Although we encourage you to rewatch the video over and over again, we're not telling you to get stuck in a loop of perfectionism.

Move on even if you have trouble remembering a step or two. You can always go back to more problematic parts, but it's important to catch the bigger picture and let the learning process unfold.

12. Record Yourself

If you mostly take online classes or work on learning choreography on your own, the motivation to continue lays largely on your shoulders.

Sometimes it helps to record yourself to get a better view of how you are adapting a certain piece of choreography.

Remember though, to be kind to yourself. Correct, but don't criticize.

13. Make It Harder To Make It Easier

Here's a bit of a hot take but stay with us on this one!

To help you along in your learning process, try to challenge yourself in a playful way:

Try to pick up choreography without pausing or rewatching. Position your computer at an awkward angle or turn the video upside down.

These experiments are only meant to train your perception. We don't advise you to learn the choreography for an important performance this way, but we do encourage you to make your life more difficult for a while in order to make it simpler when you can see the video accurately.

14. Go Deeper

Dance does not exist in a void. It is much easier to learn choreography when you expand your knowledge of dance technique and history, as well as watch different performances.

If you're a ballet dancer or interested in learning how ballet steps are taught, be sure to check out our class on Swan Lake with Polina Semionova, as well as Variations with Iana Salenko, to get a deeper understanding of the repertory and its context.

Also, watch, watch, watch! And look for your own interpretation. Remember, choreography is instruction, you decide how it will be implemented.

 So… what is the best way to learn choreography?

The best way is the one that works for you. We are all different. What helps one person may not be effective for someone else - and that’s okay!

Try out the above tips and gain a better understanding of what works for you!

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Resources:
(1) The elements of dance. The Elements of Dance. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.elementsofdance.org/