Help remembering combos!

[Guest afroballet01]

So,this isn't really a ballet question as I am taking modern,so move if needed:

 

How do you guys remember combos?I'm really bad with it,especially if they include turning of any kind.My teacher likes making kinda long ones,and they are sometimes complicated and hard to remember.

 

Tips?

[Alysse]

i have had good luck with trying to remember the teachers voice saying the combination, or i say it myself. and it helps to get a beat going, if you are asked to dance to music with a solid beat.

hope this helps, and eat some salmon! (it's brain food, as my mom says) :]

[Skye90]

I find it really difficult to remeber contemporary combinations too. Ballet is so much easier because it's all set steps. In ballet, after one, or maybe two marks, I have got it in my head. But with contemporary I find I've forgotten the first step by the end of the sequence.

I've started trying to make sense of things in my own mind....with directions, arms, feet e.t.c. Saying lefts and rights and going over and over steps at home helps somewhat. We were advised to keep little note books and write steps down in them. That helped me aswell. Going over things in your head is great too - on the bus, train, car.

[Alysse]

Skye 90, i just wanted to say i really like your quote about being dancers! it's really true. my little group of friends are always going somewhere when i'm dancing. but i feel special to have something that i'm really good at. it's great being a dancer isn't it?

[Guest afroballet01]

Thanks.

 

Throughout the week I definitely try to work on what we did in class!

[Nutmegdancer]

In my opinion,I almost think that you are either born with remembering combos in your DNA or not,but maybe you will improve if you do long and complicated math problems, you have to remember alot of things for a math problem,especially when you have to solve for x!

 

Nutmegdancer

[SugarPlumFairy1]

have you ever tried marking your steps? for example when the teacher goes through the steps do you do them as she shows them?

 

i find marking the steps very helpfull. i memorize the combos easier.

[Guest afroballet01]

Yes - I mark every single combo,and always have.It helps some,but I still have trouble remembering them.

[NHBnutcracker]

I like to first just watch the teacher, then while they are changing the music, I mark it. It really gets stuck in my head bu just watching, then doing.

[sugarplum239]

do you actually think when you mark combanations? When I was little I never paid attention and I became an expert on copying other people around me. When the teacher marks it, if I mark it all out, the teachers know I'm not paying attention. I found that if I quickly go through the combination by myself in my head before the combination or if/when the teacher repeats it, I have it.

[Guest afroballet01]

Umm..I don't really know if I think or not when I'm marking a combo.

 

I think for me combos are like math - It takes me awhile to get both.

[L' Allegro]

What really helped me improve remembering combinations was my job. My boss will, at the beginning of the day, tell me (orally) what I need to do, sometimes 10+ things. I ask questions as she goes (do you want me to put this here? Where do you keep the __s?) and I'm always able to remember the things! I used to forget things, though. And I'd have to ask her what it was she wanted done again. But now I kind of make a mental checklist, writing things down in my mind. It really helped me to remember things!

 

So with ballet, I watch the teacher and remember certain steps, (like landmarks) and then add in the connecting steps...

[dancinfreak9232]

YAY!!!

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has that problem!!

What helps me is when I am trying to memorize a combination I break it down into pieces, I memorize the 1st 8 counts when the teacher gives the combo the first time, while they change the music I perfect it, then the second time, when we do it with music, I memorize the last part of the combo and if i'm still not sure of the combo I try to go in the 2nd or 3rd group so that I can be as secure as possible in my knowledge of the combo.

good luck!!!

<333

[ems]

Somtimes my mind wnaders in class. I'll be marking and I will be thinking," What will I wear tomorrow" or whatever and then It is time to do the combo and I will be cluless. Focus on marking and replay the combo in your mind. It will help and I am a living example!