Overview of Movement Module

This movement module has definitely brought our whole class together, as the exercises we have to do break the personal boundaries and ensure that you get to know everyone in the class. However, in terms of my learning and progression in my skills and abilities in dance or movement have not really improved to the standard I'd hope they would. If I had one issue with this module, it would be that we should do more dance based exercises in order to further our understanding of dance to give us the best possible foundation in the performance industry. But i did enjoy this module, it was just that it wasn't what i expected. It has however, taught me to be more open and less self conscious of myself, which is always a positive thing, but I feel that along side a dance module it would have been more beneficial.   

Movement Assessment

The movement assessment was on the 29th April 2013. I found this assessment good, and i thought my progression from the first lesson to now has been extremely strong. In the assessment, the contact improvisation piece was now a group of three of us rather than two. This provided significant    issues, and meant it was a lot harder to remain in contact with the others at all times. I really enjoyed the part of the assessment where the space was opened up, this allowed for freedom of expression without being judged. This meant it was a safe space and it allowed for me to be a lot more free and able to express my own style of movement rather than following some one else's. Overall, this movement assessment went well, especially as it was my first assessment as i wasn't able to participate in the formative assessment due to my injury. 

Semester Two - Week Seven

In this workshop we explored the telling of stories through different means. We were given a topic and then asked to portray this through movement and words. At first, it was hard to not do 'literal choreography' where you portray exactly what you are telling, this however is not truthful. The movements need to be an extension of the feelings and emotions of the words not just a physical representation of these words. This was quite hard to grasp, however, was a lot easier when we just used sounds or silence rather than words. Movement is sometimes devalued or hindered by the lexical or verbal language, and this workshop helped me to appreciate the beauty of movement and dance, as sometimes the physical language is more powerful and can say what the verbal language can only hint at. 

Using all the knowledge we have built up over the past year to do with the spine and body connectivity come into play here. As you cannot move without being aware of how each part of your body connects to one another and having support from each area do to move adventurous movements.   

Semester Two - Week Six

In this week's workshop we experimented with different parts of the body leading us, for example, one area of your body having eyes and how that would change your movements. 

We then started on preparations for the movement assessment. This involved a 'duet' piece focusing on contact improvisation. I found this quite difficult due to the injury I sustained in semester one. I find it hard to support my own weight onto my arm/elbow, so when you add someone else's weight on top of that, it was very painful and i wasn't able to support their weight. This therefore sometimes affected the fluidity of the piece as I would be more concerned with not sustaining pain or another injury. However, most of this was in my head and i am not probably going to injure myself. I find contact improvisation very uncomfortable to participate in. I am extremely self conscious about my weight and find it hard to trust someone with sharing my weight with someone. This therefore is a very hard task for me to come to terms with. 

Semester Two - Week Five

This workshop focused on the work we had done at the Hancock Museum, we had to physically explore the differences in movements in some animals, we looked at the differences in the spine in fish and apes. In this workshop we had physically take on the different spinal positions of these animals. This was quite tricky as the spine is fixed and not easily manipulated to imitate other animal's spines. We were given a list of different apes and asked to portray one of them, we chose a gorilla, then we had to become this animal, and the other groups had to guess who we were trying to show. We could tell what animals the groups were based on the position of the spines. This just goes to show how much our spine has on our movement. The spine is the 'backbone' of our body and therefore controls but also constricts some of our movements.

Hancock Museum

This week we went to the Hancock museum, this task was to explore the skeletons of different animals and compare them to our own. The most interesting part for me was the T-Rex, to see the difference in our structure and how this difference affects our ability to move in a certain way.

As you can see the T-Rex's structure is very different from our own, their ribs are much larger than ours, which means their organs must have been bigger or more spread out and more protected. Their skull is also a lot bigger which means its heavier and will affect their movement, as they wont be able to turn their head as quickly. We will be exploring these differences in movements in our next lesson.

Semester Two - Week Four

This week was extremely informative, we worked onthe joints of the body. The joints provide us with the majorioty of our movements. Althoug, the joints are where we hjold a lot of our tension and will therefore find it hard to move correctly and freely. To ensure we were relaxed we worked on massaging each other's main joints. I found working on the thigh joint relatively easy and i found it easy to give my weight and control of my leg to someone else. However, when it came to the shoulder and arms I found it extremely difficult to give the weight to someone else (it was the same person both times). Therefore, I discovered to the extent how much tension I carry in my shoulders, this was very enlightening. We worked on massaging for about 10 mins and for those 10 mins I did not manage to fully give the weight of my arm to scott (who was massaging me), this has made me feel slightly annoyed with myself as I couldn't fully get the benefit from this task and do what I was supposed to.

 

Relaxing, is something we do not do a lot of in today's society, the activities we call 'relaxing' like watching TV are not really relaxing our mind and body. This therefore, means we do not relieve the tension and stress and hold in it damaging ways in our body. I found that this exercise really helped me to appreciate the importance of relaxation, and I feel that in time I will be able to relax fully and this exercise will be extremely benefitical to me. After this class I went and researched the importance of relaxation and here are some links to various websites which I will use to help me relax and to find out the importance behind relaxing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/coping_relaxation.shtml
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/ways-relieve-stress.aspx
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~healthed/relax/index.html
http://www.rxadvices.com/relaxation-techniques/why-is-relaxation-important-what-are-the-benefits-of-relaxation/