Using technology to motivate a smoother and higher achieving learning process.

Okay, here we go, my first blog post ever!

About a month ago I started setting my most recent work-in-progress on three dancers for the upcoming NYU MA Concert this November. When working out the rehearsal schedule I wanted to allow for enough time so the piece would come out the way I envision it, but I also had to consider all of our busy schedules, so I decided one rehearsal a week for two hours would be sufficient. With a week lag time in between each rehearsal, however, part of me worried about whether the choreography I taught each week would get watered down or lost somewhere in the back of my dancers' brains... kind of like a game of telephone, only with a dance composition.

So I tried something I haven't done before, I videotaped the routine at the end of each rehearsal and posted it on facebook that night so my dancers would have access to it throughout the week. I know my dancers are busy people just like the rest of NYC, and I understand that with all our responsibilities, practicing a piece of choreography-- especially in NY where space is not readily available-- can drop to the bottom of one's priority list. I also know that most of us spend more time than we should in front of our computers, so by putting a video of my dancers on the web, I made it much easier for them to retain the information we'd learned from week to week.

Now here we are a little over a month into the choreographic process, and my dancers look incredible. Not only have they retained the choreography, but they are dancing with a uniform quality that one rarely sees on a group that's only been rehearsing together for a few weeks. They've told me that the video posting ritual has really helped them, not just because it helps them retain the choreography, but also because it allows them to see what they look like on camera, and in some cases, this inspires them to try harder after they see what they 'actually' look like. One of my dancers said she saw herself on tape and thought, "What? I can do better than that!"

Of course there are some limitations to watching a video of yourself dancing rather than practicing the choreography on your body. One of these drawbacks can include an accidental execution of a step with the opposite arm or leg, or maybe even traveling in the opposite direction, because you've watched yourself dance facing the camera too many times. It's amazing how the brain retains this backwards information and all of a sudden you're dancing with the wrong arm up without even realizing it, ha.

I'm definitely going to keep experimenting with using video technology to motivate my dancers and students, both when setting choreography and also, in the future, with teaching dance technique. I had a feeling it would be helpful, but I had no idea to what extent. I'm also very happy to have found one way facebook can actually function as a beneficial use of one's time. :)