This lesson was very physical and took a lot of energy and commitment. We started off in pairs having to copy the energy,tempo and speed of the other person's movement without copying their movement exactly. For this I was working with Scott, who is much more of a dancer than me so my repertoire of movements is much more limited than his so at first I felt a little bit uncomfortable working in this way, however with time i loosened up and really enjoyed this task. We then had to find ways of going against the flow of the other person's movement, I found this easier than trying to copy as me and Scott have very different styles of moving so this task suited us a bit better. Overall this task was very enjoyable and allowed me to express myself without fear of being embarrassed.
The next task was called 'a little bit of me, a little bit of you'. This game involved us doing some movements and then watching someone else do movements and then copying some of the movements to make our 'dance' a little bit of our style and then a little bit of someone else's style. This was extremely tiring and took a lot of physical activity and concentration, but was a really fun task and helped me to become aware of everyone's different styles of moving, and no one style is correct or incorrect.
Saturday, 23 February 2013
Monday, 28 January 2013
Semester two - "Welcome back!"
This was the first lesson back after the Christmas break. This workshop was the first workshop since my injury in which I was able to partake, obviously not to the same level as my peers but still participating is better than just observing. However, this workshop proved quite tricky for me in finding where my limits are in terms of my injury. I still feel extremely scared of hurting it again, but I do want to participate to the best of my abilities otherwise I fear I may fall behind. My arm, especially the upper arm which hasn't been used really for the past 2/3 months is extremely stiff and find it incredibly hard to lift my arm above my head, this meant some of the warm up stretches I couldn't do.
During this lesson I felt my focus was elsewhere, I feel I'm an still not used to being able to move my arm and am busy worrying about someone hurting me that I'm not fully committed to movement. This means I am not getting the full benefit of this module at the moment. This is a psychological barrier I have to overcome, which I feel will come with time, but at the moment movement is still a challenge for me. After coming out of this class, I also noticed some tension and aching in my arm when trying to do my physio exercises or any other tasks that involved using my arm, this made me think that I was pushing it too hard, and should be a bit more careful in future lessons.
Anyway, in this lesson we started off with Do-In which is an exercise to help you become aware of your body and the tension in your body and hopefully relax any unnecessary tension, in order to prepare you for movement. Personally, I feel this does make you more aware of your body but I don't think it prepares me as much as other warm ups for example, the Peggy hackney patterns of total connectivity I feel better prepares me for this type of movement.
This workshop focused on the spine and how we can manipulate this for movement in performance. The discussion on the vertebrae of the spine was extremely informative and enlightening.
During this lesson I felt my focus was elsewhere, I feel I'm an still not used to being able to move my arm and am busy worrying about someone hurting me that I'm not fully committed to movement. This means I am not getting the full benefit of this module at the moment. This is a psychological barrier I have to overcome, which I feel will come with time, but at the moment movement is still a challenge for me. After coming out of this class, I also noticed some tension and aching in my arm when trying to do my physio exercises or any other tasks that involved using my arm, this made me think that I was pushing it too hard, and should be a bit more careful in future lessons.
Anyway, in this lesson we started off with Do-In which is an exercise to help you become aware of your body and the tension in your body and hopefully relax any unnecessary tension, in order to prepare you for movement. Personally, I feel this does make you more aware of your body but I don't think it prepares me as much as other warm ups for example, the Peggy hackney patterns of total connectivity I feel better prepares me for this type of movement.
This workshop focused on the spine and how we can manipulate this for movement in performance. The discussion on the vertebrae of the spine was extremely informative and enlightening.
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Update #2
I had my accident a couple of months ago, and have had to get used to coping with life after the incident. I have been having physiotherapy to ensure that I get full mobility in my elbow in the future. This physio is extremely hard, as I have to push my joint through some pain, but if I don't then my arm will never be as strong.I am constantly worried that I will re-injure myself during some movements, but i'm sure this is mainly psychological. Although, I still can't straighten my arm, it is much more mobile that it has been. I still have a lot of stiffness in my elbow and upper arm as I haven't been using it over the past couple of months. My exercises that will push my elbow use a 'theraband' which increases the power in the exercise to push the elbow more. My physiotherapist says it still may take a year to full be able to use my elbow and straighten my arm, this slightly worries me as I feel my achievement in this module may be affected by this injury. The psychological impact of this as well is something I did not anticipate, not being able to participate in my lessons or not feeling like I am performing to the best of my ability has made me feel upset and doubt my capabilities and feel extremely vulnerable.
Movement Assessment
My movement assessment kicked off a week of assessments for my course. As I have said before, I have not been able to participate in lessons due to my injury, and I was also not able to partake in the assessment. So, I was given the job of timing the groups so that they all had three mins to complete an improvisation.
One piece in particular that stood out to me involved a lot of different movements that all juxtaposed. The pieces that worked, and were interesting to watch contained a mixture of sharp movements and flowing ones, they also explored the differences in tempo, energy and how contact can change the piece. Some people's contact work were extremely strong, as they really connected with each other and reacted to the contact.
I feel the standard of work in this assessment was extremely high. It was extremely useful to watch the other groups and how inventive some where in their use of different movement scores. I only wish that I could have participated in this assessment as it would have been a good chance to practice the art of contact improvisation.
One piece in particular that stood out to me involved a lot of different movements that all juxtaposed. The pieces that worked, and were interesting to watch contained a mixture of sharp movements and flowing ones, they also explored the differences in tempo, energy and how contact can change the piece. Some people's contact work were extremely strong, as they really connected with each other and reacted to the contact.
I feel the standard of work in this assessment was extremely high. It was extremely useful to watch the other groups and how inventive some where in their use of different movement scores. I only wish that I could have participated in this assessment as it would have been a good chance to practice the art of contact improvisation.
Saturday, 1 December 2012
How my injury is effecting movement in my everday life
As I have said before, I have sustained a broken elbow, meaning I have to wear a sling for 6 weeks, and will have to take physiotherapy to get my elbow back up to strength, which will take from 6-12 months. This therefore has clearly had an impact on my movement in everyday life. At first, it was extremely difficult to adjust to life using one arm, i found simple every day tasks, like getting changed and cooking, extremely difficult and had to ask for help on numerous occasions. When we lose the use of something, we realise how much we rely on it. This has affected how I walk as I have to be extremely careful about not knocking it and bashing into someone, or falling over. I feel that, because of this injury, I have also created some unnecessary tension in my body, as whenever I feel that I could potentially hurt myself again, I tense my core muscles and my jaw.
The physiotherapy is helping with the movement of my arm, It is now becoming a bit more mobile. There are various exercises I have to do to ensure that I regain full movement in my elbow, although this may take a while.
As I am doing a physical, workshop based course, it is proving very difficult for me to participate fully in my workshops, this means I am missing out on some key aspects of the training.
The physiotherapy is helping with the movement of my arm, It is now becoming a bit more mobile. There are various exercises I have to do to ensure that I regain full movement in my elbow, although this may take a while.
As I am doing a physical, workshop based course, it is proving very difficult for me to participate fully in my workshops, this means I am missing out on some key aspects of the training.
Friday, 30 November 2012
What I did today? Week 8
Note: I was again not partipating in this workshop, I was only observing. Due to injury.
In this lesson we watched everyones performance, and then gave them feedback, then watched it again when they had taken on board some of our comments. There was one group in particular whose work stood out to me. This group was made up of 3 people, all from different types of movement backgroud, so they all brought something unique and different into the piece. The all seemed to work separately yet as a group at spesfic points when contact was made. When the contact was made, it was extremely interesting to watch them react to this accordingly, as with this type of improvisation, reacting to others and the atmosphere is a key skill that is needed for a successful piece.
It was interesting to witness everybody's performances and which ones worked with some sound, and which ones were more effective in silence. One group had sound which kept changing tempo, this gave their piece more depth as they could either go along with the tempo change and speed up or slow down according or juxtapose the music on perpose to create tension between the movement and the accompaning music.
In this lesson we watched everyones performance, and then gave them feedback, then watched it again when they had taken on board some of our comments. There was one group in particular whose work stood out to me. This group was made up of 3 people, all from different types of movement backgroud, so they all brought something unique and different into the piece. The all seemed to work separately yet as a group at spesfic points when contact was made. When the contact was made, it was extremely interesting to watch them react to this accordingly, as with this type of improvisation, reacting to others and the atmosphere is a key skill that is needed for a successful piece.
It was interesting to witness everybody's performances and which ones worked with some sound, and which ones were more effective in silence. One group had sound which kept changing tempo, this gave their piece more depth as they could either go along with the tempo change and speed up or slow down according or juxtapose the music on perpose to create tension between the movement and the accompaning music.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
What I did today: Week 7
Note: I was observing this workshop, not participating due to injury.
This workshop, again, follows on from the previous one. However, instead of using exercise balls to highlight the rolling point of contact, you just have to use the other person's centre as the rolling point of contact. This is called contact improvisation. People in my class found this quite tricky without having the ball to help and guide you on the sort of movements you should be making. Many people in the class felt embarrassed and stuck when it came to thinking up new ways of pouring your weight onto someone and rolling with this point of contact. With the ball it is easier to see when you lost the point of contact and how to not lose the contact again, whereas without it, you have to be very critical of yourself, and realise when you lose the contact and what went wrong. This can sometimes be something people struggle with. But, once people were aware of how to do this task, it was very beautiful to watch the types of movement people could come up with. From these movements, I noticed that I could infer some sort of 'story' or relationship. This jusy goes to show, that without trying movements can have so much meaning and impact.
This workshop, again, follows on from the previous one. However, instead of using exercise balls to highlight the rolling point of contact, you just have to use the other person's centre as the rolling point of contact. This is called contact improvisation. People in my class found this quite tricky without having the ball to help and guide you on the sort of movements you should be making. Many people in the class felt embarrassed and stuck when it came to thinking up new ways of pouring your weight onto someone and rolling with this point of contact. With the ball it is easier to see when you lost the point of contact and how to not lose the contact again, whereas without it, you have to be very critical of yourself, and realise when you lose the contact and what went wrong. This can sometimes be something people struggle with. But, once people were aware of how to do this task, it was very beautiful to watch the types of movement people could come up with. From these movements, I noticed that I could infer some sort of 'story' or relationship. This jusy goes to show, that without trying movements can have so much meaning and impact.
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