Right brain dancing

Have you ever felt that when you’re trying really hard to learn some movement it’s just not happening for you but if you decide to not think about it in your head, your body takes over and just knows what to do?
I get to take a lot of technique dance classes these days as I’m getting ready for my audition (Yes, they invited me! Yikes!). Regardless of whether I get accepted or not, I’m getting such a kick out of the process. I’m enjoying pushing myself to my edges, learning new things about myself, bringing in support from outside and also engaging my inner support.

One thing that I’m enjoying in particular, which is very different from what I’ve been focusing on in Shake Your Soul® and my improvisational practice, is learning choreography. There’s something very satisfying about remembering a non repetitive sequence of movement. I forgot how fun that could be. I also never considered myself particularly good at it and therefore have feared it to some degree.

Maybe being so intent on my goal is helping me overcome this fear. There’s a way i’m letting myself, more than ever before,  learn how my brain likes to learn movement and it’s helping me move towards mastering this skill. With the help of one of my teachers I made what feels like a huge discovery about my learning style; I’m a right brain learner! To those of you who know me that might not be a surprise but sometimes what’s obvious from the outside is not obvious from within.

Being a right brain learner means that I need to find the pattern before I get bogged down with the details and I can’t think about it too much. It’s a different way of learning than trying to think about every movement separately and then putting the movements together.

Part of the excitement is that I always envied people that can just look at movement and execute it but the irony is that I think I might be one of those people. Learning this about myself is a bit like coming late to my own party. It’s only my fear that has kept me from realizing this fact. I’m so fascinated by the different ways to learn movement. It might well end up being my thesis topic (along with 10 other ones).

When I first started writing this blog I wanted to say something about how different the structured dance experience is from what we practice in Shake Your Soul® and how the latter is more enjoyable because it’s more sensation based, not so much about the form. What I’m realizing as I’m writing this though is that I’m learning that even learning a movement sequence that has a set structure doesn’t have to be such a heady experience and that one can actually sense their way into it. I invite you to try it out next time you’re trying to learn a new movement. Feel free to let me know how it went 🙂