Aspect of 'play' within improvisation

During improvisation classes this year we have been introduced to the idea of incorporating 'play' within our movement explorations, through the use of different scores.

For me, the idea of play within dancing means allowing myself to let go a little more and allow freedom into my movement, enjoying what I am doing and the interactions i may have with other people, not taking my dancing too seriously (this is something I often do), not being too judgemental about my moving, allowing the idea of fun and playfulness to influence the way I explore my body and its surroundings.

Sometimes I find this difficult, as my past experiences as a dancer have been focused on learning set things and trying to accomplish learning and building technique, and performing. However with an open mind and response to new ideas and ways of working I feel I am allowing myself to become more open and receptive to using play within improvisation.

Activities such as installations around the University building, story telling and using poems have allowed me to directly explore these ideas. I have found that the feeling of less pressure in what I produce does sometimes actually allow me to produce more in depth and fully explorational work.

Peer teaching

As part of our movement studies module we were asked to get into groups of four and each devise a 15 minute session we could teach to each other which would explore one of the movement patterns within our experiences within body mind centering.  I decided to use the Star Fish pattern which also explored navel radiation.

I began with a hand out, which showed a picture of a star fish and then showed some notes from my journal and hand outs we had received when originally exploring the pattern. I allowed them to read through it and ask any questions.

Then, I lead a hands on graphic. this involved tracing the star fish pattern from the centre out through the limbs to the ends of the body to enhance the attention in these areas.

Then a taught a short phrase which included condensing and expanding, rolling and pausing using the star fish pattern. I then put on music and watched them perform the phrase a couple of times. 

I then asked them to come back to their journals and write or draw anything they needed to and then reflect and feedback anything they wanted to.


After we had a feedback session with each other and our tutor- here are some of the notes I took during this..

• Clear structure throughout
• Using the graphic first allowed them to incorporate it within the phrase easier
• Asking them for feedback such as if they needed to go over anything again was reassuring for them, as was doing the phrase with them originally
• Pace of it was not too rushed
• Use of language could be explored more- such as the intentions of the movement
• transitioning from one activity into the next could have flowed a little more

Over all I was pleased with how the class had gone, and I had managed to explore everything I wanted to confidently,adn my peers seemed to enjoy it and gain something useful from it. However if I was to do it again for a longer period of time I would take on board the feedback about the use of language and the transitioning of activities as this could allow more flow and clarity for the students taking part.

'2 Minute dances'

We were asked to improvise around our personal interests within our developing practise this year. We did 4 lots of 2 minute dances in between writing about our experiences in our journals. I found that each time I improvised I found new interests and further developments- here are some of the rough notes I recorded in my journal during the class:


1. Loose jaw. Free neck. Head- gravity, air, focus. Roll, stretch. Internal- External. Utilising the whole body. Full exploration. freedom.


2. Hips, pelvis, jaw- Free. Rolling- taking to extreme- where else can this happen in the body? How can gravity support this? taking the limbs to extremes.


3. Folding every possible area that can be. Balance. Gliding. How long can the fold go before having to give into it and give into gravity. ripples. Being seen. Being heard. How can this be possible at all times, even when focusing internally?


4. Loose limbs. Light touch- leaving the floor. Soft. Sponge. Transition into shapes. Soft air over limbs.

Technical phrase clases with Andrea Barzey during Term 2

Throughout the technical phrase classes this term with Andrea I have been aiming to focus on these aspects within my moving:

• Leading with the head/neck
• Flatness in the back
• Fluid movements that melt one into the next
• Not over preparing the hands- particularly for jumping phrases
• Articulating though the feet- again mainly when jumping and travelling
• Energy and power within travelling sequences

I found that moving through a phrase with all of these focuses and aspects to think about fairly difficult, so focusing on the most prominent ones for the different types of phrase helped me to gain the most out of the exercise.

I noticed that after practising the phrases over the few weeks then allowed these things to come more naturally to my movement. I think this is due to not having to over think what I am actually doing movement wise when I don't know the phrase fully, which I often find distracts me from finding other important intentions within the body while dancing.

The CONTRALATERAL pattern of movement

• Opposition of limbs
• Finding diagonals through the centre
• Body in 4 quadrants
• Spiral in our movement
• Mainly in mammals- fish and lizards a little
• Mammals have a different muscular skeletal organisation, so the belly is more easily off the floor
• All senses are fully operational
• Vocal communication- free head and neck
• Eyes and ears fully engaged with the world
• Reaching for objects for a baby encourages motion and vocals into the environment
• Babies turn towards sound, and go backward in space to do so sometimes

Amy Voris wake up sessions

For the past few weeks, and the coming weeks until the end of term I am taking part in a movement session with Amy Voris. The main focus is on Authentic Movement. Janet Adler, Joan Chodorow and Mary Stark- Whitehouse are the pioneers of this.
These are the principles we first worked with...

• Working in a Diad (working in pairs)
• Moving from sensing within the body
• Propriosation (tracking the body)
• Sensation
• Emotion
• Imagery

In the next session we focused on these principles....

• Intention of closing eyes and surrender to the possibility of being moved
• Active imagination of movement
• Idea of the unconscious- what we don't yet know about ourselves in with world
• Free association practices
• Moving and being moved
• Notion of witnessing- seeing and being seen
• Experiencing and watching
• Making the unconscious, conscious

These were my observations from moving with these...

• When moving with the idea of witnessing the body I felt un attached from it. Particularly in the legs, because I felt like I was 'watching them' so I felt like it wasn't me moving them.

   
In the following session we looked at...

• The philosophical approach to witnessing
• Active listening
• The art of witnessing
• Watching things come and go

My main observations were...

• WEIGHT! Giving into weight and the idea of a gravitational pull to the floor

Cecila's workshop - number 2

Discussing the boundaries of Dance Movement Therapy:

• Supervision- comes as part of the practice
• Behaviour- making sure it's appropriate at all times. verbal. Confidentiality- making sure the clients know that it is confidential before they begin
• Property and space- considering personal space and environmental space. Keeping the space the same everytime so the client doesn't get confused or distracted by the space. keeping it clear and clean of objects etc to allow room for movement and feelings of safety 
• Energy- keeping the right amount of energy throughout the session. being engaged but not overly energetic
• Time keeping- Both client and therapist must be on time every session to gain the most out of the session
• Therapist must not reveal anything about themself to their client, so they cannot make assumptions etc  

Cecilia's workshop continued

Talking about Dance Movement Therapy and creative arts therapy we took part in tasks in groups where we took the four emotions, happy, sad, fear and anger and applied them to a group of people and came up with a task which would allow the people to use movement to express those emotions creatively.

We decided to tell a story about the weather and the group could join in with the sounds and movement...

• Thunder storm (Anger) - stomping feet and clapping hands and noises using the mouth.
•  Rain (sad) - finger tapping on a surface to create noise and finger actions 
• Wind storm (fear) - shivering/ rubbing the body to create warmth and whistling
• Sunshine (happy) - lifting the head, circular motions with the hands and arms, bird actions and noises

We also said that the session could then lead into a discussion about memories that have sparked to do with the weather, as the weather sparks different thoughts and feelings and stories.

Cecilia Macfarlane workshop

Defining the differences between Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) and Therapeutic...
This is particularly interesting to me as I am studying DMT for my dissertation currently.

 

Dance Movement Therapy

Therapeutic

·         Unity of mind and body ·         Connecting the physical to the psychological ·         Relationships and contact ·         Expression of inner emotions, feelings and memories through movement and dance ·         Body does the speaking ·         Helps with general well-being ·         Can be for people with mental illnesses, physical disabilities, blind or deaf people, the elderly, children, adults.

·         Relaxing ·         Inner connections ·         Doesn’t have to be therapy to be therapeutic ·         Talking to people ·         Touch/ contact ·         Senses- smell, music, colours etc ·         Colouring ·         Retail therapy