The Sponge Dance

During one of our SRT classes we were greater by this in the middle of the room...

It is a line of wet sea sponges of different sizes. We could feel these sponges and to me they felt very rubbery and sprung back into place when I squeezed them. With this image in mind we were told to imagine our bodies were sponges and we were to move to create our own sponge dance.

Findings:
At first it was difficult for me to imagine my bones were sponges and even the joints that are physically hard trying to imagine them as soft sponges as I moved is difficult. the more I commited I found it was easrer to give in and imagine my bones could move just like sponges do folding and expanding.

I found feeling the sponges first gave me more of an image to work with. The sponges felt soft and I could manipulate them into small shapes and letting them expand.

Duet Rehearsal

Ok so myself and Ben had a rehearsal today and we spent about 3 hours working in the studio trying out different ideas that we have been speaking about.

We started by doing a short warm-up by improvising together with our eyes closed for 5 mins and then 10 mins. this worked for us in a previous lesson and soon found that having our eyes closed opens up so many different ideas and feelings.

From this we talked about how our other senses are heightened when our eyes are closed. for example i could hear Ben breathing infront of me so i knew where he was because i could hear him. We found this very interesting as we sometimes felt finding each other was difficult but also interesting to dance.
We began to experiment with the other senses such as sound and touch. With sound we looked at a piece made by Rosa Danst Rosa which experiments with natural and man made sound e.g slapping hands on the floor and breathing heavily. Heres our ideas from each sense that we thought we could explore.

And this is the video we watched by Rosas Danst Rosas. I think the timing of each dancer is amazing and something myself and Ben are exploring together doing certain things at the same time and seeing what effect it has on both ourselves and the audience.

Surfing

I have been looking at my journal and found the evidence from when we experimented with surfing over each other. Although the drawings in my journal are not clear the writings help me to understand the technique of the rolling.

I found the more me and my partner practised the more fluid it got. The key idea here is to just go for it and commit fully. It you don't commit then you can run the risk of injuring yourself he your partner. Also you cannot be afraid to give your weight onto the other person. No one will judge.

Probably the most important thing here is to never stop rolling. As long as you have the momentum the rolls will happen smoothly and not look awkward . Here is my entry for this roll.

Can you think or anymore rolls that would offer giving and receiving weight? Maybe a more difficult version of this surging roll?

Further reflection from blog session

Having looked at the videos posted from the blog session I have noticed that my posture isn't great. When I looked at my feedback video I was sat down curled over. I realise now this isn't good for my spine and could lead to later problems in life. A way to tackle this is to sit up against the wall and feel just how stacked my spine is. I then will sit away from the wall and Capture that same feeling. I think for me I have to actively think about sitting up and keeping a straight spine.

Just something I noticed...

Any imagery I could use to help me with this?

Phrase & Peer Feedback (Travelling across the floor)

I thought it would be useful for me to film a phrase and to get peer feedback on how I can improve. this phrase involves moving across the floor making sure it is fluid and it almost skims across the floor in one motion. For me this is exactly what I was thinking about, making sure there were no sudden movements that would make the phrase look awkward and difficult. Here is the phrase.

After this I perfromed it to my peers and they gave feedback on what they saw. Thankfully they noticed the fluidity I wanted to show. For me this is important as the phrase is on the floor and a bit complicated with the legs, having long legs I found this phrase a little difficult to keep it smooth and low to the ground. this is my feedback and i agree with the end comments that Yoga will help me more to keep my core engaged all of the time and to keepp lifted up off the floor.

Do you have any more comments to give me from this piece? Maybe you could suggest more feedback reguarding keeping the smoothness or the overall look?

Free writing

So in our improvisation classes we have created a number of free writing entries in our journals. For me I found the more I practised this the more I let go and let my mind be one step behind of my writing hand. I found it difficult at first to not think about my next words. Looking back at some of my entries some of it doesn't make sense but that is ok, there are certain phrases that could help with creating pieces. I will continue to free write at the end of lessons to express what I may have picked up during the lesson. Here are some examples of my free writing that I want to share.

Can you think of any phrases I could start with for my free writing?

Silent Walking

Ok so looking through my artists journal I saw my entry from when we practises silent walking around the building with a partner. The aim for me was to observe objects, structures and sounds that we wouldn't normally observe in everyday life. We spent ten mins walking around, not even thinking about where we were going. when we finished we wrote down what we remembered from our journey. This would then become a stimuli that we could create from. Here is what I observed and my feelings from this experience.

Axial Skeleton

These two images represent how my spine and pelvis felt after a technique lesson. The first image shows a rather rooted and restricted feeling of my spine and how it was stiff at the beginning of the lesson. Although I felt strong in my core supported by the axial skeleton I did feel that I couldn't really engage and free up my upper body in moving.

After the lesson I drew another image of what my axial skeleton felt like. It felt loose and fluid in between the vertebrae and that I had created space during the lesson. This then helped me to move more freely.

Cinderella 2012