Every dancer has something that they constantly struggle with. For me, it's petit allegro.
It's not that I have trouble doing the individual steps. Sure, there are some I don't do all that well, but that's nothing compared to the trouble I have remembering the small steps in rapid sequence. And I often have trouble moving smoothly from one phrase to the next.
This is nothing new: I commented on it last November.
Friday I asked this same instructor if she had any suggestions for remembering the steps in a petit allegro. She agreed that this can be a challenge, and suggested that I say the names of the steps as I see them, and again as I do them. While I understand the benefit of reinforcing one memory system with another (physical with language, in this case), I've seen so many instructors struggle to match words and actions I had my doubts.
I've taken four classes since then, and I'm feeling better about this suggestion. Sometimes I can remember the names of the steps and sometimes I substitute something shorter ("temps de cuisse" takes longer to say than to do). Either way it feels like I'm remembering more of the sequence faster than before.
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