Information Overload
by Mary Serico
I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather and all the springtime activities it brings. We have been planning our garden for the last few months and are itching to start planting. But, I need to have some patience which is not always easy for me.
I have the same problem with dance. I expect to be able to dance the new steps correctly, if not perfectly the first time, and we all know how badly that can go. At the same time, I need to keep information overload to a minimum to get my feet and body to cooperate. For me, it is a delicate balance between the two that I need to maintain during my lessons and practice at home. (I talk about how I practice in another of my blogs — you can read it here.) I partially solved this problem by asking Georgi to only give me three things to work on at a time. I know that is difficult when the list is long. The problem is, he rarely gives me only three things to work at a time. They’re usually double that. Sometimes I bribe him with chocolate so he can be more mellow with his teaching suggestions. It works (most of the time.) lol
I will be dancing two showcases at Dance A Lot’s Annual Showcase “Dancing Stars” on June 9th and am trying not to confuse one with the other. I don’t know how Adi and Georgi can remember the choreography for all of their dances — that would be total information meltdown for me. Quite a few times during my lesson or practice, steps from my previous showcases sneak into the showcase I’m currently working on, with some I can say interesting results. There are other times when my brain goes blue screen. :D Since I am dancing one of the shows with my dance teacher Georgi and the other one with him and my husband Joe, I need to work on the subtleties of the lead which is more information to process while remembering the specific steps. Here’s a sneakpeak of the showcase I’m doing with my husband. It’s really funny:
Lastly, I need to congratulate Anthony and Deanna on winning first place in the Youth Rhythm Pre-championship at the Nationals in Utah. I was watching the competition, (thanks Adi for posting) and the floor was filled with dancers that are doing their own routine going in unknown directions. I wonder how much information overload they were experiencing during the competition — I guess practice and patience can override information overload. Time for me to practice some patience.
About Mary: Mary has been dancing since 2006. She loves dancing Cha Cha, Rumba, and Swing, but her favorite thing is to do showcases. With her husband Joe, they spend their time enjoying the retired life at the Jersey shore, golfing, traveling, and attending rock concerts.
