Memory demystified: Dr. Ruth Day's Memory for Movement offers insight into how dancers learn and remember.

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When Ruth Day took her first ballet class, she made an observation that would change her life. Only 6 years old, she became frustrated by how long it took her classmates to learn a leap combination. After explaining the steps--which was enough for Day to remember it--the teacher told the class to envision jumping over an imaginary log. "When it was my turn, she said, 'OK Ruthie, look at the log, now leap over it,' " Day recalls. "I understood the general value of the visual image, but I didn't need it and it was getting in my way."

Years later when Day tried modern dance for the first time, she was mystified by how long it took her to learn combinations. "I was taking extra time naming the movements in my mind, then translating those names back into my body," she says. Day put her epiphany to the test by trying out tap dance. Sure enough, she excelled as a hoofer because many tap steps already have names--some even have built-in rhythm. "Flap" is often pronounced "fuh-lap," for instance.

Since 1989, Day has been exploring how dancers learn and remember movement. She has studied thousands of dancers for a project she directs at Duke University called Memory for Movement. The principles derived from her research show dancers how to improve memory and teachers how to help their students pick up combinations with greater speed and precision.

The general process of knowing--how we learn and remember--is called cognition. But, as Day experienced in her first ballet class, not everyone learns the same way. Most dancers rely on a number of different "memory cues."

These cues fall into three categories: linguistic, visual, and kinesthetic. Naming movement and counting are linguistic cues. Visual cues include watching someone perform a movement, and kinesthetic cues involve how movement feels in the body.

Through American Dance Festival, Day has gathered data drawn from laboratory experiments, surveys, class observations, and more over the last two decades. In a typical experiment, dancers are shown seven basic movements on a computer screen, then try to perform the sequence from memory. The results are taped and scored for accuracy, speed, and quality of movement. Later, the dancers indicate which memory cues they used. Usually, those who invented names for each movement remembered more easily.

When the experiment was repeated with movement names provided on a soundtrack, the results were completely different. For beginning and intermediate dancers, there was a 15- to 30-percent improvement. But for advanced dancers, there was a 15- to 30-percent decline.

There are two likely explanations for these results. One is that experienced dancers observe movement and automatically express it in their bodies. The provided names could also have interfered with the dancers' own naming systems.

Day surveys students about how often their teachers use various memory cues. Teachers are sometimes surprised by the results. "I didn't think I demonstrated the movement at all, but my students said that I do often," says Carolyn Adams, a faculty member at Juilliard.

Thanks to her students' feedback, Gerri Houlihan, professor at Florida State University, says she learns what they are honing in on. Day found her students rely most on demonstrating and naming.

While most teachers don't incorporate all three types of cues in a given class, they can try different cues if students struggle to learn a tricky combination. This can mean asking a student to demonstrate, offering sound effects, or focusing on how the movement should feel.

Students can also be proactive and learn to use more than one type of memory cue. This is especially useful at auditions where surviving the next cut depends on being a quick study.

Day's research has also shown that dancers learn and remember differently depending on the company. "Pilobolus makes up a lot of shapes and lifts, and so they'll have interesting names like 'fat gnome,'" says Day. "But the Merce Cunningham Company isn't supposed to name movement. Think about what it's like to audition for both of the two companies." Day has found that each company has its own unique way of working and dancers must be ready to adapt.

"The goal isn't memory for movement in and of itself," Day says. "It's to go beyond learning and memory--beyond worrying about that so you can experience the joy of dance."

Kristin Lewis, a former editor of Dance Spirit magazine, is a writer in NYC.