November and December Entry: a shift in development
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 start of term to improve my variety of moving, to explore away from the habitual moving, but there was one particular moment, in Katye's class, that I felt all the work we do in MS3 falling into place. I cant explain what happened in my body but my quality of movement shifted; I was fully involved, internally and externally, with the moving of 'letting go of form' and travelling. Combined with the above awarenesses and integrations, something happened in my body which mean t I explored with weight and suspension that I felt different, and which Katye also noticed.
Feedback from Katye said that she felt' she was seeing me; as me, without form. Not as a technical dancer, but as me in my style.'
In terms of integration in other practices, I notice my focus points when I move differentiate according to whatever embodiment I've practiced either in the week or the day before, For example, Skinner Release, folding and unfolding will resonate in my moving and the particular attention to articulation is always there each and every time I move. I also use these awarenesses in classes like Ballet, where my core will be my awareness and the delivery of movements, not just the 'doing;, but practising the 'how' into.
The experience with Melissa allowed me to question my initiation points. Learning recently that initiation of where you start the movement in the body, massively impacts your connection and yielding into the floor, she was stopping me quite a few times in mid-roll, as I did not realize but I was trying to take over as she was rolling me, and I thought that it was her rolling me! This signals to me that I have holding, especially in the pelvis area, of trying to shift and move my own body in the space, and struggling to let someone else do that for me as we roll individually so often in classes
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 start of term to improve my variety of moving, to explore away from the habitual moving, but there was one particular moment, in Katye's class, that I felt all the work we do in MS3 falling into place. I cant explain what happened in my body but my quality of movement shifted; I was fully involved, internally and externally, with the moving of 'letting go of form' and travelling. Combined with the above awarenesses and integrations, something happened in my body which mean t I explored with weight and suspension that I felt different, and which Katye also noticed.
Feedback from Katye said that she felt' she was seeing me; as me, without form. Not as a technical dancer, but as me in my style.'
In terms of integration in other practices, I notice my focus points when I move differentiate according to whatever embodiment I've practiced either in the week or the day before, For example, Skinner Release, folding and unfolding will resonate in my moving and the particular attention to articulation is always there each and every time I move. I also use these awarenesses in classes like Ballet, where my core will be my awareness and the delivery of movements, not just the 'doing;, but practising the 'how' into.
Reading the Bales article, it has confirmed
and contextualized my understanding of how I am progressing internally and
externally in my dance training. I have always known and thought that what we
do in lessons, and in ‘postmodern’ practice, that it acts as a learning and a
base for improving skill, technique and awareness in, not just Contemporary
dance, but in other art forms, for example yoga and ballet. There was
particular reference in the article to how artists differentiate their training
patterns, contrasting maybe having skinner releasing classes alongside ballet
classes. The article expresses that artists choose to have this contrast as a
complimentary combination, for reasons such as a release and a rest from a
highly aesthetic style (ballet); having the combination of a skinner class
would enable the dancer to maybe have a sense of themselves during ballet
class, and pay subconscious attentions to other aspects, for example trying out
barre work without ‘holding’ in the body. It made me reflect on my own practice
and after having considerable practice at each discipline (skinner, pilates,
yoga) I am starting to integrate one set of awareness’ into another. For
example, pilates offers a lot of opportunity for increasing core stability so I
try and work on that when doing particular movements, or at least have it in my
awareness in ballet/yoga to see what different outcomes can come of it, and how
it then affects my body.
I experimented with the yielding twice in my own time; once with Simona before class, where she offered hands on before rolling,
and once with Melissa where she had a slightly different approach of making
sure that she was rolling me, and not allowing me to take over.
The experience with Simona was rewarding,
in terms of how it affected my moving after the experience. During I started to
slightly entangle and rolled twice, starting the day with feeling the
connection and sense of the floor. I think this had a contribution to my moving
for that class, leading after. I felt my movement shift; carrying a sense of
weight in the body, which I felt internally was noticeable.
The experience with Melissa allowed me to question my initiation points. Learning recently that initiation of where you start the movement in the body, massively impacts your connection and yielding into the floor, she was stopping me quite a few times in mid-roll, as I did not realize but I was trying to take over as she was rolling me, and I thought that it was her rolling me! This signals to me that I have holding, especially in the pelvis area, of trying to shift and move my own body in the space, and struggling to let someone else do that for me as we roll individually so often in classes
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