Hey, I’m Taylor Scanlan—a Musical Theatre performer with over 10 years of experience, and the creator of The Aligned Performer, a community-led business dedicated to helping emerging artists like you step into the industry with confidence and clarity.
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🎤 Industry Expert Interviews: On alternate weeks, I sit down with seasoned professionals who share their journeys, actionable advice, and what they’ve learned about thriving in this industry.
If you’re ready to build confidence, master your mindset, and create a sustainable, fulfilling career in the arts, you’re in the right place.
30: How To Pick Up Choreography Faster with Taylor Scanlan
•Taylor Scanlan•Season 2•Episode 30
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Welcome back to another episode! Today, we're diving into how to pick up choreography faster, especially during auditions and classes. Whether you're new to dance or looking to sharpen your skills, this episode provides practical steps to boost your confidence and clarity. Thank you for being part of this amazing community!
Highlights:
Personal Story: Insights from my own experiences with picking up choreography and overcoming challenges.
Mental Preparation: Strategies for boosting confidence and staying positive before auditions.
Physical Preparation: Importance of warming up and getting your body ready for the demands of auditions.
Observation Skills: How to keenly observe choreographers to capture style and nuances.
Patterns and Sections: Breaking down choreography into manageable chunks for better retention.
Awareness: Techniques for staying present and aware during auditions to enhance performance.
Reflection: The power of reflecting on your audition experiences to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
Feedback and Follow-Up: Importance of seeking feedback and how to use it constructively.
What to Expect:
Part 1: Preparation:
Mental Preparation: Techniques for boosting your mindset and confidence.
Physical Preparation: Effective warm-up routines to prepare your body for auditions.
Part 2: Performance:
Observation: Tips on how to watch and learn from the choreographer.
Patterns and Sections: Methods for breaking down choreography into sections to make learning easier.
Awareness: Importance of staying present and breathing techniques to enhance focus.
Part 3: Reflection:
Self-Review: How to reflect on your performance to identify what went well and what to improve.
Feedback and Follow-Up: Tips on asking for and utilizing feedback to grow as a dancer.
By the end of this episode, you'll have actionable steps to help you pick up choreography faster, ensuring you walk into auditions and classes more confidently and clearly. Enjoy the episode and thank you for tuning in!
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Hello and welcome back to another episode. I'm so keen to talk on today's topic, which is all about how to pick up choreography faster, specifically with auditions and class. I know it can be tough, particularly if you're maybe starting dance later in the game. You can feel maybe left behind. I know really going into it already a few steps back. So after this episode, I hope to give you practical steps that you can actually utilize and use to go ahead and go into the audition or even a class with a bit more clarity and confidence, knowing that you can pick up the choreography a lot faster. So, as always, thank you so much for being here. This community is so awesome.
Speaker 1:
I'm definitely biased, but in the previous few days, even of recording this, I have been speaking to a lot of you on here and if you're new to the podcast, welcome in, welcome, welcome, welcome. I love connecting with students and anyone that listens in onto the podcast, because I really just honestly have loved connecting with you and bringing the community together. I think it's super important and not to get deep, but not only as like a human race, but also just as a community within the arts. I think there is that gap that we are not talking about the things we're struggling with, we're not connecting in a way that can benefit us all. So that is what we are all about within the dive and I'm so excited that you're here. So I wanted to start off with a bit of a personal story, coming to picking up choreography. If I'm looking back, I was always able to pick up choreography fast in a way, I guess. But I do remember, and still to this day, when I'm going into a specifically challenging class, and maybe it's not even about the technique of the class or the audition itself. It's got more to do with the intricacies of the routine itself. So maybe you can agree with me or, if you've felt this way before, comment and definitely share your thoughts on this.
Speaker 1:
But to me it's as though our brains are kind of like hard drives. You know when you're like on your phone and you go to record something, or you go to take a photo or whatever, and then a thing comes up, or a notification comes up and says you've run out of storage. Now that's how it feels sometimes, right, when we're in auditions. It gets to a point you're nailing it. You're like, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. And then there's some point within the class that it gets to it and I'm like, oh, I've checked out, it's all done, like I'm at capacity. So I know for a lot of people and friends, and if you're a performer, this is so true for you, and if that hasn't happened to you, well, amazing, please teach me your ways. Amazing, please teach me your ways.
Speaker 1:
But a lot of the time we get to that point where we are full, like the hard drive's full, we need to delete some files. It's as though that we need to almost drain or let go of a few files or store them somewhere else so that we can create more space for us to keep learning the choreography, stay focused and perform at our peak. So today we're going to be talking about how to exactly do that, because, of course, okay, it's very fair to go and say that, okay, let's delete some files, but maybe we need those files. So let's talk about it. We're going to go into mindset, we're going to go into practical, physical steps that you can take and steps that you can take right after this call. So let's get into the episode. So I'm going to be splitting up this episode into three parts. Three parts and each part is going to kind of complement the next. So if you're a pen and paper sort of person I definitely am I've got my pen and paper here. Take a moment, grab that out. Or, if you just want to listen along and then, you know, grab more information. I have all of it in the show notes so that you can kind of get a little bit of a list of what we speak about today.
Speaker 1:
Part one is preparation. Preparation, we know, is key, and especially when we're going to an audition and I'm going to make this more specific to auditions, because I know that there are a lot happening at the moment or maybe you're just wanting clarity right now You're about to go into an audition congrats and you just want to be able to pick it up faster. So the first thing we need to do is preparation. Preparation is always split into two parts, so the first part is mental and then the second part is physical. So when we're looking at the first part of part one, which is the preparation, the mental preparation going into it is so crucial have a look at yourself and just notice, when you're coming up to an audition, what's happening in your mind. Are you taking yourself out of the game. Are you going? Yes, we're about to kill this. We're going to do the best that we can.
Speaker 1:
Nine times out of 10, unfortunately a lot of artists we feel self-doubt. We don't know how well we're going to do in the audition and we, a lot of the time, take ourselves out of the game before we even get in there. Why this happens is because, mentally, maybe you've had a bad experience in the past that you haven't been able to pick up choreography, and so your body and your brain is simply looking to protect you. It's looking to go. Okay, don't do that again, because you may feel this way and just know that this is so normal.
Speaker 1:
And how we get to move through it is by taking a mental note of what's happened in the past and just starting to see things as a fresh start. For example, if you go into an audition, know that you can ask for feedback. If you're someone that doesn't know this, you can actually ask for feedback. Get your agent to ask feedback after the audition so that you get quality, almost like objective feedback, because the feedback where we give ourselves right is always like it was terrible or we just focus on the negative. So get the feedback and then what you're going to do is you're going to start to implement some action steps on how to improve that section of yourself that needed a bit of improvement. It could have been the dancing, singing, acting so that's one thing you can do, but with our mental preparation it's all about.
Speaker 1:
Okay, how are we living a life, or are we living in a place where we can mentally feel I don't want to say ready, because I feel like auditions are just crazy in themselves and you can never feel ready but just writing out or taking a few moments before going in to mentally put yourself in that position of all right, I'm going to do my best, I'm going to have fun, and something that I do for this mentally that really helps me are affirmations like literally just saying in your mind the best case scenario, because we're either going to be doing both and you have a choice to do both. You can choose. On the way to audition, you know, talk yourself out of it. This is going to be terrible. Oh, I remember that last time that happened and this is probably going to happen again. You're actually choosing to think those thoughts, and so one thing you can do is just start to do the other and you don't need to do many. Just get yourself in a place of I can do this, or it could be that I'm just going to give it my best shot and show my best self.
Speaker 1:
And actually how you get better at talking to yourself like that is by showing up in your day-to-day life. See, sometimes and you may, if I'm calling you out, this was definitely me not long ago that we get to our auditions and we mentally psych ourselves out because we actually haven't been doing the work we haven't been showing up in dance class. So, of course, when you get to the audition and you haven't been working on your dance skills, you're going to be nervous about your dance skills. I don't know how it sounds so simple, but it's true. So maybe having a look at that, what ways can you preempt or help yourself in advance?
Speaker 1:
If you know you're not going to be good at picking up choreography and you're not going to dance class and trying out beginner classes or other sort of classes that are in a low stakes environment for you to learn how your brain works? It's going to be so much more highlighted when you get into a full audition with pros that are pro dancers and it's just going to reflect basically badly on you and kind of, you'll just end up going into a little bit of a cycle mentally. So that's the first one. We need to mentally bring ourselves into a preparation that is, preparing us to take on board not only the information that we get into the audition but also mentally support us, no matter the result that comes out of it.
Speaker 1:
The second thing that we can do is our physical preparation. So, oh my gosh, the amount of times I've gone into an audition and physically done oh yeah, there's a few little stretches and then got in and it was a full on dance round and even though I consider myself a strong dancer, like I could barely get through because I just wasn't warm, I wasn't bringing my body to a level that was at least halfway to what will be in the room. An example of this is crucial of any time that you've gone and done a show right. Or even in my own experience, when I'm doing eight shows a week, I've always felt so much better if, by the time that the show has started, I've at least moved my body to about 70 to 80% of the capacity of what the show is going to do. And I know that for a lot of us, you may be hearing this and you're like, oh, come on, I'm not going to be doing that every single day. But maybe it's not that, maybe it's 50%, maybe it's 40%, definitely just something. This can be a walk, this can be a little jog, a run, a yoga class, a Pilates, like something that's more low impact, and what you will find this actually does to your body.
Speaker 1:
I like to think of our bodies or, in our terms, of our performance, on a scale from 1 to 10. We've got to get this body in the mind from a 1 to a 10, to perform either each night or even into an audition. So, coming back to that audition, if you know that it's going to be particularly a strong dance round, it's so much better to get up in the morning. Do something that at least moves your body, to bring yourself, instead of going from a zero to then all of a sudden doing a 10 plus in an audition room. It's really hard to sustain that. So get your body moving beforehand. Get it to at least 50 or into a place where you feel like, okay, my body has moved, it's ready and it's not only going to help you perform well, but your body's going to be able to retain choreography a lot faster because it's not focusing on oh my gosh, I'm just trying to warm up as I'm learning the choreography, yes, so let's take a little breath there, because there was a lot of just information. So just take a moment, breathing in, breathing out, great, amazing. So that's the first part.
Speaker 1:
First part mentally prepare ourselves and physically prepare ourselves. One little note on that is auditions are tough. They're tough A lot of the time. You just can't get much experience unless you're just there in the room, right? So, doing all the things that we're speaking about today, or at least starting to I'm always a big believer in don't take my word if it doesn't ring true to you. Just take what you need from all the episodes and all the content we share in the dive and test it out. Try it on for size, I like to say so.
Speaker 1:
Part two is the performance. So we're there, we have mentally prepared ourselves and we have physically prepared ourselves, and now it's all about actually performing. So in part two, which is the performance aspect, I break it down into three sections. So the first one is observation. It's really, really crucial, as you're learning to pick up choreography faster, to really just watch the choreographer there are so many little things of the style, how their body moves, and seeing how you can translate that, because that's essentially what is most important. How can you move in a way that is in alignment with what the choreographer is looking for? And this is beyond the technique. If it is specific ballet dance technique, great, but a lot of the time it's this style, it's the character behind what is actually coming forward.
Speaker 1:
So by being really observant of what they're saying and this could be about the rhythm, it could be about the timing really just zoning in on them, blocking everyone or at least moving everyone else out of your peripherals, if that means coming to the front. And just, you know, I remember one. Even a class I did, I think it was Sophie Holloway's, when she was back here teaching in Melbourne. I hadn't done a class in forever, and so when we got to actually learning the routine, I was like I need to be at the front, because if I'm at the back I'm just going to completely lose the choreography. I need to be like right there. So maybe that's something that you can do. So observe, which is the first one really look at what they're saying. Not only what they're saying, but how they're moving and the character that they're wanting you to bring across.
Speaker 1:
The second thing of part two is patterns and sections. This is probably the number one tip I always give out, because it's always been something that has helped me and that can be verbally, the lyrics, the rhythm and visual. So what I mean by that is, when you're picking up choreography, you need to start thinking of it into sections, because it can be so overwhelming if you're looking at a count of eight as eight different sections. Instead, find ways and you can do this with, for example, verbal. If there's lyrics involved, you can use that as a section. It could be that verse one of that lyric is to that specific section. In your mind, it could be with the rhythm. You know is one little section. So instead of thinking as, yeah, like seven or eight counts, whatever that was is as all separate sections in themselves, by the time you do four counts of eight, your brain is just going to already feel like it's at that capacity again. By blocking things out and finding patterns in the choreography itself, you're going to be able to minimize, or it's almost like you're putting each section into separate folders so that you can easily understand each section. How else can I help you with this? You can also do this visually.
Speaker 1:
I'm a highly visual person when I'm learning, so this could be, I mean, generally in a dance call they're looking for technique, style, and maybe that's all together in one, or it could be in different sections. Like, okay, is this section asking for more style? Is that section asking for more technique? So you can block things off in that way. It's really going to be a try yourself and please give it a go and find if that is helpful for you. I find it so much helpful because it really brings that overwhelming feeling that you're probably feeling down a little bit. It brings that gigabytes full of capacity down a little bit because you're actually sectioning things off and you're basically deleting all the things that probably don't matter If your head was forward or side, you know, really don't focus too much on super detailed things. Just focus on the character you're bringing to it and really trying to convey what they're presenting and how that works in your body.
Speaker 1:
One of the most big or one mistake that many performers make and even when I was first starting out is I was trying to be a carbon copy of what they're looking for, and then I didn't add myself to it. So I learned that very, very straight away and so as soon as that didn't work, I was like, oh, that automatically feels inauthentic to you, right? So what I mean by that is look at what they're trying to give you, take it on board and then make it your own. We do this a lot when we teach, so a lot of teachers give this out in class and this isn't to scare you. This isn't to do anything other than really connect with you and see like, okay, where is the personality, where is the human behind all of these dance steps?
Speaker 1:
The third section of part two is awareness. Have you ever felt a moment in your audition, and specifically dance audition, where you've gone in and you've come out and it's just been like how it all went was just a blackout. You don't remember a single thing, you don't know who was there, which way you were facing, maybe even what you were wearing, and then you're home and you're like what just happened. Don't worry, sometimes I do contracts, like for a few years, and I get home after and I'm like what just happened. So adding in awareness is just going to help you magically. This section is really important, and it's important because, by adding awareness, you're not only able to slow down your body's ability to process the information coming in, but you're going to be more aware to your surroundings. And this is really important, especially when you're going down to groups, because you want to stay in that formation and yeah, just opening the awareness.
Speaker 1:
So how do we do this? Number one is really focus on your breath. Is it short and sharp or is it long and smooth? Nine times out of 10, it's not going to be long and smooth, because you're probably nervous as hell. So how do we do this If you are doing a dance school and you don't need to sing a really high? Key tip that I want you to start to implement that is going to change the game for you is breathing through your nose, and I know a lot of you. Maybe I lost you already just on that, but I have started to implement this in the past few years and it is a game changer.
Speaker 1:
Our nose is designed to breathe. Our mouth isn't actually designed to breathe. Our mouth is designed for eating and our nose is actually designed to breathe and humidify the air that's coming in and regulates how much air that comes in as well. When we are just breathing in and out through the mouth. It can't humidify, it can't filter anything that's coming in and out. And there was actually a science test maybe I can add it in the show notes below that I was actually I think it was in a book that I read and basically what they did they hooked up two football teams to technology where they could monitor their performance and they made one group basically perform and just breathe through their mouth and then the other was just to breathe through their nose, and the information and the results that came back was the people that actually breathe through their nose massively were able to endure like so a lot more or a big amount of time than the people that were breathing through their mouth. When they looked at the results from the mouth breathers in performance, they found that they actually didn't perform nearly as well and they were exhausted a lot, lot faster.
Speaker 1:
So there you go, a little bit of science to the dive. There you go Again. Try this on for you. It can be a big adjust if you're not used to doing that and maybe if you have complications with breathing in and out your nose. Just give it a try and see how you go, try it in class and, of course, if you feel like you're out of breath and you need to take a breath in your mouth, try that too. Be careful. I'm not a doctor, but it's definitely helped me and it's also going to just having that awareness of I'm breathing, taking a few mindful breaths in and out my nose I did this previously in an audition. You're bringing awareness to your body and by doing that you're taking yourself out of your head and more into the space and the surroundings that you have.
Speaker 1:
The final part of part three is about reflection, and if a lot of you are going to tune out straight, as you hear that, I want you to know you're missing out on the most important part of the whole process Reflection. I talk about this a lot in the programs that I've been starting to launch with the dive and some of the coaching that we've been doing, but reflection is honestly your gift. It's like something, your magic wand to not only progressing in the industry but also just sustaining a long and healthy career. So when we are talking about reflection, I'm going to split this up into two sections. The first one is about reviewing yourself and reflecting yourself. This can just be taking a moment.
Speaker 1:
A previous audition I did. I, instead of just getting into an Uber or getting straight onto a train, I actually walked home a little bit, not for long because I was like tired, but I just took a walk I made, allowed my body to just regulate down and let the audition go. And as I was doing that, in the walk I was listening to just calm music and just reflecting. You know what went well, what could I work on. Next time, if you want to go one step further, you could then sit down and actually write, or you can talk to the camera or do a little voice note of the whole experience. You will be shocked. You will be shocked at what comes up when you do this. And please let me know when you do it, what comes up for you. Because when I've started to do this previously, in all the auditions I've done, I've actually been able to notice a lot more of what's gone well and I've been able to work clearly on what went wrong or how to navigate it moving forward. The biggest mistake you can possibly do when you go into a dance audition is leave it and never think about it again. You need to be reflecting on how you went. Ask for feedback so that you can go ahead into your next auditions with a bit more clarity, knowing the steps that you need to take to go forward.
Speaker 1:
The second part of the final part of three is feedback and following up. I just mentioned a little bit, then, but know that you can ask your agent to ask for feedback on how you went. It shocks me that a lot of people don't actually know that you can do this, and it's definitely something your agent should be able to do for you. The company may not get back to you. It may be a few weeks. Know that they're casting a major show or they've got things to do, but please know that that's accessible and nine times out of 10, in my experience they will give you the feedback and utilize that feedback to then progress.
Speaker 1:
Take action steps. Don't hyper focus. If you felt like you did not well in your singing audition and they said you were great, don't go ahead and do like 20 singing auditions. If they said oh, we just wanted the person to be more of themselves in dancing, go book more dance classes. Really listen to the people that are essentially there to cast you. They have seen so many people. They know what works, they know what doesn't. They're there for a reason, so utilize them in the best way possible.
Speaker 1:
I hope this has been a wonderful podcast episode for you. If you are someone that has had experience with that doubt and just really not understanding how to pick up choreography faster, you can use this three-part system to really check in on yourself and start to not only prepare we talked about how to prepare mentally and physically to make you prepared for the actual work. And then we went into performance making sure that we are being a keen observer, that we're putting into sections of patterns and sections and blocking things out to diminish the overwhelm of what we're learning. Then we went into bringing a bit more awareness so that you can be a little bit more in your body and aware of the space around you. And then, to finish off, we were talking about reflection, taking a moment for yourself, maybe going for a walk, taking a moment to journal, and then also ask for feedback. Ask for feedback and then take action steps to move forward so that when you go into the next audition you're not the same. You've been working on steps to move forward.
Speaker 1:
So, as always, if you've loved this episode, please comment in, email us at info at the divecomau, and I can't wait to see you on future episodes.
Speaker 1:
I love connecting with you as community, so always reach out, comment on our posts on our socials and, if you're not already, we have a free Facebook group that you can be a part of. Look in the show notes below, as I run weekly questions on there. There's about a hundred or so, at the time of filming this students on there, and it's a really cool community to be a part of. It's free and if you haven't looked at other episodes of the podcast, you can go ahead right now and be sure to look at the resources and the tools that we have on our website at thedivecomau. Check out our website, as we have a bunch of free resources for you to check out, tools that you can download for free to really help you take your not only your auditions, but your career to the next level. I hope you have a wonderful day. My name's Taylor and I'll see you on the next episode.
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