7 tips to help you pick it up and get it down: become a quick study.

Most of us encounter them at some point: counts of choreography that you can't wrap your mind around or movement combinations you can't get your body into. Your first inclination may be to panic--especially if the impenetrable steps are being taught by a choreographer with whose company you desperately want to work. But don't despair. We asked six noted performers who are now teachers how they cope in this situation. Here are their suggestions.

1 FOCUS

"Focus is essential," says Summer Lee Rhatigan, director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. "You have to be completely tuned in, and soak up everything." She remembers a class with Glen Tetley years ago where she put this heightened consciousness to use. "I still can see what he was wearing, where he was standing," she says. "Your awareness must be high enough to take a mental picture that records everything." When your concentration wanes, Rhatigan recommends refocusing by taking a second to stop and consciously look at your surroundings.

2 GO FROM GENERAL TO SPECIFIC

Anxiety about learning movement kept Sara Hook from being a quick study when she started out. "It was definitely a skill I had to sharpen," says the former soloist with Nikolais Dance Theater who is now an associate professor at University" of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She recommends learning impressionistically--getting the big picture before considering the details. "Insecurities drive dancers to want to be good at a combination before that's possible," she says. "That leads many to try to remember steps rather than to experience movement. But dance connects to the body, not the mind. You have to stay physical and learn like a bratty child, not a detail-oriented secretary."

3 DEVELOP LISTENING SKILLS

While demonstrating ballet combinations, Charles Flachs, an associate professor at Mount Holyoke College, makes liberal use of verbal instructions. "Hearing gives the students another way to get the material," he says. "Training yourself to listen to details is useful when it's hard to see the combination or when the teacher isn't demonstrating well."

4 GET INSIDE THE MOVEMENT

"Try to look with x-ray vision, so you see the skeleton working," says former Paul Taylor dancer Mary Cochran, who now chairs the Barnard College dance department. "Getting caught up in the external manifestations of the teacher can be distracting. Try to see the real mechanics and physics of the movement, not the flourishes." To get weight shifts and direction changes, Cochran finds it helps to zero in on the teacher's hips, where such movements begin.

5 UNDERSTAND YOUR LEARNING STYLE

Know how you learn best, advises Sara Rudner, dance program director at Sarah Lawrence College and former Twyla Tharp muse. In a class of 20 dancers, each one may have a different learning style. Does it help to see from a particular angle? Do you need to watch without doing first, or do you like to jump in and imitate right away? Do you need counts, or is it easier to focus on rhythm? Do you learn better on your left or your right? Do you need to ask questions, or is it more useful to try the steps on your own? "Figure out what yours is, then take control of your movement environment and get what you need," says Rudner.

6 SOMETIMES YOUR BEST BET IS TO JUST STOP

"Stand still and watch," says Sandra Neels, a former member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company who is an associate professor at Winthrop University in South Carolina. "Not as if you're watching a movie," she explains, "but as if you are doing the movement yourself." Her students have improved their turns by watching Fernando Bujones pirouette on film. "You see his coordination, his high releve and you can feel a direct muscle response in your own body," she says. "Early in my career, when I was dancing on Broadway, I noticed the people who learned movement best did not move at all when the combination was first shown. You've got to see the whole picture and hear the rhythm before you take a step."

7 DON'T GIVE UP

A quick head for combinations takes practice and persistence. "Picking up movement is like a muscle," says Victoria Marks, professor of choreography/performance at University of California, Los Angeles. "If you're studying a new technique, it'll be harder to get. The way to get better is to keep at it."

Janet Weeks is a former dancer and former editor of Dance Magazine.