HOW DO YOU REMEMBER THAT?

The memory of dancers, singers, musicians, athlete, cyclists, gymnasts etc., are incredible that it makes us go in awe even if they are likely to do it after years of practice. Would it still remain the same and perfect. Do they keep practicing? Or does it end up in procedural memory where one can operate at an automatic and unconscious level.

Classical ballet dancers practice frequently that the movement sequences become automated. Holding the dance movements in short term memory as in chunks, groups or links for a while and then moving them into long term memory. Reproduction of those sequences, groups up those chunks making the sequence of recall demand easier every time. The sequential associative learning that is particular movements following each other also saves up the time of recalling. Addition of music acts as a cue to recall the dance. In the absence of dance activation of cingulate, retrosplenial and parahippocampal regions associated with “episodic memory” will be activated in the scenario if the dancer practiced it through group learning or via video depiction.

Classical ballet has descriptive label for each step. So classical ballet vocabulary is declarative. Memory for classical ballet can be coded not only in steps and sequences but also within specific vocabulary and grammar.

Procedural memory systems are localized in cortical-supplementary motor area and rostral superior parietal lobule and subcortical-basal ganglia, cerebellum, etc., A study conducted by Catherine j. Stevens in which they studied about long term memory in classical dancers showed that dancers' memory is at the best when they practice as a duet following the “collaborative movement sketching”. Whereas the poorest recall was seen in dancers who were learning alone. The contemporary dancers' memory works integrated analogous to the dancers practicing in groups. The ensemble working collaboratively and without associated music, concludes distributed cognition and collective memory that combines chaining, rehearsed declarative cues and extended motor sequences.