Assessment Day
This is it. This is what we've been working towards. I must say, I enjoyed this lesson. I think it was the most fun class I've had all semester.
Following from last week's post, during our lucky dip portion of the class, the audience was in the round and the dancers were to dance around the edge of the space without sight. I was absolutely terrified to perform in this type of setting. I was scared of the judgement as well as hurting myself but my class looked after me and I was reassured. Dancing without sight I thought would be really difficult but to my surprise, I really enjoyed myself! Luckily we used music that helped me with my movements, but I found myself on the floor because that was the only tool I could use to feel the space and also because it is so hard to balance and find my feet without cheating.
Another section of the class was the Functions score that we played around with. Last time, I took the role of an observer more than anything but this time, I experimented with the role of the interpreter. I feel as a group, we introduced more contact work and learnt to trust each other which I think is important in improvisation. I think that our contact work peaked in this section of the class as we played with the idea of resistance and physically stopping and moving each other.
Our group have bonded and opened up to each other in terms of movement and relationships and I feel that this welcoming vibe made it so much easier to bounce ideas off each other and create an improvised piece of work.
Self consciousness played a big part in my journey of dance improvisation. At times, I would push against it and feel as if I have broken my own barrier and other times, I would take my self consciousness as a blessing and use it to step back and simply observe others and look at the space before delving into the situation. This to me, is the definition to being in the moment. Making choices impulsively and deciding whether or not to act upon them.
Being in the moment, in my opinion, can also be when you create new movements and discover the range of ability that your body has. I think dance improvisation as a whole, can benefit any dancer of any training. It allows them to understand their own bodies and have a heightened awareness of space and time.
Initially, even the word of improvising made me on edge. I thought that improvising was just simply dancing with everyone watching you. I thought that moving would come instantly like those videos I've seen. Now, I have discovered that improvisation isnt simple at all, there is so much theory to it and thought behind the movement which makes it look so effortless.
I am now a strong believer that dance improvisation is vital to dance training... and I never thought I'd say that!