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Top Tips For Remembering Choreography

by Sarah Kleio

People often ask me what they can do to help them remember and retain choreography better. That is why I have put together this simple guide to share with you a few of my top tips. Hopefully a combination of some or all of these will work for you and you will be smashing routines and oozing with confidence in class in no time at all! Enjoy! 

  • Listen to the music outside of class – The more you know and understand the music the easier it will be to remember choreography. Listen to the lyrics, as we often choreograph to the lyrics but also listen to the rhythms and different instruments playing and familiarize yourself with the patterns and repetitions. 
  • When we say ‘Watch First’…Watch! – I know it is sooooo tempting to try and copy and join in from the get go but when we say watch it first, it is not so we can boost our own ego by having a whole class watching us, it is normally because it actually helps you learn by seeing first and then doing. Sometimes there will be a direction change or rhythm change that you might need to see first for your brain and body to process before then trying it out. 
  • Break it into chunks – It helps to break the choreography into chunks or sections. We almost always teach routines to you in sections so use these when you think about a routine. Think of each section as a sentence. Start with nailing sentence one, then sentence one and sentence two together and so on. As a beginner a great aim is 3 small sections, so if we do more and your brain goes all fuzzy don’t get annoyed/upset that you haven’t nailed it yet. In the words of Elsa… “Let it go”…concentrate on those first 3 bits for now and just know that soon you will be adding section four and five and…well who knows!!! My other tip for breaking it into sections is to think of a little story you are telling in each section. Anything to help trigger your memory for what is coming next.
  • “Mark It” V “Full Out” – You will hear us say both of these A LOT in class. You may have no idea what either even mean…so here goes. “Mark it” means going through the movements either slower than the tempo of the music, to help commit each move to your muscle memory and getting all the details, or not at full energy but to the music to see where you are getting stuck and see how well you are remembering the moves and understanding them with the music. “Full Out” literally means go for it at full energy. This will help you see where you’re at and is the best way for it to really stick! BOTH are important and BOTH will help you learn choreography quicker. If you are in class and we give you the chance to mark it…mark it! But make sure you go full out a few times as well! 
  • Get a notebook – Divide it up into a few different sections. Use one section to make a note of the names of any new moves/grooves that you either covered in the warm up or that were in the routine (and if they don’t have an actual name make one up that will jog your memory). Then write one sentence by each one to help you remember (this could be describing the move or anything else memorable like starts on ‘and’ count). If words don’t work for you draw a picture or series of stick men. It’s your book so whatever helps really! The goal for this is that the moves will be easier to remember in a sequence if you can remember them on their own. The second section of the notebook is for writing the name of the song you were dancing to (we don’t bite…you can always ask us if you don’t know it!) along with any notes on the routine that will help you remember the moves and the order of them. 
  • Two Ways To Practice – Did you know there are 2 ways you can practice. There is the obvious one…actually practicing… pop the song on and dance around your kitchen/lounge/bedroom/the park etc..using your notebook to jog your memory. Then there is the less obvious and way less energetic one…practicing in your head…also known as visualising. No, I haven’t gone crazy…I know what you are thinking ‘how can thinking about it without even moving help?’ TRUST ME on this one! Research has actually proved your brain knows absolutely no difference between physically doing and visualising. So on your commute to work or even better, for 5 mins at the end of the day when you are laying in bed give it a try. Go through the moves in your head from start to finish a few times and try to feel like you are actually in the studio (or on stage with Beyonce if that works for you). Try playing the music when visualising if you can too. No excuses with this one as you don’t even have to stand up!
  • Be consistent – Ok, I know you know this one is the key to success in anything already, what I mean is if you are looking to improve how well you remember choreography try and stick with a class for the whole time they are working on one routine. This will give you the best chance to feel good and build your confidence. It’s not like we are saying do that class FOREVER, normally we switch to a new routine roughly every three weeks! I hate to say it but if you can’t commit to making at least one class per week please don’t expect to be booking the job as lead dancer in a music video at the end of month one! The more you come to class the easier it will be. You gotta be in it to win it!
  • Celebrate your success – I know this is a tough one as we love to beat ourselves up but if you get even some of the routine down in class give yourself a massive pat on the back and let your brain register that you did good! Remember it takes time and just like learning your times tables or a new language you don’t always get it all straight away. Just know that it gets easier the more you come to class! 

It is important to remember everyone learns in different ways and at a different pace so try not to compare yourself to anyone else, especially when you’re in class. Also, trust me, you’re not the only one that struggles with this stuff! When I mentioned I was going to write some tips on this topic the amount of people that said ‘Oh yes please’, ‘I need help with that’ was incredible! See what resonates with you, maybe a couple of these tips will help, maybe all of them will. Hey…even if one of them helps you’re still winning! 

Inspired to get to a class after all that? Then I would love to offer you a complimentary dance taster class at Studio K in Richmond. 

To claim your complimentary dance taster class give us a call on 020 3417 4070. What have you got to lose…(psss…the answer is nothing).

I’ll see you there…

Sarah

Getting ready to reopen your dance studio – Top 5 things you can be doing during lockdown

For so many of us, just a few short weeks ago our entire lives were turned upside down when we were forced to shut down our businesses literally overnight. After a crazy few weeks getting in the swing of what you have decided to offer/not offer during this time I feel like the dust is beginning to settle and everyone is just about getting to grips with things and have started to come to terms with what is happening.  

Now, as disruptive as this whole situation has been, I just wanted to start by saying CONGRATULATIONS. However you have dealt with this mad situation make sure you take a minute to breathe and give yourself a huge pat on the back. Whether you have switched to an online schedule, pre recorded classes and content for your students or started sending out weekly tasks/challenges/activities…well done! As a collective of dance business owners we have acted fast, been creative and most importantly are giving our students something to look forward to during a very uncertain and unnerving time. I am personally very proud to be part of such an awesome community of dance business owners. 

So what now? Well none of us know how long it will be before the situation will change, and lets face it even if lockdown gets lifted gradually, we will not be the first businesses they will be encouraged to open again. However, things will change at some point and we WILL open our doors again. Don’t be the person that concentrates so much on troubleshooting what’s going on right now that you don’t take some time to plan for then. 

Your students will need you more than ever and so will lots of lovely new students that will be desperate to move, dance and socialise again. Keep reading for my 5 top tips on getting ready to re open. If you follow and action these top tips I believe it will strengthen your position for a super successful reopening. Imagine being ready with all the tools you need, so as soon as we get the green light you are good to go and feel more confident about success than ever before!

  1. Strengthen your community now

Community has never been more important than it is right now. People are craving connections so there really has never been a better time to build yours stronger than ever. Reach out to your members and parents as much as you can. Keep them informed with what’s going on with a weekly email update or if you can, video updates. If you don’t have a Facebook group already then create one and encourage all of your members/parents to join. Use it for updates but also to share great content with them. Always think about how you can best serve them and add value to what you offer. Have you thought about doing a weekly virtual social or quiz night? We have started doing this and the feedback has been amazing. I have had people that have been members of my ‘real life’ studio for years saying this is the most connected to our community they have ever felt! Another idea is running a weekly Q+A. You could just be there to answer questions or concerns or could theme them with different topics to be discussed each week. 

  1. Build your online presence

Everyone, and I mean everyone is online right now! Now is a great time to build your online presence. Have you reached out to all of your current students/parents to see if they are following you on whichever platforms that you use? You might be surprised at how many aren’t. Before, they could ask questions in class and keep up to date that way but now is a great time to make sure they are following you online. There is a catch here, there is no point in building your following if you aren’t sharing awesome value adding content. Your content may also need to change to make you more relevant with what is going on now. Think about what people will want and need to see right now. Not sure? Ask them! Pop a message in that Facebook members group or on your Instagram and ask people what they would like to see more of or what they need help with at the moment. I would then highly recommend you ‘batch’ create content. This means instead of logging in each day and wondering what to write about and it feeling like a big chore, spend a couple of hours once a week to create posts and content for the whole week. To give you some ideas my clients have asked for help/content with the following…

Staying motivated in lockdown

Stretching safely and effectively

Learn the move tutorials 

Info on history of relevant dance styles 

Show make up and hair tips/tutorials 

How to get into a daily routine 

Also post about all the awesome stuff you have already done/achieved at your studio as a reminder of how awesome you are (throwbackthursday). The fun stuff you are planning when you can open again (more on that in tip 5) and gather some testimonials / success stories and get them up as well (testimonial tuesday or success story Sunday?!) 

  1. Have a marketing plan and your marketing copy ready

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a clear marketing plan in place as well as the copy you are going to use written and the images picked out. This will save you so much time and stress later as well as just making the whole sales process easier for you. Really this topic is a whole separate blog post as there is a lot to think about here but here are the key things to keep in mind. 

Only spend time, energy and money on marketing where you know your clients will be. There is no need to do a marketing plan for Instagram, for example, if you aren’t sure that is where your ideal client hangs out. 

Pick one or two places to market. The key to successful marketing is to focus your energy on one or two platforms where you know you will find your ideal clients. You don’t need to market everywhere. I know personally that my idea clients hang out on Facebook so that is where I focus all of my marketing efforts. Ideally you will already know what works best for you (again, if not ask your current clients). I would strongly recommend, if you haven’t already, it is time to scrap flyering! Yey, I hear you scream! The exception to this rule is if you know they work for you AND you are tracking your numbers properly so you know where to distribute them, the conversion rate and therefore the ROI. If you are, like I used too, just giving them out with no idea if they are working to get people through the door, permission to stop. You can reach more people, more effectively on Facebook from the comfort of your own sofa (really useful at the moment too!) 

Once you know where you will do your marketing it is time to write the copy. The key to effective marketing copy is making sure it resonates with your ideal client. This means actually using the words they would use. The biggest mistake people normally make with marketing is talking about themselves and what they can offer. Instead, I urge you to find out the actual words your ideal clients use to talk about the problem that your solution can solve for them and use them in your marketing. 

  1. Build some key systems into your business 

If your whole business is already built on solid and documented systems then feel free to skip this point. However, if like me, until more recently most of the systems in which your business runs and depends on live inside your head then there has never been a better time to start writing them down! This may seem like a huge, never ending task and feel so overwhelming that you’re already sweating, believe me I know, that was how I felt too! The key is to start small. Work out what are the most important systems in your business and start with those. A good place to start would be your sales process and your follow up process. These can literally take the form of simple bullet point lists that you can build on as you improve and add to them. I can’t stress enough how much this will change your business. It will help you to hand tasks over as you grow, add consistency and will also add value to your business. Once you get on top of this, document every new process/system that you add and build it into a manual. This has totally changed my business and allows my whole team to complete tasks at the studio with complete consistency…and more importantly without having to ask me how! 

  1. Plan to launch something new

I have already congratulated you on being so quick and creative at dealing with the current crisis and moving your business online. Now it’s time to channel some of that awesome creativity into planning things you would love to offer once you can open your doors again. Get people excited. I know this is a difficult task with no time frame but it doesn’t mean you can’t get planning some exciting workshops, camps, events or maybe think about launching a fresh new class, anything that you can start posting about now. This will help to keep you focused and excited and your students…and new found followers engaged and even more keen to get back to your studio. 

Bonus Tip – depending on what you have decided to offer during lockdown

  1. Decide if you can leverage whatever you have created online and make a plan

For some of you that are already completely over offering anything online and can’t wait until you never have to do it again, this won’t be relevant, and that’s ok! For others it may be worth thinking about. If you have built a new site/platform or now have pre recorded content, have a think about if there is a way to continue to offer this to your students at a low monthly cost once you are back to ‘in person’ classes. It may be something that will be easy and cheap for you to upkeep and could add valuable monthly revenue (which, let’s face it, will be very much welcomed after all this!).  

Hopefully this has given you a few ideas so you can make the best of the current situation and prepare for a successful re launch. 

Stay safe and stay home. 

Sarah Kleio