Muscle Memory
I’ve been thinking about muscle memory lately. That odd tendency to memorize walls when learning a new move. You can only do it facing the same wall for a wall. Change the direction and you feel as if you never learned the move. I just bought a track ball in an attempt to solve an ergonomic problem with my wrist and suddenly I can’t remember how to cut and paste! I have to go back to my mouse to remind myself how to do basic moves on the computer and then translate them to the track ball. Same phenomenon, only; I didn’t realize that particular skill was lodged in my muscle memory until I put the track ball to use. In dance, practice to get your muscle memory to take over so you can relax your brain, but sometimes you need both to work in tandem with each other so you can be aware of what you’re doing (when you need to) and at the same time execute it smoothly.