7 Strategies for Remembering Choreography as an Adult Ballet Dancer

If you’re an adult dancer you probably know this feeling: The teacher gives the combination once, maybe twice if you're lucky, and then the music starts. And somewhere around count five, your brain goes completely blank.

I know this feeling very well. 😳

And while it's easy to file this kind of experience under "some people just have a good memory and some people don't," that's not entirely true...

It's a Muscle

Here's some REALLY good news: the ability to memorize choreography is absolutely an improvable skill, and research backs this up. It works a lot like a muscle — not fixed, but something you can actually train and strengthen with use, the same way you build strength or flexibility in your body.

Here's what I really want you to know:

Not a life sentence. Just a starting point. You CAN get better at it.

So let's get into some specific strategies and tips you can use in your very next class to start moving the needle. (You can also listen to them in the podcast episode below!)

1. Simplify first, add detail second

The first strategy is to simplify the combination. This one is especially helpful if you're newer to ballet: it's not about being behind, or not being capable of handling a full combination. It's about giving your brain a more reasonable job while you're still building the base layer of your training. When you don't yet have that automatic muscle memory to lean on for basic technique and coordination, everything about a combination is new information hitting all at once, so simplifying isn't cutting a corner or cheating. It's letting your brain focus on memorizing ONE thing instead of splitting it across two or three. My recommendation, specifically at barre, is to make that one thing the legs. As the teacher is giving the combination, lock in on what the legs are doing and don't worry about the arms and head.

And honestly, this strategy can be really helpful no matter how long you've been dancing, if you're moving up a level or taking class with a teacher whose style you're not familiar with. Just the other week I took a more advanced class, and when a combination overwhelmed me and I felt like I couldn't hold it all in my brain, I just stripped it down to memorizing the legs and keeping my arm in a la second and my head forward. Doing this allows your nervous system to relax a little so your brain can grab onto one thing instead of feeling completely overwhelmed and getting nothing. You might even find that as you progress in your training, you only have to simplify on the first side, and once your brain is more familiar with the choreography, you can add the arms and epaulement on the other side.

Remember, this is a temporary strategy, not a forever strategy. Once you're consistently able to remember the choreography for your legs, start incorporating the arms and epaulement. But trying to memorize all of it at once, right out of the gate, is usually a recipe for remembering none of it. Simplify first. Add the layers as your ability to memorize improves.

2. Find your "danger count"

This next strategy is one I use in every single class, and I'm so thankful to the teacher who gave it to me.

Almost every combination has a place where things have the most potential to fall apart. The rest of the combination will probably take care of itself, because it's following a pattern your body already understands. But then there's a count where something breaks the pattern — the working leg switches when you didn't expect it to, there's a hold where your instinct says to keep moving, the direction changes, you get the idea.

So here's the tip: when the teacher is giving the combination, specifically identify the count that's probably going to trip you up, and fixate on remembering that count. Say to yourself: "the leg changes on five," or "hold on seven." Give your brain a specific direction for the part that's going to be the problem. Because here's the thing — if you're comfortable with the pattern, you really only need to remember where it breaks in order to retain the whole combination. You don't need to hold 32 or 64 counts of equal information in your head. You need to remember: "it's basically all the same pattern, except right here, THIS is where it's different."

That's a much smaller, much more manageable task for your brain. And it means when you get to that count, you're not caught off guard, you were expecting it, and your brain will stay locked in on what comes next instead of panicking and blanking out.

3. If you're an auditory learner, use the music

Not everyone processes information the same way, and if you're someone who retains information better by hearing than seeing, this one's for you.

Instead of trying to remember the combination purely visually while watching your teacher demonstrate, try remembering it musically. Turn the counts into a little rhythm or a little melody in your head. This works out really conveniently because a lot of teachers already talk about combinations this way. You'll hear things like "and one, and two, threeeee, four" ( for jeté, jeté, plié), and that phrasing isn't just filler, it's actually musical information about the combination. If you're an auditory learner, listen to how your teacher counts it out loud, because they're often handing you the memory tool.

So if focusing only on watching the combination isn't clicking for you, count it in a rhythm that reflects the steps, not just flat numbers. Your brain might remember that much more easily.

4. Quiz yourself instead of zoning out

For this next strategy, think about what usually happens in those little gaps in class, when the teacher's adjusting the music, or resetting the group, or explaining something to someone else for a second. What do you do in that window?

Let's be honest. A lot of us check out. We stretch, we think about dinner plans, we mentally drift off, and then the music starts up and we're scrambling.

So here's the tip: use that window to quiz yourself. Close your eyes for a second if you need to, and run the combination in your head. See if you actually have it, rather than just hoping you do and banking on the person in front of you.

There's great research behind why this specific habit is so effective for improving our memorization. It's called the testing effect, or retrieval practice: the idea that actively pulling information out of your memory builds a stronger, longer-lasting memory. This finding goes back to work by two researchers named Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke, and it's been replicated over the years. The main takeaway is that people who actively test themselves on something remember it significantly better later than people who don't. Which means you have A LOT of power over your ability to retain combinations.

So in your next class, make it a goal to use those small breaks between combinations to quiz yourself instead of spacing out. It's truly one of the most effective things you can do with those thirty seconds. This strategy has been a game-changer for me, and I'm betting it will help you too.

5. In center, think "working leg," not right and left

This next strategy is changing how I retain center combinations specifically, and I wish I'd started relying on it sooner.

When you're learning a combination in center, a lot of us default to thinking about everything in terms of right and left: "right leg does this, now left leg does this." And that takes a lot of mental effort, especially when we switch sides, because then we have to invert everything, and what was right becomes left, and vice versa.

So instead, try thinking in terms of your working leg. Usually on the first side that will be the right leg, then on the second side the left leg. So instead of trying to remember "right leg tendu front, then glissade right," think "working leg tendu front, then glissade toward the working leg." In my experience, it's so much easier to remember the choreography when I take right and left out of it and instead focus on the working leg.

It might take a little getting used to, but it's worth building the habit because it really does simplify what you're trying to remember. And when you switch sides, it stops being a jumble of rights and lefts and becomes the same combination with a different working leg.

6. Replay or write it down after class

This next strategy is for after class, but it's great for improving memory over time.

See if you can replay the combinations in your head on the drive home, or, even better, try writing them down later in the day. What were the steps, what were the counts, and maybe even the song that you did the combination to.

This does two things. It's another round of that active retrieval we talked about earlier, spaced out after class, which is exactly the kind of practice that strengthens memory long-term. And writing it down specifically adds even more: brain-imaging research shows handwriting activates the motor and visual parts of your brain together, syncing with the regions that form memories. Because it's slower than just running the combination through your head, you can't get away with a fuzzy, general sense of it, you have to actually pin down the specifics, step by step, in your own words. That extra effort is what makes it stick. It's your brain's plasticity at work, literally building stronger connections, that same muscle idea from earlier.

You don't have to do this after every single class. But even doing it occasionally, especially after a class where something felt hard to retain, is worth the five minutes it takes for long-term improvement.

7. Challenge yourself at home

This next one is a little bit uncomfortable, but that's kind of the point.

Try doing a YouTube ballet class at home where you don't let yourself watch the screen while you're actually doing the combination. Watch it, or listen to it, while the teacher demonstrates, and then turn away and see how far you can get on memory alone.

Here's what I've found, and what I think a lot of you will find if you actually try this: we're capable of remembering a lot more than we give ourselves credit for. So much of what feels like "I can't remember choreography" is actually "I don't trust myself to remember choreography," and those are two very different problems. The first one requires work. The second one just requires evidence, you just need to prove to yourself that your memory is in fact trustworthy. And testing yourself like this, at home, low stakes, nobody watching, that's how you start training your focus and trusting yourself.

It might be a little rough at first, because following other people is a hard habit to break, and you might only be able to remember part of the choreography, but if you don't give up you will get better, and you'll start to improve your ability to lock in and remember when you know you can't rely on someone else.

BONUS! (If you perform, this is for you..)

Everything we've talked about so far has been about remembering choreography in the environment of a ballet class. But if you perform, you know that remembering choreography under those conditions is a completely different animal. There's no mirror to rely on, there might be lights in your eyes, there's an audience, and there's adrenaline.

So here's the bonus strategy: take the variation or choreography you're preparing to perform and, once you know it well, run through it with some kind of distraction happening. Turn the TV on in the background, run through it while a family member talks on the phone, anything that pulls at your focus a little. The point isn't to learn something new this way, this is specifically for a piece you've already memorized, but you're testing your ability to recall that information while your brain fields distractions, which is exactly what happens during a performance.

This one's got a name too: pressure training, or stress exposure training, and it's used with athletes preparing for competition. The key finding is that practicing a skill under simulated pressure builds resilience for performing under pressure, including your ability to keep accessing what you've memorized. Deliberately rehearsing your variation with some noise or distraction thrown in builds specific resilience for the one thing every performer fears: your mind going completely blank onstage. 😳

So if performing is part of your ballet life, don't just rehearse your variation. Train your brain to recall the choreo, regardless of what's happening around you.

The takeaway

All of this comes back to the muscle idea from the start. Memorizing choreography isn't a trait you're stuck with, it's a skill that responds to deliberate, specific practice. If you're someone who currently feels like you're just bad at it, that's not the end of the story. It just means the training hasn't started yet.

If you try one of these in your next class, let me know how it goes! You can drop me a line here. ☺️

xx, Hannah