How do I learn choreography from a YouTube video?
Treat the video as a teacher who will repeat anything: slow it down, loop a few seconds, mirror it, and learn those few seconds before moving on. Build the routine in small pieces, then remove the video and dance it alone, because the test of learning is what stays when the screen goes off.
Make the video work for you
Playback speed, looping and mirroring are the three controls that matter. Slow to half speed for the first pass of each piece. Loop the piece rather than scrubbing back by hand. Mirror it so the dancer’s left is your left; if the player cannot, several free tools flip a link.
A few seconds at a time
Choose two to five seconds. Watch it three times. Mark it — weight shifts only. Dance it with the video, then without. When it is clean, take the next piece and drill the join. A three-minute video is not a three-minute task; it is forty small ones.
Remove the screen
Dancing along with the video hides what you do not know, because the video carries you. Once a section is learned, turn it off and dance the section to the music alone, and record that. The recording shows what the video was covering.
What a video cannot teach
It cannot correct you, and it cannot feel your weight. Learning from video works well for structure and steps; a class or a coach adds the correction, and a recording of yourself adds the honesty. Use all three where you can.
Questions people ask
Should I learn from the front-facing or the back-facing view?
Back view is easier to copy because sides match. Front view shows the face and the arms better. Use back view to learn and front view to check.
How slow should the playback be?
Slow enough to see every weight change without guessing, usually half to three-quarter speed. Go back to full speed as soon as a piece is clean, or you will learn a slow version.