Improvisation tasks 3rd December

Radiating from the centre:

• Fluid
• limbs
• integration
• radiation

Spinal axis:

• Lines
• spine

Dropping gravity

• Air
• Weight
• Tipping
• Balancing

Notes to remember/ recognise by Katye Coe f Improvisation classes

• Interior landscapes within space

• Ways of imagining space in the leg joints- create a sense of being lighter and more fluid and flexible

• Integration from centre to periphery- holding onto our internal space while reaching out or expanding

• Physical activity isn't just an idea or 'like' something else, dancing is really happening in our bodies

• making ourselves available, and knowing how to do so on all levels when working

• Gravity- what is it and what does it mean for us? How can I allow gravity to fall through every part of me all of the time?

Dance and the moving image

One of our modules this term has been Dance and the moving image, which required creating a short film and showing it to a live audience. We made a film which was filmed and shown in the same cafe. We wanted to create  something that was very pedestrian and fit in with the cafe environment. We played the piece on laptops, phones, ipods, and a screen we had placed withinn a book, which we placed on tables around the cafe and the audience could sit and watch for as long or little as possible while in the cafe environment. We had the film in silent so the live sound scape within the cafe would compliment the piece, making it as natural as possible. The film involved highlighting and exploring pedestrian actions and behaviours within a cafe, and then developing some of these further to include moments of movement. 

Experiential Anatomy

New focuses;

• Mouthing pattern
• Soft spine pattern
• lancelet

2 Further tubes..

• Notocord = Soft. Becomes the spine disks. Pre spinal pattern
• Neurotube = Becomes the brain and spinal cord. Later become protected by bone (skull and spine)

Front of the body- Digestive track
Back of the body- Reminance of the neural tube
Front of the body- Reminance of the notocord

Baby 15-20 weeks = Pre spinal pattern
baby 3-4 months = Spinal pattern

Technique Improvisation 14th November

With both partners moving:

• I tracked my partners movement with my eyes open
• Then I carried on tracking the movement eyes closed
• Then we both closed our eyes while tracking
• Then we both had eyes open
• Then we both closed eyes again and tracked each other with our whole bodies not just our hands

I felt a connection with the hands, warmth,yeilding into the floor, muscles and tissue awareness, relaxation, focus on the back (spine in particular) and heat to tail connection.

Contact Improvisation 12th November

Working in partners, we traced our partners movement with our finger tips. First the mover had their eyes closed and spoke about what they were doing/feeling/focusing on while moving and the other had their eyes open and traced their body using the finger tips. I found when I was tracing the body that I focused on the textures I was feeling and to see what parts of the body I could reach, and find patterns being created. However when I was the mover I was focusing on what I could feel and how I could develop my movement in response to what I was feeling.

Then we swapped so the mover had their eyes open and the other person tracing closed theirs. This created a whole new response and reaction to what I was experiencing. I found that when I was tracking the movers dancing I was noticing different textures, layers, patterns and shapes. When swapping roles after this I noticed a change in my moving and focuses as I was then moving in response to what I had just felt, not necessarily what I felt like I wanted to do. This then gave my moving more depth and development and a variety in ways to move.

 

Contact Improvisation 5th November

Today's class was heavily focussed on the giving and taking of weight with a partner in order to move together with a full body awareness.

We started with hands on graphics, waking up the whole body by massaging, pulling, lifting, taking weight, and moving the body without response from our partner. Then as the hands on became more intense, the partner experiencing it started to allow themselves to move in response. This then developed into both of us moving with each other, but really taking the other persons weight and allowing ours to be taken. This meant thee was a lot of rolling, pulling, and stretching of body parts.

I felt I could relax into movement more, and the partner work as I knew my partner was holding a lot of my weight and we could feel deep into our own and each others muscles.

Found it usefull to focus on the idea of really 'getting underneath'.

Improvisation class 31st October

After a short warm up improvisation task on our own we worked in partners. We started with one of us moving for 10 minutes and the other witnessing, then swapping and moving in response to what we had seen, twice each. This then developed into just one minute moving each and then 30 seconds each.

I found that moving in response to someone with a diffeent movement style to my own allowed me to think outside the box and take inspiration, ideas, and explorations from their movement. In particular I could focus on the surfaces of the ground, and trying to get every part of my body on the floor. I also played with the idea of touching all parts of my body to sense different aspects of touch such as feelings, textures, and temperatures.

I noticed that during the longer improvisations of 10 minutes, it allowed my movement to be more like an exploration of my body and the space and what my partner had just displayed to me and how I could take those aspects of her moving further. However during the shorter improvisations of 1 minute and 30 seconds it was more like a conversation between us using movement. The faster chang overs allowed us to just respond immediately and let our bodies just react naturally without really thinking into it too much.

I really engaged with this task as I could push my movement boundaries by responding to my partners movement, and using new stimuli to do so. I felt like I had a full body awareness, and still brought in the focus of the breathe and being grounded, and a sense of all the limbs working together into my dancing.

Core distal movement

Moving from the centre with the idea of the body being like a starfish, everything comes from the navel. 'navel radiation pattern'.. this acnowledges the navel as a significant body point in the body.... equality of limbs... integrated through the centre.

By using a hands on with a partner, attention was brought to the centre of the body, moving out across the length of the limbs. Then moving alone using this idea of the starfish and condensing and expanding from the central point (navel). I found this image easy to connect with, especially after the hands on experience. I felt connected with my centre, and had the feeling that the body moves as a whole and all the limbs are connect and all work together.

 

Human body cell

During experiential anatomy we have been focussing on the idea of having large collections of cells within the body that work together in order for the body to work. We also move with the idea that all our cells are moving with us and have an effect on every inch of our body and the way it opperates in movement.

Here is an example of a cell found in the human body..

Technical phrase class

Using the idea of 'yielding and softening' in and out of the floor throughout the class to enable support from the floor and using this support to take us in and out of movement within a phrase.

One exercise we participated in to gain a sense of gravity and being grounded was to lie on one of the side surfaces of the body and stretch the opposite side that was not touching the floor, and keep the side touching the floor soft and grounded. This was difficult as there was no evident line within the body that separated the two sides, although it made me realise that the body could stretch while also feeling a softness and support from the floor. This could then help me find a way of moving with these ideas but also finding strength and full extension of movement while doing so.  

Skinner releasing technique- 15th october

In the session we worked in partners focussing on our backs. We began by settling into a comfortable position while sitting with as much of our back surface touching as possible. I found I could really imagine my partners spine, shoulder blades, muscles and tissues in my back as I could feel them on my partner and there was contact in these areas, which really brought my awareness to them.

When moving slowly, exploring our partners back and our own I felt smooth, soft and firm surfaces, as well as power and support when leaning in and out of contact.

I feel like most of the time my back and torso is the root to my moving, so the warmth and support made me want to move fully into my limbs also. Being in contact also brought my focus to my head to tail connection and my breath in relation to my partners'.

When exploring the breath as well as moving we sighed out loud and hummed, creating vibrations and deeper feeling within the back tissues. It also brought my awareness to the fact that I can notice my breath, and the release it gives my body, and how it allows deeper explorations when moving.

Body systems

During an experiential anatomy class we brought awareness to the different systems in the body. I realised that the systems I notice the most when moving and witnessing in all the different types of classes we take part in are..

. Respiratory

. Skeletal

.Digestive

.Nervous

.Circulatory

Improvisation with Polly Hudson

We spent about 15 minutes doing partner graphics with a partner followed by 15 minutes of moving and witnessing, to see if and how our movement reflected the graphics we had just received.

While receiving hands on from my partner I lay on my back in a relaxed position as she used padding, brushing, and pressing all over my body which connected with my muscles, tissues and bones within my body. I felt warmth from this as I was still aching a little in my muscles, and having them pressed and brushed allowed them to warm up and feel less stiff and more alive.

After receiving the hands on I moved with ease and found support from the floor. I did a lot of rolling and stretching which made my body feel fluid and aware of tissues and nerves working together within the body. I moved with my eyes closed which enabled me to keep a focus with what I had just felt in my body during the hands on and really envision the insides of my body responding to what I had felt on the outside.

From witnessing my partner move in response to the graphics I noticed she also incorporated rolling and stretching within her movement, add looked relaxes and soft boned. I also noticed that the atmosphere in the room with several people moving stayed at a similar speed and flow throughout the 15 minutes, and I could feel a real presence within the room as it moved.

Technique class with Natalie Garratt

My muscles all over my body were aching a lot before beginning the class so I found it difficult to concentrate and find fluidity to my movement as I was constantly feeling the tightness in my muscles. We did a fairly slow phrase on the floor which explored initiating movement from either the skull or tail during rolling and other movements. This allowed me to stretch a little and concentrate on these parts, so I was able to just use notice my aching body and incorporate this within the explorations instead of allowing it to stop my taking part in class. The idea of yielding and softening in and out of the floor and from one movement to the next also allowed me to explore the phrase fully without allowing the aching to get in the way. Warming up the muscles has helped me feel less stiff and now I also need to rest so I can take part in classes without the distraction of aching muscles.

Improvisation using levels

Some reflective words I wrote in my journal during the class...

.Freedom
.Clear mind
.Fluidity
.Experiences
.Bouncing
.So many possibilities
.Taking in the room and other people
.Constant moving feet- padding not sliding
.Using the whole room
.Being true to the level and exploring every movement possibility fully
.Warming up the muscles and the mind

Workshop with Cecilia Macfarlane

We started by laying on the floor and finding where 'the heart' of our body was at that time. For me it was the upper part of my back. We improvised abound this area doing what felt right. We drew the shape of the part of the body and wrote words around it describing how we had moved. Mine were: compact, deep smoothe, light, and expanding.

Then we excahnaged the score with another person, although no exchanging of words. Then using our partners score we created a short choreography using their score and performed it to them. We then exchanged words on how we interpreted the choreography, and and observations we had. Me and my partner found we had both interpreted the scores different to the orignal ones although they still had similar qualities.

We were then put into groups of 5 and performed our seperate choreographies but at the same time in the space. We found relationships form and complimentory and contrasting qualities during the piece. We were all then given an instrution to add to our moving, mine was a change of position and change of speed at the beginning. We found even more relationships form and a really interesting piece to watch. It was suprising that we had created a short choreograpohy for 5 people within such a short space of time that could have been performed publically.

I really enjoyed this workshop and the way Cecilia works and delivers her classes :)

Experiantial Anatomy

We took part in a experiential anatomy class with Natalie Garrett. We focussed largely on the idea of somatic practice and how this is integrated within our practice and how it can develop our undertsanding of our body and how it moves and why.

Focus on touch- my body, the air, the room.
Instinct of sensations.. habitual, cultural etc
Flow
Music
Awareness of others and their moving
Feeling I am actually experiancing anatomy by practically doing it
Relationship between touch and breath
Sensation
Weight and gravity
Pressure points
Hot and cold
Lines and length in the room
In and out of awareness
Switching focusses voluntarily and involuntarily

Felt good to learn about anatomy while actually practicing it somatically instead of out of a book. Really connected with me and made me realise how much of our course is somatically based and how useful this really is to undertanding our body and really embodying the movement we perform.

Improvisation class with Polly Hudson

We mixed with the second year students to enable more experiance and involvement with other body's, feel like I am gaining more confidence dancing with people I have not danced with before.

combing a partners body- flattening the muscles
                                      - pads of the fingers
                                      - brushing
                                      - untangling
                                      - tissues
                                      - relaxing the muscles

While taking part in an improvisation where the whole room was moving and we could step out to observe, and use the combing as stimuli I wote observations in my journal...

. Travel
. Contact
. Continuous movement
. Brushing
. Observing/whitnessing
. Pressing weight on body parts
. Support from the floor
. Leaning
. Touch


I enjoyed allowing my body to do what it needed and to embrace other movers in the space.

'What do you want to achive this year in movement studies?'

. Even more focus and understanding of my body and the way I move. Deepen, develop and extend this knowledge.

. Take part in fequent complimentory practice along side my degree to further my understanding and fitness.

. More studio time to myself- so I can really embody what I learn during classes.

. Have more confidence in my body and the way it moves and allow it to explore fully into exercises

. Feeling like I have arrived in the room a little more.