WEEK 1
By beginning with inward body focus, I was able to remove all feelings of embarrassment and worry before I started. At first this felt uncomfortable however, the more I relaxed I found it became soothing, therapeutic and had a sense of feeling free. With my eyes closed and maintaining the stillness in my body, it opened up all of my senses even more. I feel I will become more comfortable than how I feel now and not as conscious with new tasks as the weeks go on with more practice, as Buckwalter says “practice requires living breathing bodies to inhabit them, and thus adaptation, refinement of ideas, growth and change.” (Buckwalter M, 2010, 156). Losing all judgement of myself, combined with the music, my body felt heavy and I felt as though I was the only one in the room. It was good to acknowledge the points of pain within my body and move to my own accord to what best suited me, maybe next time I will try to experiment even more when told to twist, pull, push, fold etc. but these were helpful to work with. For me, I need to think quicker and feel more freedom in my mind in order to produce new and interesting movement by not worrying about going wrong, just like Midgelow says “’Mistakes’ become openings – for you cannot cross them out, they cannot be neatened up ”. (Midgelow Vida L, 2012, 12) This helps me to realise there is no wrong or right answer as to what movement I perform, therefore next time I need to be open to new ideas. The exercise in pairs showed me that as well as using your own mind to create new and interesting movement for yourself, you also have to simultaneously work with someone who is also creating movement that is unexpected. With the movement being raw, it looked beautiful to see when other pairs came together in an unexpected way and then some habitual movement would creep in and you could see the creative flow would stop and they would resort to doing something more known and something they are comfortable with. This exercise did reveal personalities and little traits that each person had and would go back to, and even though the style was contemporary, each person stylised contemporary to suit them. This first session has taught me and opened my eyes to the amount of focus and awareness you need for improvisation. Overall I loved feeling free, uncontrollable and relaxed and open minded, I enjoyed the class and can’t wait for next week.
Bibliography:
Buckwalter, M. (2010) Composing while dancing: An improviser’s companion. Madison, Wis: The University of Wisconsin Press
Midgelow, Vida L (2012) Dear Practice…: The Experience of Improvising. Northampton: Intellect