29/2/12

It's a 1000 piece puzzle.....

Dancing with Disability 29/2/12

Over a couple of sessions we have been focusing on dancing with disability, I have found this interesting as I haven’t looked at this or had any discussions on it before. In today’s improvisation class the lesson was about Karen and Fiona and how their individual disabilities affect them and their moving which I found beneficial especially with Fiona as I have always been afraid of asking and sometimes working with Fiona because I was unsure if she was comfortable talking about her disability, whereas now I feel like it is not a taboo subject.

When we started moving and looking at the way Karen adapts her moving it really made me think about the actual movement and how we go about doing that movement not just the outcome of the move (We explored this with looking at a handstand). In the exercise where we were experimenting with the use of the left side I found it strange at first only  using the left side and I noticed as time went on I started to forget and use my other side.

Overall this lesson was an eye opener and I would like to explore more with restrictions and also what different bodies can do.

Rocking

These are just a few thoughts I had after the lesson:

·         It took me a while to get into and used to the rocking, but when I did I preferred more rocking rather than soft and slow

·         When I was moving with my eyes closed it felt totally different than usual

·         The firmer the touch the better

·         Working in a trio was different as we have been working a lot in duets

·         Felt a lot more confident with giving my weight and letting go

·         Within the moving at the end I felt a real connection between Hannah, John and myself

·         I love the hands on exercises

Duet Rehearsal

In our rehearsal we started by recapping the material we already have, changing a few bits from the feedback we got last week. We both found it easy to adapt the material so that it included or discarded bits of material, whist doing this task we came up with other ideas and it all seemed to fit together. From the choreography lesson we wanted to take what we were doing which was playing around with simple movements with eye contact and develop this further by using levels, however we decided not to do too much of it all at once it would work better if we broke it up and used different movements. I found in this lesson we got carried away with what we were doing we forgot about our exploration of idea’s, but then again we were not really creating any new material we were just adapting and playing around with what we have already got. Since the last session was on sound we listened to some tracks I had on my iPod and decided which ones we feel would go best and ones that we didn’t like so that in our next rehearsal can use some of the tracks and move to them to see if they work or not.

One main thing that I have took from the rehearsal is that improvisation works really well with us but we also want to include set work to.  

Duet progress

In today's class Hannah and I wanted to work on one of the feedback points we were given which was to work on the connection between us when we are far away or not in contact. We also looked at keeping eye contact as we were told this worked well in the working progress a couple of weeks ago. Whist playing around with this Katye was putting different pieces of music on to see what worked and what didn't, as I was moving I only noticed one piece playing which was the third track that was a playful piece and made me laugh at the way we were moving fitted to this piece. This lesson helped a lot having the time to play around with sound as we haven't done much with sound yet in our rehersals. From this lesson I think that we will look at sound more and have a play around with more tracks as I believe if we find the right sound it will work well. The exercise that we were doing I believe worked well and would fit in nicely with the rest of our work, however I think it could be further developed and also more specific with the score.

Devolpment

Looking back to when I started this course to now I feel like I have changed the way move and look at dance, before I just saw dance as a technique and something that I learnt whereas, now I see dance as my experience and I have learnt how your body is involved rather than just moving. When I come to think about all of this I find it very hard to explain and the only way I can really explain is by say that a massive door has been opened that has many rooms inside that all connect to each other.

3 points of conact on the foot

This is a picture out of my artist journal from an experiential anatomy lesson. In this lesson we were looking at the feet and how we walk using the different points of contact, I noticed from walking around that I tend to have most of my weight on the outside of my food not using all 3 points of contact and I also noticed that I could spread my toes out more. This was a good lesson for me as I am focusing on my foot for my body story and also these kinds of exercises are bring my attention to my posture and alignment which will help my injury and also they will help with my practise as I rarely think about this sort of thing.

The bits of yellow on the picture represent where I could feel most of the pressure by the end of the lesson, if I had done this at the start and at the end I’m sure they would have been two different pictures as throughout the lesson I concentrated on putting weight onto the point to contact below my big toe instead of just down the outside.

Eyes Closed

In Experiential Anatomy lesson we were doing a moving task that involved us closing our eyes for a section and then having our eyes open for a section. In this lesson it was very clear to me that I worked so much better and enjoyed it more working with my eyes closed. When I came to write about the task I drew about is which is odd for me because I usually write. I related my drawing back to when I was watching a class once and I has said that the more going on the less I see and the less that is going on the more I see. Therefore if I have my eyes closed then I see less and more happens, whereas if my eyes are open and see everything around me than the less that happens for me. This is my drawing below of how I interoperated this.  

Echoing

In the studio Harriet and I did the task we were set for improvisation, one thing really stood out to me and what I was thinking about at the end of the task was echoing and copying. I found it hard in the task to distinguish the two.

What is the difference?

Echoing means you don’t have to do that same thing you just take little bits that are the same and create them into your own thing.

Copying means that you repeat what the other person is doing in the same way.

Pilates

I have been doing Pilates as one of my wake ups and I noticed yesterday that I have really improved and it has helped me with my posture of my body a lot. Previously I have been having trouble with my lower back being really tense and giving me pain and since working in pilates with my core I have seen a big difference.

Foot

During lessons I have been trying to pay more attention to my foot making sure that adapt or stop when  my foot gives me pain, I have particularly found this difficult as I am used to just working through it. In Katye's lesson on Tuesday we were concentrating on working through the feet, and I believe giving my feet some attention before the lesson helps me to be aware of the correct alignment of my foot, which helps with the pain. From the start of the course to now I believe nothing has changed with my injury however I have learnt a lot about the alignment of my foot and also how to adapt things to prevent the pain, although I still feel I have a way to go with it all.

Feedback on duet working progress

From showing our duet we received feedback from our piers and Kayte. I found this really useful as Hannah and I felt that we needed some feedback to make our next step in the process. We had our 3 ideas which are Images moving out into space, Heavy and light and playfulness that we used to create our section of choreography and wanted to received feedback on how these ideas worked individually or together. The feedback was spilt up into 3 sections,

Images evoked by the duet

• Playfulness between each other and how each others body work
• Heavy and lightness worked well together but what do they mean?, and it could go further
• Hearing the breathing adds to the piece
• Body surfing works well push for more because it works for us together

Strong aspects of the duet

• Awareness in the space- Pathways
• Moving around each other was very strong but when we were apart it wasnt as strong
• Showed that we had been in the space together and moved well
• Moving fliud around the space
• Eye contact on the roling was good- explore more with that and dont be afraid to play with distance between us

Further development to the duet

• Softness with movements
• Eye contact needs more
• Spatial proximity was very simple rollog with eye contact find more and greater exploration with that
• Stillness, allow space between movement
• Breathing
• Contact skills are a move showing a set exercise from class
• What is moving out onto space?
• Play with it more
• Heavy and light can go further
• Stay away from class 'moves'
• Seeing and not seeing- Deep exploration

Andrea Alson's body story was a book that we were advised to look up as it could help us with our understanding of our ideas.

These were the feedback points that Hannah and I are going to look at and work on.
I feel that we have somewhere to go and work to do on with the duet which has given me motivation to keep working and produce a good duet.
The feedback lesson has been very useful and I could benefit with another one before the assessment.

Improv lesson with objects

In this lesson we were working with objects and how we could rearrange them. For the first task of picking the objects I was interested in different things that we dont normally handle, my objects were an empty glass, cushion and post it notes. I was partially interested in the glass which I think was down to the element of it being delicate and breakable that made me most interested in using this object. I found the  initial placing objects in extreme places exciting, however this changed into becoming creative and experimental in a serious way rather than I playful way. I noticed that this again changed once the task changed to the whole group using all the objects because the excitement element came back and we all began to play like children. Over all the tasks these different feelings came in and out and I only really noticed them when I sat back and thought about the lesson and how I felt.

Here are some pictures taken whilst we were in the process

We then went to see some other dance students doing a similar thing in the gallery, first of all they were arranging the objects then we were invited to join in. I went straight to bottle caps on the floor and started to pick out the pink ones and write my name out with them. I don’t really know why I did this it was just the playfulness mind that I was in from the lesson before. This was really nice to watch and to also got involved in as it was something totally new to me and It really let our my creative side.

Here are some pictures of the event

Performance practice

In today lesson we focused on our performance, we looked at getting used to looking people in the eyes, which I found difficult at first and I would only look at people that I was more comfortable with however, when I was the one walking around I felt more in control and less awkward to look anyone in the eyes. As the tasks went on I became more and more confident, and began to enjoy the tasks. In one of the tasks I felt that I was going slow but, Kayte said I needed to slow down, this made me think that they way I thought I was doing the task was different to what people watching thought and I often find this problem when I perform.
I found closing my eyes and standing there with people looking was alot less challenging than moving or doing something as I felt I couldn't really be judged on what I was doing.
I noticed that I have different level of confidence when I am dancing or in the studio space to when I am in social situations, I feel more confident when I am dancing as I believe I am able to show myself more.
I believe doing these sort of tasks will really help me with my confidence and performance.

Reflection on blog task

I found the blogging lesson very useful as we got set tasks to do rather than it being free choice what we put on our blog. Interviewing our peers and having them on camera was helpful as my blog so far has just been my opinion and individual things, so it’s good to have others view and also ideas and things to improve on. I also found that having everyone in the room and a time to focus on the blog is something that I don’t do often enough; as videoing in groups is time consuming and I forget to make time for it. For next time maybe we could sort out some slots so that the filming is not disturbed but anyone in the background and maybe to do the tasks in a circuit. Overall the lesson was useful and I have come away with new ideas or tasks for my blog.

Mine and Hannah’s Date

Mine and Hannah’s Date

Hannah and I booked some space the day after the Charlie Morrisey workshop to work with some of the ideas from the workshop and also some other that we have come up with and are interested in.

We started by carrying on from what we were doing in the workshop to see where that took us and then started to talk and move to some ideas. I found it hard for some of them, but I guess this is what this process is for to find out what works and what doesn’t. The idea of images moving out onto space that came from the art work I saw in the galley is an idea that I am interested in, I tried to use this when I was moving to imagine myself as an image moving onto to space and I believe it started to work and with more playing around it could be an idea that we use. From the improvisation we stopped when we found a move we liked and played around with that for a while, this is how we produced a section of choreography which we filmed and I have added to this post below.

Please watch it and comment on sections that work and don’t work, Ideas you get from it, where we could go from here or any other comments you have. Thank you :)

Charlie Morrisey workshop

Today we had a choreography workshop with Charlie Morrisey; we looked at contact work including lifts. When I found out that we would be lifting I got worried and uptight because I hate being lifted. I get conscious of my weight so I have always been the lifter therefore; I am used to being in control and I find it hard to let go. My partner Hannah made it a lot easier for me to work with being lifted as I could trust her with my weight and she was very willing to give everything a go. Some of the lifts just didn’t work but we told each other not to get annoyed about it, because some things work and others don’t. As the lesson went on I became more confident in being lifted and ended up working really well with Hannah. I particularly enjoyed the last part of the workshop where we were moving with our partner changing between having our eyes open or closed and a few other rules. I noticed that I am more focused with my eyes closed, however when I really got into it I found I shut out everyone else in the room with my eyes open and just concentrated on moving with Hannah. From the way Hannah and I were moving I noticed that we both tended to play with resistance and pressure, which I enjoy doing and maybe this will be something that we continue to play with for our duet. I believe today’s lesson was really useful to work with my partner as I haven’t really done much moving with Hannah before and I feel now that we have somewhere to go and more to explore. I also noticed in today’s workshop that I move differently with a partner to when I move on my own which, I find interesting and I have only really noticed it today.

Something that Charlie said got me thinking and made me understand why we do what we do, he said: “dance is not about the movements is about the making of the movements.” 

Does anyone have any ideas about working with resistance and pressure that Hannah and I could play around with?

Body Story so far

This is just a short update to where I am in regards to my Body Story

I have done a mind map of my ideas and chosen the question and areas that I will be using for my body story, however I feel lost with it and I think from hearing about everyone else's progress we could all benefit from a meeting with one of the lecturers to go through and clarify what we have to do.

I have selected question 2 for section 1 and within this question I am going to look postural alignment and how I have approached developing/maintaining/strengthening this ability during this module and how it relates to my dancing. For section 2 of the body story I have decided to concentrate on my injury to my foot and aspects relating to this, which I believe will tie in well section 1.

In lessons I have been thinking about the correct alignment and weight distribution in my feet. One thing that has helped me with this is from a chat I had with Marina who is an osteopath, she told me how to stand correctly which will help my injury by strengthening the foot.  I am working on spreading out my toes and making sure I have even weight on the three points of contact on my foot. This should hopefully help my overall postural alignment.

Do you think that question 1  relates well with my injury?

Yes-Why  No-Why any other suggestions?

Moving in the warm up

In today’s lesson during the warm up I felt focused and thought about how I was doing every movement, for example the role down and padding out I was looking at relaxing and the correct alignment of my elbows. I noticed that when I'm aware of these things I find them easy to work with, however when I forget about them I can't tell if they are correct or not.

I have to adapt what I do it because of my foot injury; therefore instead of running to get my heart rate up I make the moves like lunges and the role down quicker and more often. I find this varies from every lesson as I find it hard to adapt sometimes and I feel I'm not putting enough effort in however I could be not putting the effort in to look after my foot.

What I have been looking at in lessons (2)

Feet

One other main aspect that I have been looking at is my feet and especially how my injury affects my movement. This video is an exercise that we do coming across the room with some runs in between however, I am particularly focusing on my feet and how I work through my feet. A Question I am constantly asking myself is ‘Does this affect my injury, if so how and what can I do to adapt it?’ This exercise is good to watch back and see myself to watch out for anything that I can use to answer that question. From doing it and watching it I believe that it is very important for me to work through my feet as much as possible as I have found this prevents the pain in my foot if I land correctly. Also I think the feedback the Emma gave me is important to do to see if my injury is affecting anything else in my body as feeling and seeing maybe different.

Please leave a comment on anything you notice about my feet when I am jumping, or anything else you feel will help me :)

Is there anything that you can suggest I do to help work around my injury?

Any other videos that would be usefull to do?

What I have been looking at in lessons

Elbows

Before the videoing of this exercise my group and I were discussing what we have been focusing on or looking at during class’s, one of my aspects of my practise that I have been looking at is my elbows and how I hyper extend them. This video is of an exercise that I believe really allows me to focus on correcting my elbows as you have weight on them at different points. Another aspect that this exercise allows me to work on is fluidity, this is not something I am really focused on however, when I am watching people dance I find that the fluidity highlights the movement and it is something I would really like to improve on to help with my overall movement in class. Videoing and having feedback is an excellent way to improve this, as you can see yourself your own body moving and also getting feedback helps as you don’t always pick up on things yourself.

You can’t really hear what they are saying in the clip so I have typed it out below

Katie- “nice fluidity in your movement and good use of the arms”

Abbie-“If you slow down a little bit more then I think you will have time to focus on the elbows”

If you have any feedback on this please feel free to comment I would love to hear from you all :)