Hayley Izzard

The second session: In Voice, we were practising the art of carefully pronouncing vowels and consonants. For example, my warm up exercises were: Maa -Faa -So - La - Ti - Wa Bee - Bi - Bick - Boh Shcrap - Mi - To - Da - La We had to say these to the group and recite them over and over. She would individually give us feedback on how we would say certain sounds, which I thought was really good as its almost 1 to 1 feedback. We then had to say a piece of text and she would individually go around the group and listen. Again, we'd recite them; my feedback was to play with tone, but she didn't have alot to say. I think I have quite a neutral voice but I do have a slight birmingham accent, which isn't too big of a problem.

The most significant difference for me this term is Ballet.  After not having done ballet since I was 14 or 15, I couldn't remember even the basics of discipline for moves and I noticed last term that, particularly, when plieing my lumbar vertebrae near my pelvis would collapse underneath me and I think that was because I was being too forceful in trying to get low to the floor. I appear to have corrected that hopefully. One of my personal goals was to try and learn to pirouette, as I love them :) Because of yoga and pilates, my hips and adductus longus muscles (inner top of leg) are so much more flexible and accessible that I can acheive the turnout that I want, rather than my legs caving in as i spin. I'm so happy with my progression. Video of progression coming up soon :)

Yoga: Since the start of term, i've noticed a few differences. I feel that the elasticity in the back of my legs has loosened so i can extend and lift my leg higher and my pelvis can open more freely, there was a lot of tension there that was through misuse of my body. I'm so happy about this as my main goal for warm ups is to progress with gaining flexibility. I would love to work on getting my feet on the ground now, in positions like the 'downward dog' position, as shown below.  I think to continue to push my boundaries is the way forward. Pilates: I think I've found it hard to know how to engage my core abdominal muscles over the past weeks. I'm glad we've used the rubber bands and the foamers to help naturally engage the core muscles, to get to know what it feels like. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right naturally on my own, I tend to push my ribs down when carrying out exercises, and I do feel the stretch alot more. When using the...