14/11/11 Video's and Pictures

This video shows the two way movement and separation of the hips and the upper torso in more detail. I need to take more risk before falling in to the lunge, find my centre in rise and let gravity do its work to bring me into the lunge and also make sure I get a deeper lunge and push myself to the maximum. Use breath to add more dynamic to the movement and add phrasing to the movement, without breath it all has the same dynamic and length of movment whereas breath emphasises different parts and sections of the sequences and adds a softer feeling to others.

Using the back for the initiation of the movement, I find this difficult because I think I could use my back and spiral more but I know that I need to keep my hips still at the same time. Its like the two halves of your body need to be separate and independent of each other, spiral the upper part whilst keeping the bottom half still. This means keeping the two independent of each other. Also include my head in the spiral don't forget about it.

Preparation into the handstand/cartwheel. Preparing to lift my hips up and keep my legs low. You can see that I'm not really thinking about keeping my head relaxed it should be relaxed in this position ready for the handstand.



You can see the stretch in my right side whilst leaning into my left side, I think from looking at it I could take the risk more to lean more to the right side and trust that my centre will bring me back and if not I fall over so why does this matter? as I have said many times before its about taking the risk in class and not being perfect. Doesn't matter if I fall over just pick it up with the group at the next chance I get. Also I'm not holding my ribs in this position but I need to keep them 'quiet' so it gives nicer line this Will also show me holding my centre.



This picture shows me about to go into a lunge, as you can see in the background of one of my fellow dancers. I need to be down further to the floor and then use my front leg to push off from to get to the middle for the next move. To help me with this I could draw upon another technique class and use the idea of the 'yield and push' to help me up.



This picture shows the handstand/cartwheel you can see that I'm lifting my hips up here and keeping my legs quite low. From this picture I can see that I could push my hips up more so that from the front view there is a straight line down the back, to enable this as well I need to drop my head more so my head is in line with my spine and my neck isn't 'crunching'up. We have been given an exercise to do so that we get the action of the handstand correct it will also help us on our upper body strength.



This is the first movement of the sequence the idea is to brush the floor like you would in a grande battement excise and then bring it back into the body, use the length of the leg and more before bringing it back into the body. The momentum of this will allow my supporting leg to go up on to a rise as you can see my fellow dancers doing in the background.

Full video and sequence. The pictures are a broken down version of this sequence, I appreciate that the picture above are not perfect but they have been taken in class, this give me a true picture and what I actually do when I dance and I'm not putting it on just for a photo. 

Release Technique 10/11/11

This is exercise was all about using the back, which is one of my big weaknesses I think. I know that I have a bad back so I get scared of over using it in case it starts to ache or hurt etc. After doing this exercise for a few times i felt that I had improved just in that short space of time, really knowing how my back work in connection to my arms as well. I need to try and almost think of the back and arms as one rather than two separate limbs almost.  For example in ballet or in fact contemporary when we hold our arms in second we need to feel like we are holding are arms from the centre of the back, not from the upper part of the back as then we will be pinching our shoulder blades. The back needs to feel open but in turn can feel the muscles engaging to hold our arms. 

In a book by Linda Ashley called "Dance theory in practice for teachers: physical and performance skills"  ( 2005) she mentions that for an example we should imagine a current of electricity running from one fingertip to the other this can help the arms look 'alive' and 'energised'. I think also that this makes you also connected to your centre making you feel more sturdy and in control of your balance this will help in a rise etc as well.

The back gives many weaknesses away you can tell that someone is not using the back as this restricts their movement if they are using the back then the movement almost ripples through the body e.g. Graham technique has a strong connection to the back in contractions, the contraction is the initiation but you can see this straight away in the spine and the back and also on the release the back is the initiation and you can See it starting from the base of the spine and the ripple up through the back to the tip of your head.

At the end of this video sequence I could make the movement ripple through my spine more thinking about the release at the base of the back all the way up, this could make this move a lot more fluid and striking to watch as well to see the spine really move. I also think I could take more of a risk in the turn, and really let the weight of the body take me round and the use of my back, technique classes are about taking risks and not being perfect. Its a chance to test things especially In release technique let gravity take us, Use the initiation of the back to take me round in my turn lea out of it more and trust that if  hold my centre that I will balance but then again so what if I fall over its about testing the grounds, how much I can give, do I need less momentum or more?

Some other feed back that I got in class was to lengthen my movement out more especially when I finish my moves so that I don't just get to a position and settle in one set position constantly keep moving. It gives the movement more fluidity but in a way more of a sense of grounding and always one movement to flow into the next for example in a slap turn when I land and finish the turn don't just 'slump' out of it let the length flow out of my arms and out of my waist and legs.

This could also work on grande battements if you use the length of your legs to reach and brush against the floor and reach past the length of your own leg then it makes the movement more 'juicy' and gives it more ' umph'. This is something I need to improve on and through time I think it will come, this has only just been brought to my attention so I haven't been able to work on it as of yet but I will and upload videos and pictures to show an example of this.

Cunningham Technique 7/11/11

Again one of the most challenging  sequences in this class is the triplets sequence, I get the general gist of the triplet, three equal steps taken either forward, backwards, turning any way really but the sequence that we do involves turning a 180 degrees I find this hard because to enable me to do this I have to be able to turn in one piece, to accomplish this I have to hold my centre lift out of my waist and legs and also changing the focus quicker will help me. I think since we first started doing this that I have improved and it is starting to feel more comfortable rather than awkward. Through practice and practice then I will keep improving but at the moment this is one of my goals for this class to turn a weakness into my strength.

Weaknesses

• My arms in second are always a weakness, I  need to keep my elbows on top and not let them drop and also not hold tension in my wrists and , let my arms hang from my back and not hold them from any other place.
• I also need to use the depth of my plie more, I know I don't have a massive range of movement in my plie because I do have tight Achilles but what movement I do have I need to use it to the full e.g. in the jumps.
• focus-especially on the feet exercises I need to look more present and alive in the room rather than getting sucked into the mirror and sucked into what I'm doing, I should just let my body do what its doing and think afterwards
• Need to finish movements off before I go into the next movement rather than it all moulding into one big mess. This helps with phrasing as well!!!
• Also need to flow through the movements and not make them jerky, me on the counts but don't stop at every count.

Before

After

I know I have uploaded this picture before but this is also something I need to work on, being in a curve while being in this position, let the curve be the initiation of the movement, not the head dragging the body down. and also the leg doesn't need to be very high it just need to be in relation of the curve because if you have a high leg then there is a possibility that you could release the curve.

Before

 After

From a different angle

Again I have uploaded a picture of this before and I plan to upload another one so I can show some improvement,  I feel like I have suddenly clicked with the concept of the curve and hopefully this will show on picture etc although it might just mean that i feel it more internally so should this matter if it doesn't make a difference to the external view?  Dancing is internal as well as external ?

I feel out of everything that jumps are my strength and that I travel through the space when I perform them, this is because I am confident that I have the strength in my legs and also I feel comfortable in my body when doing them. I think from this sequence you can see one of my weaknesses that I don't use my plie to my full potential especially before the barrel jump in this sequence. If I got deeper into my plie it would allow me to get off the floor more and also take more of a risk with the lean backwards on the barrel turn to make it more on a diagonal. When I jump I also hold tension in my shoulders and in between my shoulder blades I think I need to relax more to release the tension but also, like I mentioned above if I hold my arms from the back this will give more space between my shoulder blades and less space for tension.

Bartenieff Fundamentals

We focused on the 'yeild and push' and 'reach and pull' principles I think the sequence we focused on best shows the two working together but also working opposite to each other. 'yield and push' adds a sense of grounding to the sequence yielding into the floor and pushing yourself out of the floor, the movement travels up the body from these ideas. It gives one a sense of gravity and the pushing allows one to separate one from the other.

Peggy Hackney mentions in her book "making connections" that an early example of 'yield and push' is the early process of the birthing process, the babies lower body yields and pushes against the uterine wall, sequencing through the head, which then pushes against the cervix, causing it to dilate. Later the yield and push and the reach and pull leads to crawling and power to propel towards something becomes apparent and then eventually the yielding into the floor and pushing out of the floor leads to standing. Babies know these ideas naturally and don't have to think about them, it just happens for them.

Reach and pull gives me the ability to move in and out of the space and cover the space, it works in relation to the world that you are working in. Peggy Hackney mentions in her book "making connections" that when reach and pull is supported by yield and push it makes it possible to go towards something or someone and therefore giving the body a "choice." Again the birthing process is a good example of this as reach and pull guides the baby down the birth canal, again without out the baby knowing.

 I find it interesting how the baby can know all this and automatically uses these principals to crawls and stand up, how and when does this change and when does it change to not being a natural thing to do? why does it change when we get older? why is it more difficult? I have to think about it even though I know more about my body than a baby does, does this mean I'm over thinking how to move? Its a difficult question to answer and maybe it doesn't need to be answered as of yet, but something I can research into as personal development.

How it feels for me?

I love the feeling of the yield and pull not only in this sequence but in any sequence, the yield makes me feel really connected to the floor and grounded and the pull then makes me feel like I can accomplish anything e.g. jumping to any height because I am so connected and feeling the gravity and then the push gives me the push out of the floor I'm connected to to enable me to jump and then to land I have to yield back into the floor and feel it beneath me. When practicing the yield and push in class I could really start to feel it working my quadriceps as you are putting a lot of weight through your legs and allow it to fall into the floor again to feel grounded. This is a feeling that I only think about when I think about it specifically but I think in the video that I am going to upload shortly you can see it straight away on the certain parts it gives me the energy to push away from the floor and to get to the places I need to be, this would help me to move quicker as well because although I feel like I'm doing more work it gets you somewhere quicker and the drive and the strive to get there. The energy from the floor that travels up through your body gets you there.

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Graham Technique 4/11/11

I haven't spoke about Graham technique in a while. My last blog was a while ago so what I aim to do in this post it to go over what my original goals were and explain how I feel I have improved on these, hopefully upload some pictures and video's of progression in class.

Original Personal Goals

• Breathe into the movements and the contractions, don't fight against it.
• Over time I need to work on deepening my contractions and getting a bigger range of movement, this will only come over time and with practice, not just a class once a week
• Trying to create a bigger curve in my back when doing centre work.

With the first personal Goal about using the breath more, I have explained in previous blogs that I'm quite self conscience of doing this but as the term has being going on I have been trying to experiment with the use of breath and see how it works, I still need reminding to use it as I have not trained my body to do it automatically yet. I can definitely feel a difference in curves etc when using the breath I think this is because the body is following its own natural movement and not trying to fight against it, this allows me to get a deeper curve, I'm not sure whether it looks different from the outside but I can definitely feel it internally.

 For one of my other module: performance research I am going to research the idea of breath and how it affects the dynamics of a performance both internally and externally. I have chosen to research this because as I find it hard to use I think researching into it will give me greater understanding on how and why it helps movement and also I will be able to relate the different ideas to myself, technique wise and also in my choreography module.

I think that from when I last wrote about the Graham Technique, I said I had to work on contractions try and deepen the contraction. I do feel that I have improved slightly as I am understanding the technique more and more. The contraction is one of my main goals for the whole of the technique module because the contraction is the basis of the technique, just like the curve is like the basis of the Cunningham technique.

The Contraction came from the physical manifestation of grief in the body, it is a fundamental movement for Martha Graham's choreography and therefore this is why a lot of her exercises are based on movement with the contraction in mind. The contraction begins from the pelvis and travels up the spine, lengthening the space between each vertebrae in the spine, from the base to the neck and head. To enable for the contraction to take place it is accompanied with an exhalation of breath, this is another reason why |I need to improve on the use of breath. any change of the ribs, head and neck is a result from the contraction in the pelvis. From an untrained eye it may look like a hunch in the gut and hunched shoulders.

I have mentioned quite a lot about the Cunningham curve in past blogs and I feel like I understand the anatomy more now and to think about pressing my belly button towards the spine and not to bend forward from the hips.

Here I am doing an over curve on a rise, when I first tried this I was unable to balance and this is because I was not holding my core, I need to go up and over my rib cage to get a good curve and this will also help me engage my centre. I can see from this picture I hold tension in my fingers and also I sickle in me left ankle.

The same picture form a different ankle, You can see more here the tension in my fingers and also my weak left ankle. To be able to correct this I need to strengthen my ankle by doing rises's at the bar and making sure I get to the top of my demi-point.

This is a clip form the final phrase that we have been working on over the past two weeks. I think my strengths in this are that I cover the space well and also my jumps although on this clip I think I throw my weight a little bit too much on the side jete so I need to learn what is just the right amount for this. My weaknesses are that I need to remember to hold my centre and be precise on the movement and finish everything off because otherwise it all just melts into one big movement. Use dynamics and accents to make things stand out etc.

Practice Practice Practice!!!!

Practicing in the studio when its free with friends to try and push the movement and try with different music, to see if it brings up any different feelings within the sequence and how it changes the movement with the music changes.

I know on these videos that my technique isn't perfect but when i practice in the studio's with friends I like trying to push it and not be perfect with technique. You can tell that I'm not concentrating because my centre isn't held this is why I need to be able to hold my centre without thinking about it to be able to free up my legs, that will make it easier to dance and also more pleasing for an audience member to watch and see a performance. I love dancing to music that I know and I like because I just get lost in the movement and it brings out a quality in me that just enables me to enjoy it and not constantly think about whether it is right or wrong. If I was in a performance and if I went wrong I would have to just improvise and act like nothing happened I mustn't let it show on my face or let the audience know as this would ruin that section for them. Dancing to music helps me do this and helps the confidence to be able to do this. I think I am slowly staring to improve on this as when I used to go wrong I used to just stop and give up almost but now I just carry on with movement until I remember or find the best place to pick it back up again.  I also think that dancing to music gives you musicality and the chance to be able to get lost in it and have a steady beat,  it gives phrasing to your movement.

Ballet Vs Contemporary

We have only one ballet class a week and the other 4 technique classes are contemporary. It is difficult because of this balance to get out of the contemporary ways and in to the "zone" for Ballet. I find that contemporary as a whole is quite relaxed and although physically challenging  it does not seem that as much of the hard work goes into the movement as in Ballet. I personally think this is because people are used to going to watch ballet more so they think "wow, look at that" etc where as contemporary dance is still only starting to be recognised by certain people, who don't know the technique and hard work to achieve the relaxed style that is projected. 

When I dance contemporary style I feel more relaxed when moving even if it is hard work, fast etc, I have recognised that this is a more natural way of moving. However when I dance ballet I feel like I am going against what my body wants to do, e.g. try and have the spine straight. Contemporary choreographers want their dancers to look like regular people all different shapes and sizes. Mark Morris wanted his dancers to look " sturdy, solid, with weight held low and the feet flat on the ground"  Bremser. M (1993) "fifty contemporary choreographers" published by Routledge. Yvonne Rainer was one of the main initiators for post-modern dance and also the Judson Dance Theatre wanting to move away from ballet, Rainer wanted to take the drama and theatrical side of dance out of it and strip it back to just being about the movement, she wanted the movement to become something of an object rather than something 'fake' be true to the movement that you are dancing. Feel the movement that you are dancing if you feel this personally and deep down then this should be portrayed to the audience there is no need to over-exaggerate the movement. Rainer wanted her dances to present the human body and the natural movements and refused to create a persona or a narrative behind the dance, let the movement speak for itself. From this she created a piece called "no manifesto"

No Manifesto:

No to spectacle.
No to virtuosity.
No to transformations and magic and make-believe.
No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image.
No to the heroic.
No to the anti-heroic.
No to trash imagery.
No to involvement of performer or spectator.
No to style.
No to camp.
No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer.
No to eccentricity.
No to moving or being moved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikaj6QFLZnU

Above is a link of Yvonne Rainer's 'trio a" a piece choreographed on the basis of the "no manifesto"

My personal view on this is that yes it is interesting to watch.  Contemporary dance is very much more commercial now and people will go see it in theatres and it will get good reviews however when this was created I think that it was very brave and would have been quite a shock to watch, no music? no story? no gestures? maybe people were offended by this being called dance? I think for people to see this for the first time they might have found it quite lethargic to watch as although it has movement in it, the dance is one long phrase which consisted of workmanlike movements and task based choreography. This post modern movement of dance has put the dance world where it is now.

Ballet goes against contemporary dance completely, in fact it could almost be near enough the opposite. The Ballet technique needs their dancers to be thin, strong, tall but not tall enough that they couldn't be lifted and for me long legs, good arches in their feet, flexible ankles and strong ankles for pointe work, shoulders slightly wider than your hips. This is the typical classical ballerina that people look for our in time whereas George Balanchine preferred his dancers to have longer legs, a little taller than usual and long arms and also a small head. You can see that from this description and that the description that Mark Morris gave, they are completely the opposite to one another. Ballerinas are told to be light on their feet, pull up out of their waist, free their legs again this is the opposite to Morris' description.

Ballet is very typically theatrical with a lot of gestures and story telling behind the movement, this makes it easy for the audience to watch to be able to just enjoy it and not think about the movement where as contemporary dance challenges the audience members mind, what do they think of when they see the movement? do they make their own relationship between the movement and a story. Overall I think this is why ballet has being seen by more people even in the times we live in now. Before I studied contemporary dance I loved watching ballet it was satisfying to watch I could just relax and enjoy the quality of the movement and the story being told.  Contemporary was mystifying to me in comarison, now I have studied contemporary style I realise that movement can have it's own interpretation and challenges the audience to think and make their own interpretation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHYwVfN3wY4

This is a link to the classical ballet "the nutcracker" you can see the story telling and gestures made, adaptations have being made of this where the costumes are more elaborate and comedy being added but the principle of the story telling and gestures have being the same principals. The movement has kept the basic shape but with a bit more "quirkiness" you can see not only has contemporary dance developed through the years but so has ballet, pushing the boundaries more. Is this still classical ballet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Mstom_7Mw

Above is a link to Mathew Bournes adaptation of the nutcracker.

When I myself dance ballet I feel very rigid and feel like I have to stand like I am standing against a brick wall so that nothing moves. One of my main weaknesses in ballet is that I don't lift out of my waist to enable me to free my legs this is one thing that I really struggle this. I also need to learn to lift my legs from underneath my thigh rather than from my hip or quadriceps. This will allow me to have more control over my legs and also allow my legs to go higher.`

And another go at it!!!

Position that I need to hit in the centre in the adage exercise. Make sure the weight is central and turn out is to my own maximum.

Just a practice but from  watching this little bit, I can tell that I'm not holding my leg from underneath the thigh and from the hip, I also need to present more and use my upper body to make every exercise like a performance.

Practicing pirouettes, I think I have a good turn and spot well, my problem is landing neatly this requires me to have less force or just a single turn and use my core to stop myself. Also from watching this video and being picky I'm not always closing in a good 5th position this is not just for neatness but it allows your brain to know exactly which foot is in front so therefore which foot to use and stops you getting confused

Although I go wrong on this clip I have put it on to show an exercise for the co-ordination of the arm in the pirouette and how it helps you to turn, the first pirouette on this clip is the best and I think this is because the co-ordination between the arm, head and the actual turn is correct.

This exercise is a combination of some of the steps we did throughout the class. From this I need to have my arabesque line out, this will also make it easier to balance because all my weight will be forward and scooped up and over my core. I also need to decide before I set off for my pirouettes just how many turns I am going to do because if I'm unsure or decide to go for an extra one while mid-turn, I know I wont make it. Its mind over matter, If I tell myself I'm going for a triple I will probably make a triple.