Hayley Izzard

5 years later and...I am back! What have I been up to since Uni? Well.. I graduated with a 2:1, gained a Communications Internship at DanceXchange, which developed my interest in Arts Marketing. I moved to Leamington Spa for love, took a few detours of working in retail and progressed to Temporary Store Manager level, however, knowing it is not what I wanted to do with my life, reverted back to Marketing where I worked for an emerging self driving car company. This then allowed me enough experience to gain a position in Digital Communications at The Royal Academy of Dance. Alex and I bought our first home so all in all, not a bad 5 years, albeit it has not been easy!  Why have I decided to return? So the past 3 years in the UK has been such a turbulent time with the UK voting to leave the European Union, and the stress that we, as a country, have all had to endure watching that process and to witness the decisions that were made that would ultimately affect ours and our ch...

Reading the Bales article twice, 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 ...

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...