How to Improve Your Pick Up Skills | Pro Tip from Melody Staples Hammell

Our current School of Ballet 5:8 Featured Guest, Melody Staples Hammell, is a former principal dancer with Charleston Ballet Theater. During her extensive career, Melody used the 8-box method to help her remember class combinations.

Melody says:

Auditions are so stressful! It’s necessary to get the combinations right almost immediately, and yet, questions are generally discouraged.

So, how to get those combinations on the first demonstration? It can help to visualize the combination inside a box with 8 slots and each step goes in a slot (or more slots depending on how many counts it was given). This can be very effective at helping you know if there are 4 tendus or 3 at a given time.