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Today's class felt a little different than usual. Although I knew what I needed to do to prepare for the lesson, I had no idea how today's class would go.

We started by laying on our backs. Craig told us to think about or aims. What was our aim as a dancer? How did we see ourselves dancing. Could we imagine the studio we were dancing in. Could we imagine how we looked. Was we moving differently? With this in mind, he told us to begin moving in the space, moving on every out breath. Keeping the idea of my dancer aim, I already began to feel different. I began to move in a different way, I was improving movement I haven't felt on my body before, although still feeling familiar with what I was doing. This exercise helped me to realise that I can move from out of my comfort zone and begin to explore what my body can do.

After our warm up, Craig wanted to go through the material of the class piece we have been working on developing. Going through the phrase, Craig stopped us to pick apart the movement and the help us fully understand what we should be doing. He commented on the class and how our high releases are more about the head rather than opening our chest to the ceiling. For me, I felt this and started to think about opening upwards and engaging my core as I perform this move.
With some work, I believe that I can achieve this.

Craig told us that we would be spacing a new class routine using another one of our technique phrases, the shifting of weight traveling phrase from each side of the room.

Our feedback for this phrase was that we were focusing on the phrasing and not the placement of our feet. When we done the phrase again, I was thinking about our feedback, trying to feel whether me feet were in parallel or not. Trying to think about the placement of my feet and trying the remember the choreography proved to be very difficult but then I remembered what I have been reflecting on, and that's to let me body tell me where to go next.

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Today was our first session back after half term. Going into the lesson, I started to prepare myself and what my body needed in order for me to work efficiently in the class.

Today the lesson was a little different, although we were began with out regalur warm up exploration phrase, we were told to think as if we were aliens, new to moving around the room. During this task, I cleared my mind of any movement I might usually do and begun to focus on letting my body take me around the room. This proved to be a very usual way of thinking. I found myself exploring new ways of moving around the space. I could use this when creating choreography, being able to create new and interesting ideas my body may not be used to.

We were informed that the class phrases we had been working on in the past weeks, were going to be developed to create a second year class piece of choreography.

The first piece we begun to work on developing was our swing class phrase. By using the process of developing a technical exercise by using different choreographic devices has expanded my understanding of my technical abilities. For example, there is a section in the phrase where I shift my weight going backwards, before leaving the momentum take me down to the ground, causing my legs to go up and over my shoulder, making my head tuck under and causing me to face the back of the room.

As the lesson continued on, we started the develop the piece further. Craig selected when and where we should enter or leave the space and what sides we should perform the choreography on. This has helped me to pin point where in the material I need to focus on so that I can perform the movement to the best of my abilities.

My target for next week is the continue with our class piece and continue to work on my ques to enter the stage and to also ensure that I know the choreography and so I can then move onto performing the material.

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Milestone lesson: Assessment.

Today's session was our first practical assessment of the year. My target for the session today was to take everything I had previously been working on, and apply them to today's work.

We began with feeling through our feet and pushing weight through the feet and into the ground. We started to look at how does pushing weight into the floor effect other body parts. When I was exploring this idea, i found that my pelvis wanted to lift into the hair slightly and that my lower back would slowly follow behind it.

After we had finished our focus on feeling through the skin and pushing weight into the floor, we began to explore the space, using the idea of never repeating the same thing twice and feeling the floor with different body parts. What I found interesting was how pushing against the floor, would take me into a new direction, be it left to right on the floor or upwards or downwards in space. I feel that using this exploration idea could help me create choreography in the future.

Continuing onto our floor phrase, we worked with in partners to create our own floor phrase, using material from our previous classes. Ashlea and I bounced idea off each other, which helped us work effiecntly to complete the task. When we performed the phrase we had created together, we both commented on how to material had a sense of fluiditiy through out and how it continues into each movement.

Craig then commented on how he enjoyed sitting out and watching how we work independently and how he learns more about us. He then showed us a solo created and performed by James O'hara called Ephemera (video below). During the video, I noticed how the dancer articulates every part of his body and has a sense of flow through out the piece.

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Choreography, directing, and edited by Harumi Terayama Videography by Jubal Battisti Danced by James O'Hara Music by Bernard Matracki

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Continuing with my target this week, I also wanted to focus on performing the phrases in both sides of my body which I have found challenging in the past weeks of the class.

Our warm up today was an exploitation of the body, identitying how each body part connects with the ground and how the idea of pushing agasint the floor causes our bodies to move to different planes in the space.

We continued on into the class with our phrases, performing them in groups on both sides of our bodies. Craig asked the question "how can we stand out as an individual while performing". I feel as though Identifying our own weakness and pushing ourselves to turn them into strengths will highlight the work and effort we put into improving our technical abilities and help us stand out when dancing the material.

We continued with the phrases, performing them in groups but still I struggled with the directions when it came to performing it on the opposite side of the body. This proved to be one of my biggest weaknesses this week within the class. However Craig mentioned that I reminded him of a past student, who has a sense of continueation and flow throughout the choreography.

Next week is our first assessment of the year, I'm hoping to take everything I have learned from the past few weeks and perform to the best of my ability and keeping the idea of honesty within the material and letting my body move instead of holding back to think what comes next.

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Today I wanted to continue working on focusing on dancing honestly throughout the material.

We began the class by going straight into our floor phrase, which has changed every week. I found this to be very effective and also very challenging as it has helped me with my ability to learn and pick up choreography much quicker than before. Craig also commented on this by adding that allowing us to work it out for ourselves has made us look stronger as the weeks go by rather than repeating what the movement.

To add to our class, we learned a new phrase, which began facing the mirror. I began to question why do dancers use or rely on the mirrors in the studio? I found an article online that highlights the negatives of dancers using the mirrors in the studio. (Link below)

https://www.iadms.org/page/400

The phrase for me highlighted the use of contractions, where the dancer or performer folds at the hip and drawing everything inwards causing the back to curve. Also the use of pooling, the idea of thinking about your legs are being filled with water and you're exchanging the water from one leg to other, so that you can balance but still able to move through choreography. My weakness with this phrase was that I was focusing too much on what was coming next rather than letting my body tell me where it needs to go next. For example, Craig gave the class feedback and mentioned that the movement does not feel honest, this made me think of letting my body tell me what is next, rather than my mind thinking about what needs to come next. It's okay to get it wrong in rehearsals.

Next week I'd like to make sure I don't start to fall back into the idea of thinking and focus more on feeling where the movement and where my body needs to go next.

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My target for today was to engage with the feeling of honesty within the choreography instead of constantly thinking what the movement is next.

We began the class like any other, with our regular warm up in the class. We laid onto our back, focusing on flattening our bodies completely on the ground, breathing into each body part, lowering it further into the ground.

We started to contract our bodies to fire up our core, moving from side to side.

This then brought us into our first phrase of the class where we revisited the phrase with a few changes made in certain section but the overall intention was the same.

We then performed them in groups. I find performing the phrase in groups difficult as there are no set counts to the movement, just feeling.  Craig commented on how I use my kineshpere and whether I'm extending to my full capacity or not.

I feel as if I was holding back in today's class and not pushing myself or taking risks within in the choreography although I feel as though my strength was continuing with the movemntn instead of worrying what was coming next.

My target for next week is to continue on working with the idea of honesty so that the movement can flow throughout.

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This week was a lot more calmer than last weeks lesson. I felt a lot more relaxed because I was aware of what the lesson would bring.

I started to remind myself of the material we had learned the week before, and the remind myself to allow my body to feel what comes next. Although the movement wasn't exact, I was able to perform and not doubt whether or not I was dancing the correct sections.

In today's lesson, we continued to recap on what we had learned the week before. We also learned 2 completely new phrases, which I was able to pick up and remember a lot more faster than the week before which I found to be a strength of mine during the lesson however, when performing the material, I found myself switching between feeling where my body goes and thinking what comes next which I considered to be one of my weaknesses in today's lesson.

Below is a video of the traveling phrase we had learned in today's lesson. Although I stumbled and panicked whether I was in time with my fellow classmates, I feel as though I now have an understanding of how to work independently and efficiently.

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Our first lesson in developing our contemporary dance technique further.

My lecturer Craig Coombs, attended Laban's summer training during the holidays and was able to learn what the is current at the moment in London to then bring back to Wales to update his students and himself on the what they require in auditions.
Craig mentioned that he as going to take a new approach to the way he teaches and delivers choreography in this lesson so that we as students can work more effectively ourselves on learning choreography rather than Craig having to repeat steps. I found this to be very challenging but also very informative as it allowed my body to settle into the movement and allowed me to feel where I should go to next rather than constantly thinking about the next step.

We started today's lesson with a core warm up, revisiting our previous training from the year before on engaging the core. We laid on our backs and began to warm up and engage our core by turning to lay on our sides, then switching, but engaging and allowing our cores to move us from side to side, encouraging our use of breath and to let our bodies to feel to movement.

I found this teaching method taught us that being thrown into the deep end to work independently has started me on a path to become an efficient learner and dancer.

As the class moved on, I found myself becoming more and more comfortable and able to perform the choreography and enjoy it rather than worrying if I'd remember what comes next.

I know feel that I can use this approach and the idea of seeing where my body wants to move next in my own work and when it comes to creating my own pieces such as solo's of group choreography.