Dance and Muscle Memory: how it works and help to ace your performance

It is always said that practice makes man perfect. I don’t know about perfection but it definitely makes progress. It develops muscle memory and helps you to remember your skill and performance for a long duration. So, this blog will help you to know more about muscle memory and tips on how to develop this as a practice and perform as a skill.

Muscle Memory

My guru always says that practice in your dance class as if you are performing on stage. So, that, you will perform at ease on stage as if you are practising in your dance class. I’m always fascinated by her words. If you perform with that perfection and precision during rehearsals your performance skill and your style will definitely improve. When I started reading more about dance and muscle memory where repetition will help you to develop better performance and your motor skills of learning will improve day by day. 

So, without further ado, let us now dive into what muscle memory actually is and how it is related to dance.

What is Muscle Memory?

Muscle memory is nothing but the ability to reproduce a dance movement without consciousness. It is acquired as a result of frequent repetition of dance steps or movement and can potentially last forever. 

Which means if you keep on practising over and over you will  definitely convert any art into a skill.

Understand the Neuroscience 

There is a myth that muscle memory is developed by muscle. Actually it is operated by our brain.We don’t want to go deep in the neurology of our body. However, here I have explained briefly how muscle memory works.

 Our skeletal muscles are controlled by our Central Nervous System. The main area that involves motor learning and memory is the cerebellum of the brain. The basal ganglia also plays a vital role in memory and learning. 

Here, the brain encodes information and records whether the movements done are correct or not. So, our performance precision is stored and unnecessary movements are deleted.

Performing actions repeatedly helps to activate the neurons in certain parts of the brain ( cerebellum and basal ganglia).This ultimately creates a neural pathway between the Central Nervous system and your target muscles you are moving.

So, when you are practising over and over your brain has stored all the movements and you don;t need to consciously remember each and every movement while performing.

Tips to build Muscle memory

Now you have understood how the human brain works while you are performing, so let us help your body and brain to store all the dance movements. So, here are the tips on how to do it.

1. Take slow speed at first. Allow your brain to understand the basics of every movement. 
2. Observe carefully. Along with muscle memory, our visual memory also catalyse in performance.
3. Muscle memory is difficult to reverse. So, always work on precision. 
4. Practice with the trainer and observe minute things very carefully.
5. Repeat the movement with the slowest possible speed and then gradually double the speed. This practice will not only help to build muscle memory but also add perfection.
6. Work on your mistakes. 
7. And last of all, be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day. So, building muscle memory with regular and consistent practice will help you to grow as a performer and develop art as a skill.