I find that muscle memory is a handicap in class. I am not convinced that conquering it is a good thing. I believe I should be able to dance without thinking too much about the details.
Is "muscle memory" is a good thing?
Could attending yet more classes with different variations be damaging my dance?
I regularly join in the beginners class, and regularly find that I am not very good at it. Once the music starts part of my brain goes to sleep or drifts off to other concerns. The teacher says "catch right" but auto-pilot/ muscle memory switches in. I always use that move to change hands in freestyle, and I always catch left, and, too often, I find myself doing it wrong in class.
I tried to do a simple Marc Foster intermediate class, which completely lacked "returns". No chance, during the lesson.
Immediately after I was able to do the whole routine with returns with no problem whatsoever. That was one of the rare ocassions where I went through the class routine repeatedly during freestyle, and eventually managed to do it and make it look something like dancing.
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