Thread: Left/Right challenged? Check it out!

Keti Sharif writes about this as a student and teacher,r:;
Dyslexia and Dance | Belly Dance News & Events

Brilliant. Thanks!

Thanks for posting, because I'm the dyslexic dancer in the troupe!

Qamar

I really appreciated that article!

Thank you for posting this article...I actually learned several years ago that there is a form of dyslexia that shows itself in difficulty learning choreography and in some forms of math...I can't remember the name but after reading up on it, I found that quite a few of the "symptoms" would explain some of my dance and math difficulties over the years!

It's nice to see an article on the problem.

Thank you for this!

I do process a lot of things differently - in a not-quite-but-sort-of-dyslexic way, and would have NEVER thought to link that to difficulty learning choreography.

Math...whats that? I cant even make change...I get a white noise in my head. I never turn to face my class, I teach into the mirror. I will say left right left and I will move right left right at the same time. I am getting better, but when I first started dancing with my troupe...you couldnt move me from one position to the oher..I would freak!

Originally Posted by Serqet

Thank you for posting this article...I actually learned several years ago that there is a form of dyslexia that shows itself in difficulty learning choreography and in some forms of math...I can't remember the name but after reading up on it, I found that quite a few of the "symptoms" would explain some of my dance and math difficulties over the years!

It's nice to see an article on the problem.

OMG! I can relate to that so much...

Sometimes I can get a movement straight off - then someone asks for it to be broken down, then I lose it.

This gives me problems remembering choreos because I can't learn a combo as a sequence, only as a whole. I also find it hard doing the same steps later in a song, even to the same music cos I need them shown to me again!!!

That's me in a nutshell and I'm the teacher so it really sucks. I do stuff like, 'this always starts on the right, see..." and do something on the left. I'm just sure I've got it when I say right, but it's not my right. Sheesh, thank goodness my students are kind.

I thought you couldn't be mildly dislexic though? Is there a more correct term for this. I thought dislexic only referred to those who see print as jumbled at times. My dad has this and so, if mild is a possiblity, I wonder if it's hereditary...he and I also can't spell very well. I've really worked on mine bc I'm a teacher, but his is pretty bad. I don't think he has any problem with left or right though and I don't have a problem reading. The brain is a fascinating new frontier with the FMRI now. Anyone see the PBS thing about music and the FMRI? Interesting...

NOVA | Musical Minds | TV Program Description | PBS

There are different types of dyslexia. I have no problems reading, but I transpose numbers so much that it's dangerous for me to do math without a calculator. It's not that I think math is hard - it's that I get a totally different answer due to the transpositioning. i also get rights and lefts confused. I've never been diagnosed dyslexic because I've gotten through my whole life without an issue but reading that article - I was like "that's me exactly."

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

There are different types of dyslexia. I have no problems reading, but I transpose numbers so much that it's dangerous for me to do math without a calculator. It's not that I think math is hard - it's that I get a totally different answer due to the transpositioning. i also get rights and lefts confused. I've never been diagnosed dyslexic because I've gotten through my whole life without an issue but reading that article - I was like "that's me exactly."

You have discalculia as do I, I suppopse. It's not as well known. I used to get algebra right every time, and all te working out steps right in maths - until the final answer

Nepenthe-- I have the exact same issues. I had a math tutor as a kid who did nothing but teach me to line up my numbers and double check to make sure I had written them correctly (6's and 9's!). right/left is an issue for me, and learning choreo is challanging, but I have to say that on some level I think I take so much choreo heavy class because it keeps those particular brain muscles flexing. without it, I wonder if I'd be 10 times worse by now.

Over the years in exercise classes I have had at various times students with hearing disabilities in my classes. This helped me learn to cue with hands, eyes and other physical directional cues- that then translates into dance teaching as well.
I also find that in addition to saying "left" and "right" or "YOUR left" and "YOUR right" (if mirroring) that making a reference to a physical feature of the room (ex "turn to the stairs" or "arms to the window") helps people.

So how do you learn choreo sufficiently to get out of beginner class?

See, I dont think learning choreo should have much to do with going up in class levels. To me, this dance is about expressing the music in the moment. So..if the moves are done well, how you create the dance is up to you....

To learn choreo to get out of beginners...I did it (choreo) again and again and again (muscle memory) and took notes and eventually figured it all out. It was Amouna Fi Said -choreo by Morrocco - I'd been taught in class, but it wasn't sinking in, then we switched to another choreo, but I wanted to learn that one...so on my 2 hour breaks at a park in Claremore, I learned my first choreo well enough to do it alone.

I really had to rebuild it all in my head, get the music to make sense with the moves and get muscle memory. It was almost better that I learned it partially, because it gave me the reason to really take it all apart and put it back together in my mind - rather than relying on my teacher to spoon feed it to me or the person in front to know it so I could follow.

Then when I had to learn and learn well several dances for a longer show, I did them each once per day minimum, took notes, made up stories, and basically got in as much practice as I could. Again heavy on the muscle memory.

You can also make up stories at first to remember various parts of a choreo that are escaping you. They get pretty interesting in my class when we learn something complicated or hard to remember sequence on...'oh yes, this is the camel fart part...ok.'

Teaching the choreo to someone else is also helpful in making sure you have it straight. So if you can partner up with someone, and take turns playing teacher, maybe that would help. If you're more visual, you could draw it, or take photos and put them in sequence. Get a video of it and watch it again and again.

These days, I still rely on muscle memory for choreos. I know if I ask myself right or left, I won't be correct half the time. And as the choreographer, I always reserve the right to screw it up.

Best of luck getting out of beginners ;) I spent quite a while there myself.

KS

Oh, I love how she emphasizes that dislexia is not a disability, but a different way of processing information. mine is mild, but exploiting it, I can read equally well forwards & backwards- nice when I started learning Hebrew (and when reading my 5 year old's writing!) - With a lot of work to learn a choreo in the first place, I can pretty much reverse it whenever I want to, which is nice if we need someone to switch lines in a group number or if it needs to be adapted to a different type of space. I may not get the right side the first time I am shown something, but I can switch sides with relative ease once I do get it. honestly, the weirdest manifestation is when I am typing and get my hands switched (so I'm typing "k" instead of "d" in random places....)

my trick for distinguishing right & left in class? I try not to use it. I either label walls of the classroom north, south, east, west, or I use colors which I post on the walls (depends on the venue since I teach at 3 different studios) saying 'travel north' or just 'green' eliminates the "my left or your left" issue or explaining stage left issues. it is a definite place you can aim at. for some reason it is easier for me to think of the audience as always north (regardless of actual venue orientation) than trying to think left/right. besides, when using my shorthand names when calling out a choreo combined with my color directions, it makes for much amusement... "red, lift, step, lift, turn green fish, fish..."

I am thinking of getting tatoos on the tops of my hands and feet. L and R

Originally Posted by anala

See, I dont think learning choreo should have much to do with going up in class levels. To me, this dance is about expressing the music in the moment. So..if the moves are done well, how you create the dance is up to you....

Yeah If I could dance improv that would be great. I have been told by dancers I respect out of town that I am a capable dancer.

In my class, I am told you can't move up, you can't do x, y or z. But moving up is just more complicated choreos taught faster. We have not put moves to music, except when asked to bring in a short choreo just for demonstration. My brain froze and I couldn't do it. (I have issues of confidence with this teacher - and never having been asked to do anything for myself in 3 years dancing - then suddenly asked to choreo!!).

Originally Posted by anala

See, I dont think learning choreo should have much to do with going up in class levels. To me, this dance is about expressing the music in the moment. So..if the moves are done well, how you create the dance is up to you....

I guess it depends if the teacher in question uses choreo as her method for the next level. As all the class would be doing choreo with one student 'creating her own dance'. Fine if there is a higher level class that doesn't do choreo.

For me, I can't remember choreography. At all.

I have located a new part in my brain that I am able to relate the music directly to the choreo. It's like the music is my crib sheet. When teaching choreo, I can't remember it, unless I pay the part of music that the part of choreo is danced to and then its as obvious to me a tasting chocolate with my eyes closed and knowing that the word for that is 'chocolate'.

I have a method whereby I help my students to learn choreo this way, relating it directly to the music. It's absolute magic, and I wish I'd started off this way instead of the years of heartache associated with thinking I could never do choreo.

Vulcan mind meld...please!

Is it anything you could share?

Originally Posted by Bellydancingcaroline

I have located a new part in my brain that I am able to relate the music directly to the choreo. It's like the music is my crib sheet. When teaching choreo, I can't remember it, unless I pay the part of music that the part of choreo is danced to and then its as obvious to me a tasting chocolate with my eyes closed and knowing that the word for that is 'chocolate'.

I have a method whereby I help my students to learn choreo this way, relating it directly to the music. It's absolute magic, and I wish I'd started off this way instead of the years of heartache associated with thinking I could never do choreo.

That's exactly how I do it. If the choreography doesn't go well with the music, or if the music is very "plain" and doesn't change, I have much more trouble. What I don't do is count. I know some people need to count -for me, I easily lose count, skip numbers, etc (must be more dyscalculia). I tend to associate the movement with the sound. It's the only way it's ever worked for me, so I wouldn't have thought to share it. I'm glad you did because other people might benefit from it.

Originally Posted by anala

I am thinking of getting tatoos on the tops of my hands and feet. L and R

I totally use my arm tattoos to distinguish R and L, especially for turns--"turn over your right shoulder" never makes any sense to me *at all* in the moment, but if I can get myself to think "keep the ferret tattoo on the inside of the turn" that makes immediate and practical sense. (and for L, it would be armband :-)

Choreo has always been terribly difficult for me but I made myself work at it--I was a member of a troupe and I didn't want to embarrass my troupemates or instructor--and as a result I strangely have a reputation now for being good at remembering choreography. And I would say it is true that once I've got it, I've really got it, it's that muscle memory and music direction others have mentioned. But the getting there can take a while, and if I stop to think along the way, I'm sunk!

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

That's exactly how I do it. If the choreography doesn't go well with the music, or if the music is very "plain" and doesn't change, I have much more trouble. What I don't do is count. I know some people need to count -for me, I easily lose count, skip numbers, etc (must be more dyscalculia). I tend to associate the movement with the sound. It's the only way it's ever worked for me, so I wouldn't have thought to share it. I'm glad you did because other people might benefit from it.

That's how I work too, but for me, the count matters. I'm not thinking "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8", but if we're dancing to an 8-count phrase and the combo is in 12, I'm completely lost.

But I like to think that's a good thing. What we're doing is supposed to reflect the music, right?

Originally Posted by s1dur1_sab1tu

These days, I still rely on muscle memory for choreos.

I'd say that that's an advantage. If you put the combos & transitions in muscle memory, (rather than relying on mental choreography notes), they come to you more easily when you improv.