Remembering Choreography | Pro Tip from Elizabeth Marlin

Our current School of Ballet 5:8 Featured Guest, Elizabeth Marlin, is a Company Artist with Ballet 5:8. We asked her to share some of her favorite pro tips with us over the coming weeks. Today's wisdom is a tried and true method for remembering choreography!

Elizabeth says:

It was at my first 'Company Experience' that I first started using a notebook to write down all the choreography I had learned that day.

As my first exposure to company life and learning/rehearsing new choreography all day, I felt I was in over my head; I was having trouble learning the contemporary and neoclassical choreography, both styles which I had not been exposed to previously. Writing everything down when I got home after rehearsal helped me to solidify everything in my brain and my body, resulting in greater clarity and understanding of the choreographic patterns.

Four years later, I am still jotting down notes for every piece of choreography! Not only does it help me to learn and remember the sequence, spacing, and counts, but it is beyond helpful for those terrifying last-minute brain glitches where you can’t remember what leg you start on or which arm you have up in a turn.