Hayley Izzard

I feel my practise has significantly changed, especially in this past month. I feel experiential anatomy has played a huge part in development; as working with surface, alternating perceptions, (seeing out and internal awareness) yielding and yield and push/reach and pull have all been contributing factors. The imagery of the digestive tract has been an interesting source for me to work with. To move with this awareness I feel, even in the moving of the simplest of tasks, has allowed me to see my movement open up and soften, even elongate and be allowed to breathe. The imagery of the mouth has been another interesting one, in terms of I've heard others say they struggle to connect with this stimulus but, in my own moving, I found a way to use it where it was another initiation point for me and I noticed a different quality to my moving, which allowed me to experiment with weight. Weight is one thing this month that I feel I've played with; my one goal has been from the star...

I found Dianne Madden an interesting choice after looking through some artists; her style is exploratory with weight and 'powering through the floor', With very specific and particular focus to establishing articulation and connection through the joints. Reason I found her interesting is I felt I could relate to her techniques, especially with exploratory of weight as that is an awareness I keep with me in my practice. She uses mainly Improvisation, as her tool to hone time and space perception and integrate with deepened movement awareness. She explores a special interest in spacial specificity, combining compositional tasks and using phrase material from Locus (1975) and Opal Loop (1980) to teach spatial specificity and to broaden movement quality. Improvisation is added to the mix to keep the ideas ongoing and endless; new everytime.

A positive start to the year - exploring space with touch, sensing and perception, and playing with surface were all highlights for me in experiential anatomy sessions.  Sensing and perception article interested me in terms of learning how our perception can affect our whole way of seeing and living life. Environmental, genetic and happenings in life build and create our mindset, which then creates situations where we experience emotional responses for example; if you feel sad or paranoid that someone is upset with you; that does not necessarily mean they are upset with you, but you PERCEIVE it to be that way, depending on the conditioning of what your brain and body have been exposed to; example is repetitive situations where similar situations have occurred, almost like when it triggers fight or flight response. It's the brains way of protection; this is all that I realised and found out from our group discussion.  Exploring with space and touch made me notice things ...

Technique classes with Andrea has ensured a great shift in my development of my technique. A real problem I always had was how to hold my arms in second, and I can now say I have achieved how to hold my arms tension free, without hunched shoulders... and letting them stretch out. Tension in my shoulders always stopped me from achieving this. which meant that my back was contort, and there was no space in my back to stretch out. The skinner releasing partner partner graphic of length in the neck, soften and comb the arms and to squeeze the legs helped make a dramatic difference. My legs felt elongated, free and long. My shoulders and arms were tension free, along with my neck. Was so relaxing to feel everything open, felt ready to move. Feedback from elouise pointed out to me that my arms are really nicely held, elongated, but to remember to include the fingertips in the holding of my arms. I do forget and leave them out.

Falling as a group We were given tasks, in preparation to perform, to move together. In doing these tasks, I noticed alot of things about my moving. I found it easy to act on judgement of falling when everyone else falls. I notice I like to be the follower, not the initiator of movement. I do get the 'desire' to initiate but don't quite follow through.  Flocking Same with flocking I notice that the decision to lead in a group in a certain direction becomes easy after more and more practice. I'm better at following but when pushed or given the opportunity I will lead.  I think overall this suggests I'm a natural team player, in between of leading and following, rather than all leading or all following.  Standing with purpose This exercise we all had to stand and be 'present' while we had an audience sit and watch us. But we weren't moving or doing anything. I noticed with a lot of people that they did look awkward, giggles would happen, or m...

Over these 2 sessions, I have continuously worked with the breath. I can now breathe reasonably well during the warm up sequence which I think is one of the main points that is important to maintain as it is continuous movement. In stretches and balances, I notice I forget to breathe, then when prompted remember again. I feel much stronger in my arms, I'm presuming it's from the built up practice over the past few weeks. Was really focusing on the technique of moving from upward dog to downward dog today. I've noticed I must hold tension in my back when in downward dog, as Ella would come and place hands on prompting to create space in my back where it must hold the weight. I notice I have naturally started to lean forward more before jumping back, which really helps me to move and get into the right position to jump back.

For this session, i felt so open and relaxed coming straight from Pilates. We worked with the idea of slow progression of moving into falling. I could really engage with this, it was completely how I wanted to move. When sighing into movements, I could really sink deeper into my movements, into the score and open up my moving and explore my surroundings. Had imagery of wriggling, shifting bodies in the space. Surrounded by flurried movements, bodies in the space. Brief moments of contact, touching and then dispersing. I felt so involved and embracing the rhythm of the sighs. Connection with feldenkrais where on an 'out' breath the fluidity and smoothness of the movement opens up. Noticed how everyones rhythm would compliment everyone else's. Movement awareness of if the pace was fast and one person was slow, eventually everyone else would progressively soften and slow. Really enjoyed this score.

Receiving squeezing and rocking: Relieved any tension I had. When Katie stopped rocking one area, made me want to continue rocking, resonated with me. Giving squeezing and rocking: Was nice to feel the breath resonate in katies breathing. Pause, Replace, Continue  The idea was to move and witness each others movement, while continuing and stepping in carrying on their movement. Each time Katie stopped moving, how she'd moved previously always was in my 'minds eye' as I moved. Very strange experience. Interconnected moving, exploring with the idea of a 'moving witness'. Slow, solid movements from Katie's moving. Noticing the architecture of her body, the shapes she was creating and making. Made me self aware of the shapes I make in space. Slow and simple.

To start with, I refrained from writing about Feldenkrais, as I feel its a practice that took me a while to understand; its uses, the way it works, what it is useful for. It focuses on the attention of the smallest of movements, to see how they're initiated, carried out to notice your bodily habits/ how you move individually. From the beginning of class, we always 'scan' our bodies. I always close my eyes and imagine looking at my body from an overhead view, working from my head to my toes. I noticed how my body was at that time. Both of my shoulders couldn't fully touch the mat, didn't fully touch the floor. Only my shoulder joints were in contact with the mat. When moving my shoulder joints slowly around, rotating them I couldn't feel much movement from my left arm, more so on the right arm. After repeating the exercise a few times, I did notice that both of my shoulders had softened and were in full contact with the floor. Another tendency I've no...

Ballet  Was trying to keep mindful of my core in this session, and I noticed a great shift happens in my posture when i do engage my core. Using my core and lowering the tailbone helps me to keep the tension and strength needed in my body especially when disciplining to keep the hips still in certain movements like 'tendu'.  Suspension We explored with suspension and had to find our own way of what helps us stay suspended. What helps me is imagery; to picture the architecture of the body, how the arms are placed or as long as something is done with the arms it helps with my momentum and keep my turns stabilised, whether it be 45 degrees or 180. I also think of lifting and lengthening. 

IMPROVISATION   WITNESSING TIFFANY MOVE  MY MOVING After watching Tiffany move, I felt it spurred on my sense of imagery. I think the fact i watched her first before moving myself influenced the way i moved, and also provided me with imagery such as 'flowing breath' and the rhythm she was moving in which was 'slow and steady' resonated with me. I feel it was one of the first times I'd moved to the flow of my breath without realising. I was very mentally involved. 

DEVELOPE - unfolding. Develope's was a challenge for me this week. The idea is to think of the hips square forward, keep the knee turned out. lead with the foot to straighten. I'm unsure of how to turn out the hips when in second, feels wrong. My legs feel like they struggle to turn out fully. AFTER MOVING  Felt easier on my right leg. Not so much of a strain when I wasn't looking in the mirror and when I was concentrating on my own body, which signals to me that I must try to 'overstretch' myself when looking in the mirror as I'm trying to push myself harder.  AFTER WITNESSING  I noticed it was all kept in her own space. Not turning out as much as I thought was needed to perform the move. After witnessing this signalled to me how I must only try to perform my capabilities, and that not everyone is going to look the same doing a move as everyone has different bodies. In actual fact, for the move to look a lot better it needs to be performed t...

Trying to adjust to Yoga again was a struggle this week. Ervin reminded us of how to fluidly move through from upward dog to downward dog, and expressing the importance of breath to us. I was consciously trying to work and concentrate on my breath this week, trying to lengthen and equal my inhale to my exhale, but then found that it would throw me out of timing with movements. Was like a downward spiral from there, the timing of my movements meant my breath went out of sync which meant that the strength of my movements from one to the next was lacking. This really reiterated to me how important the breath is. MUST PRACTICE ! POSTURE REMINDERS: 2D POSITION - keeping the arms and legs facing the same way, hips in line with arms and legs to the side, dont turn the hips ! 3D POSITION - Facing the back of the mat, arms stretched out. Hips square to the back. s:  

 9/10/13 - Focused a lot this lesson on trying to keep my core engaged. My thighs were hurting after running, and the bridge stretches we did especially helped with counter stretching my thighs to take the tension and tightness out of them. I did struggle to keep the core engaged. It has been quite a while away from doing Pilates so all the disciplines will have to be re-learnt, as it were. Jayne had to remind me a few times and when she did, I did really feel that connection. I also noticed that, from the previous acknowledgement of my arms being tense, I did struggle to keep my arms from tensing, have to consciously be made aware of them, but when I am aware, I can relax them. Bridge stretch: www.fitbie.com Tip: Try to keep stomach lifted and off the mat. Helps engage core. 

This Body, Space, Image score from the book by Miranda Tufnell and Chris Crickmay, was a score we worked with while waiting to work with our choreographers from last year. Compositionally, it allowed us to develop our skills working as a group, with bodies in space moving. This is the score we worked with: Do the same thing - example, one person walking, two people walking. Set up a relaxed activity in harmony with the first - example, run across their path Set up similar rhythmic counterpoint - example, walk, turn Set up a contrasting activity (that makes the first more visible) - example, stand still Help what is going on - example, copy/mirror Obstruct a persons activity with a contrary one - example, make them change action Change the environment within which someone is working - example, turn the light off, stamp Exist in another time or dimension - example, 'slow motion'. Below is our discussion we had and some things I noticed: We then explo...

8/10/13 - Boxstep routine:  Boxstep routine travelling across the floor, with the idea of keeping the knees low and trying not to let that height extend upward, which is what my partner noticed I was doing when split in pairs. I noticed that I would start off low and then gradually, over time, without even realising, I would rise up and up as the routine went on. Tip: Work through the feet - heel to toe - can be flat footed at times.  15/10/13 - The lesson this week felt like a transformation for me. The release exercise of touching the clavicle and finding the shoulder bone, to find the spaces inbetween the joint has really highlighted how much tension are in my arms, really opened up my moving when released. This session I feel has really made a massive impact on how my body will perform in future, as I felt so much more fluidity when moving, my moving was soft and loose. Tip:   Ella's feedback for me was when holding my arms out in second, feel the spaces ...