Current Thoughts with my movement, Year 3

My current curiosities stem from previous tutorial feedback that began in my second year. I’m mostly concerned with looking at how I can lengthen my body in order to fill space around me. I’m mainly working with reaching out fully into each movement and not to cut anything short. For example during my technique classes I am aiming to fill the space by lengthening out my spine so I am not shortening in my ribcage and hips. I am finding this difficult to contend with, especially when I am doing floor work. The lengthening is clearer when I am travelling from one side of the space to the other. This has been my focus throughout the first term of year 3. I am still finding new ways to fill space with my body and I feel that I’m only scratching the surface of possibility. There is something quite clear in my mind about making space within my body in order to fill space on the outside. 

NOVEMBER REVEIEW MS3

So another month has past and we are getting closer to Christmas! A lot has happened within my moving and we have covered a lot of important things that can be applied to my moving in all classes.

Throughout this month I have been noticing a few things about my movement and feelings towards it. We have been moving with the influence of the Skeleton and the Organs. Each are very different and therefore my moving will be different when thinking of each. For me the performance quality changes as my attention is shifted according to how I interpret my movement.

I have also been applying the NRP to my movement in different classes, for example in Yoga my practice has been taking my NRP to learn how to control my limbs on the jump back which comes from my core. It can also be applied to Feldenkrais in the exercise where I take my arm backwards and forwards. here the NRP can help control the arm and keep it in line so I don't injure myself.

The fundamental piece of information that I have learnt therefore is that

SOMATIC PRACTISES UNDO HABIT AND EXTEND MOVEMENT CHOICES.

Moving on from the STARFISH we focussed on the SEA SQUIRT.
Here we are now shifting to where the head becomes important in terms of organisation. In the Starfish the focus is in the middle of the Starfish but now the Sea Squirt the head becomes organised at the top of the being. The head becomes a structure in itself and this then connects to the digestive system.

In order to understand our digestive pathways we were given a chewy sweet and I noticed that the TMJ joint is very much in use here. here the muscles grip when chewy which then creates this nodding action when we chew. This stems from when we were a baby and we sense everything through the mouth.

Therefore the Sea Squirt and a Baby both use the head, nose and mouth as another limb almost to reach out into the world and explore.

The digestive system offers a line of support through the body. This can ground us and when I began moving with this in mind I did find it difficult at first as normally I take this system for granted because it requires no conscious effort to do it. My moving was slow and fluid, this is how I imagine the digestive path to be.

 

 

Moving on we then looked at the Nervous system. It is important to understand that the Nervous system has two different parts. One that we can consciously control and another that we cannot.

 

During an exercise in class when I was partnered with Chelsea we were asked to stroke each others face from the jaw line up until the ear. My findings were that I wanted to move towards the movement I was receiving. I then found that this is a routine reflex that new born babies do when offered food. therefore it is a very much inward focus and a self contained unit. I also noticed that I first move away to then go towards. This is again found in babies movement as they want to find a motion and they must go back first to find this. This is seen in dance all the time and I noticed it when I was taking part in a yoga class. In my jump back I needed to move away from the direction to where my feet were going in order to get the motion to send myself backwards.

 

I also found in this exploration that when I turn my skull it activated the spine in relation to my torso with a tiny spiral happening. Also we learnt that the Cranial Sacral Fluid (CSF) bathes my skull and spinal chord. Its main purpose is to protect these vital structures in our bodies.



 

 

Here in this image it shows the direction in which the fluid flows and as you can see it creates an outer layer of protection. We are constantly creating this fluid and we don't even realise.

 

 

The next development in our creature timeline is going from the Sea Squirt to the Lancet. Again the Lancet doesn't have a spine however it does have a digestive and nervous systems. The Lancet now becomes much more structured in the sense that it resembles a fish. Though it uses the systems to keep structure rather than a spine.

 

I have found as the creatures get much more complex I am finding it more difficult to move with a sense of them. For example I found the Starfish a clear shape to move with a sense of. I think moving with the different systems however has enables me to tackle the more complex creatures. 

 

I look forward to the rest of term and to be able to take this knowledge into my movement practice in the new year. 

OCTOBER REVIEW, MS3

Ok so my first moving month back from the summer is now over.

This post will consist of my personal learning throughout my Friday sessions concerning anatomy and in particular BMC work.

so my first Friday session of the new term was based all around my aspirations for movement studies 3. My aspirations are:
1. to feel the connection with my skull and my tailbone. this has come from my previous viva from second year. I focussed a lot on this and I want to be able to continue having this connection in my third year. Plus I am interested to know my further findings that I will with this. for example, does my torso then become longer as a result of this connection?
2. to be able to move with my bones rather than rely on muscles. this came about when I was given feedback previously. As I use my muscles a lot in other activities I have a tendency to rely on them when dancing. I am focussing on letting go and finding this connection with my bones to help me move and support rather than my muscles.
3. To figure out how I can have length in my body and as a result not to shorten into the hips. I struggle with this and have done since first year. Although I have got better I'm still on the quest to finding clear answers with how I can deal with this. I feel that my BMC work plus some extra SRT classes will enable me to find what I'm searching for.

This 3 wonderings will be my main focus in my movement studies 3 work and I hope to find possible answers, however I am aware this is a continual process and I welcome more questions that will crop up in my movement process.

Moving more onto BMC we began to think about the connections between the mind and body. To me this is almost like a big jigsaw puzzle. it is ongoing and it will constantly offer a number of solutions and I need to find the ones that help my learning process about my body.

To me I think about evoking movement, memory, thinking and doing and imagination when I think about the relationship about my mind and body.

It is important to note that the 2 things go hand in hand. THINKING AND MOVING CANNOT HAPPEN WITHOUT THE OTHER.

this leads nicely onto what is somatic practices?
this diagram specifically is important to me as I know these 3 subjects affect each other and this is how I see somatic practices.

All 3 areas, creativity, personal growth and physical intelligence go hand in hand. no matter what I do each affects the other.

 

For this I must understand myself in a holistic way. All activities inform each other.

 

So in life somatic practices will help me as I am education the whole person rather than giving them skills...

... so the aspiration is I can be an independent learner and a reflective practitioner in the world.

 

 

During my first movement process a lot of embarrassing memories were evoked in my mind I am now questioning why this is. in no way did I feel uncomfortable in  remembering but I now I realise that memory is a powerful thing.

 

 

My next session was based around EXPERIMENTIAL LEARNING IS LEARNING THROUGH DOING.

 

In this session we looked closely at SENSES AND PERCEPTIONS.

we mapped our senses. so we have our special senses that involve our head area and proprioception kinaesthetic awareness.

 

I learnt, WE HAVE RECEPTORS IN OUR BODY IN MUSCLES AND JOINT CAPSULES THAT SPEAK TO NERVOUS SYSTEM WHICH SPEAKS TO THE BRAIN SO IT KNOWS WHERE WE ARE IN SPACE.

 

This is something that when I am moving I am aware of this now as I understand where exactly I am in space.

 

 I am now aware that senses lead to perception and perception opens up the senses. it is a loop and it constantly goes on.

 

Something which I noticed when walking around my hometown down the street was that I realised as humans we all have the same system but not everyone shares the same properties for example western cultured people may have different views to eastern cultured people.

 

 Delving more into the senses we began to move with them. I chosen seeing and vision as my sense. to me this was what was vivid and clear for me at the time. I found that as I focussed on them so much I felt that the room itself was moving around me, rather than me moving around the room. it was almost as if I had no control with what I was seeing. I enjoyed the disorientation of this as I felt I was just a presence not a being in the space.

 

Therefore I understand that BMC involves this connection between THE INNER SELF- THE OUTER WORLD. this links in with the early stages of a humans life. Being in the womb the first sense that is developed is touch, something which BMC focusses on. then suddenly we have been so used to this inner self containment in utero we are then thrust into the outer world where gravity takes place.  

 

 

Our next session lead us onto BMC SYSTEMS and MOVEMENT DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS

 

BMC SYSTEMS,

• Nervous
• Skeletal
• Senses and perception
• Endocrine
• Fluid
• Organs
• Ligament
• Muscular

In BMC the systems are much more integrated than maybe in the Western medical world and BMC and Western medical systems have a slight difference between each other for example the Fluid is not recognised as a system in Western medical but is in BMC.

 

MOVEMENT DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS

these do connect to systems but are more movement focussed. for example crawling as a child is how we begin to move around. they can also be retained if a stage has been missed out I.e walking with the arms in opposition.

 

CELLS

To begin with we started off as a single Cell---- Turn into animals--- Human Beings

 

Moving with cells was a great experience. Though I didn't understand or let go to begin with I then got into it and my findings are represented here in some free writing.

 

 

 

 As a result of this I felt majorly connected to my nervous system. I became extremely aware of this system, something which I don't usually pay attention to.

As part of our homework tasks I was asked to find an image of a cell which I felt a connection with. here is mine. From this I realised just how much is in a single cell. so much goes on and we are all made up of lots of these.

 

 

 

 Another part of our homework tasks were to move with our cells again like we did in class. this time as I knew a little bit more about Cells and how it feels I felt more comfortable. I found that my body was a wave of cells moving of their own accord. The Cells move me and I am taken on this ride. I also felt that my sense were heightened and I was more aware of the space around me.

In terms of using Cells to enable dance phrases I have learnt that we have a sense of the whole body in activity. Plus with the help of surfaces and Cells we have movement around with a clear sense of yielding to the ground whilst other parts of our body can move freely and easily.

BMC:
In terms of this evolution of the being we come from:

WATER---- LAND
WHICH ECHOES
FLUID--- IN THE WOMB---- GRAVITY

Rather than theses stages evolving separately there is an element of stages overlapping.

So we then move onto:

SINGLE CELL ORGANISM--- SPONGES (SEA BED FLOOR)--- STARFISH

Here I had never dreamed that sea sponges would be part of the evolution of life.

The sponge like action echoes much like a Jellyfish. this pulsation of in and out is what I then moved with. unlike moving with cells I did see this in a much clearer light. some words that would describe my movement would be supple, tingly and boneless.

As part of another homework task we were asked to read " What is Somatics?" by Thomas Hanna.
I enjoyed this reading though challenging at times. Some things that stood out for me was:

" The spinal column is composed of descending motor nerves and ascending sensory nerves" so there are pathways going up and down the spine which is what allows us to move around. the information is going both ways.

This is something which I found really interesting as without this process we are humans would not be able to move or communicate.

STARFISH
Our next session focussed on the STARFISH, the next evolution.

here is my journal entry about STARFISH and how this connects with BMC.

With this information about the Naval Radiation Patterns we moved like this. Our partners mapped out the 6 point starfish in order for us to connect with our own bodies. My finding were that I felt very long and wiggly. I had a great sense of expanding and condensing in my movement whilst still being aware of my centre which is the core of a starfish.

This expanding and condensing action is helping my across my other studio practices. Such as the techniques phrases where we do the exact action. In order for me to feel how it should feel I can call upon why exactly I am doing this. I can think that I am a starfish and use the NRPS to connect instantly.

I look forward to the coming sessions where I can take all of this information into my moving process and journey.
 

First post of Year 3

Settled in now
Ready to work
Ready to move
Stress of Dissertation
Excitement for FMP
Into the swing of things now

Dance of the Loose Legs SRT

During SRT class we experimented with the Dance of the Loose legs, Here are my feelings and findings:

Am I a puppet?

Who is Controlling me?

Can I dance without thought?

Melting Bones

What happens when my strings are cut?

Legs are doing what they want. I have no control and I cannot seem to stop them

This was a great exercise for me to practice in my quest for finding out how to lengthen out and use my legs in new and different ways.