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In this Padlet I will be reflecting on different dance practices that I have engaged in over the last four and half months. I have chosen to use a semi-formal journaling style alongside a structured reflection model to breakdown my experiences. I will be assessing my own progress, and identifying particular methods, tools and experiences that have helped me to improve and grow as a dancer. By making these reflections I feel I have gained a beneficial insight into my own practice that I can bring forward throughout the rest of my training.

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In the weeks preceding the Alston repertoire, I began to think more consciously about my Cunningham practice and how what I had learned so far would translate into the project: technical ability, the ability to pick up choreography quickly, take corrections, and understand artistic context and intention.

Following my last class with Kate Price on the 8th of March, I wrote down each specific correction given throughout the class, in order to consolidate everything, I had been learning prior to the short week. The words I found most frequently in my notes were initiation, continuity, and lengthening.

Something that particularly spoke to me was Kate encouraging us not to dance ‘from a list', ‘checking off’ each individual step in a travelling exercise. She encouraged us to think about how we transition from one movement to the next, finding the continuity that came up so frequently in my notes. This made me think about what I could do to really dance the material, as I knew that during the rep, I would want to be fluid and continuous. The word ‘indulging’ came to mind, making me think about where I could find more weight in my arms to propel me into the next step. Where could I find more depth in my plie and greater suspension in turns and jumps?

I filmed one sequence from this class, where I applied small corrections from Kate that I feel successfully helped make my movements look longer and more continuous.

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After, finding more depth in the plie to fill out music. 

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After, finding more depth in the plie to fill out music. 

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The Alston repertoire project was something I had been looking forward to from the beginning of the year, as I have always admired Richard Alston’s work, and the style feels very natural yet exciting to me. I had worked on the ‘Roughcut’ repertoire the previous year with Hannah Kidd, and having never done such a technically demanding, complex repertoire before, I really struggled. Largely, I had difficulty remembering and picking up the choreography, and so when the project came, I was daunted by the prospect of learning up to ten minutes of the piece.

On the second day of the project, we rehearsed what we had learned the day before and performed in smaller groups, which increased the pressure for me. To my surprise, I found that I was able to remember all the choreography clearly and even attend to specific corrections from the previous day. I felt a newfound sense of confidence and assurance in my abilities, able to see how far I had progressed in a short period of time.

As I enjoy Cunningham so much, I have tried to really devote myself to the practice over the past term, and it has been incredibly rewarding to see how my engagement in my classes has benefited me. Over the term, I have been able to begin solidifying the technical aspects of the practice, giving me a foundation for the project, and I can say now that following the performance, I have also been able to push the performance aspect, finding opportunities to think beyond the steps and focus more on quality.

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Having had classes in ground-based technique in term 1 undoubtedly helped to prepare me for floorwork with Lewis Wilkins in term 2, however, having not done either practice before, I knew at the beginning of this term that I still had huge progress to make, with much more adjustment, adaptation, and rethinking to do! When a style of dance is new to me, I will often find it overwhelming to learn lots of different sequences, as I have difficulty picking up and understanding movements that I have not seen before. Because of this, I really enjoy classes where an exercise is repeated continuously or where a longer phrase is worked on repeatedly over several weeks, as I find repetition to be the most useful tool in comprehending and achieving new skills. Lewis acknowledged that we only spent seven full weeks together, a relatively short period of time, and so decided that it would be most effective to not overwhelm us with different phrases but to repeat them, making small adjustments and additions over the weeks to keep them feeling fresh and interesting.

I found this approach to teaching to be perfect for me, and I found great satisfaction in watching the progression of exercises over the weeks. Repeating steps frequently allowed me to explore what makes them work and ways to do them more quickly, effectively, and smoothly. I filmed one phrase on the first day of learning it on the 23rd of January and again on the 21st of February, and I have been able to watch these videos again, observing the differences. Knowing the exercise so confidently allowed me to play with musicality and expansion. Not only was I able to do the exercise more quickly, but by being more efficient in certain steps, for example, rolls, I was able to free up time to find length and suspension in bridges, planks, and stretches, making the exercise not only more enjoyable to watch but more physically fulfilling for me.

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Although this clip is short, I believe you can still see a strong development from the first clip.

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POPPING: the journey from groove to popping. 

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POPPING: the journey from groove to popping. 

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Popping was always a style I felt particularly intimated about trying, with its isolated muscular contractions feeling like something that I would never be able to achieve. However, even in my first ever popping class with Vicky Mantey, I felt strangely comfortable and confident in the style compared to my locking and groove classes from the previous terms. While groove felt as if I had to totally abandon everything I had learned so far in my training, disregarding fixed positions and letting go of tension, popping felt almost familiar, with its focus on engaging the muscles and arguably more controlled, almost ‘firm’ quality.

Perhaps my unexpected comfort had been a result of the progression from groove to locking to popping, starting from a broad perspective, finding flow and individuality, progressively honing in on specific techniques, and finding speed and precision in locking. I feel that my accumulative experience with street dance and hip-hop-related genres up to this point has allowed me to really gain confidence when approaching new styles that fall under the umbrella, having worked on both picking up specific choreography, freestyling, and cyphering. Each popping class begins with a cypher circle, which I really enjoy as it is a great opportunity to experiment with adding popping to my own natural way of moving. The way in which Vicky encourages us to move naturally and freely without any pressure to conform to a perceived idea of ‘hip hop’ or ‘popping’ has really helped me to be confident when entering a cypher.

I have been trying out combining contemporary movements with the addition of the popping technique to see how I can link my different practices together and make unconventional choices in my improvisation.

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USING POPPING TECHNIQUE IN MY IMPROVISATION.

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USING POPPING TECHNIQUE IN MY IMPROVISATION.

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Prior to coming to LCDS, I trained almost solely in classical ballet. Therefore, when I first came to the school and was met with one ballet class per week, restructured to suit contemporary dancers, this was an interesting adjustment for me. Although I was training more than ever before, the reduction in ballet made me worry that I would lose my technique.However, coming into term three, back to two ballet classes and with different teachers, I have had an opportunity to reflect on progression in ballet, seeing what has changed about my way of dancing and what has improved.

One thing I feel has really improved about my ballet technique since coming here is my strength. With my overall increased and more versatile training, I have gained a lot of muscle, that has helped me to achieve higher extensions, jumps and longer balances. I have been consciously working to increase my strength, with exercises in the gym and physiotherapy rehab.

One thing I have been doing to help improve my performance in class specifically is introducing strengthening exercises into my warmup. Talking with my physio, I was reminded of the importance of glute strength in balance and turning, two areas I have been wanting to improve. So, I began adding pelvic bridges to my warmup before ballet, and I have found that it makes an enormous difference, really helping me to find the sensation of ‘wrapping’ that my ballet teachers would talk about. In classes where I did the pelvic bridges beforehand, I found that I could achieve more pirouettes and longer balances.

Similarly, I found that to achieve better attitude turns, I needed to find more engagement in my gluteus medius. I added clams to my warmup and similarly found that this made a noticeable difference in my turns. I feel that the exercises not only help me to physically engage my muscles but also increase my mental awareness, helping me tap into some of the imagery used in class—wrapping and shortening.

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TEACHING PRACTICE: creating a safe and structured teaching environment.

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TEACHING PRACTICE: creating a safe and structured teaching environment.

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While I have several years of experience in assisting teaching, I have never led my own class before, creating sequences, organising music, working with a musician, and formulating the overall structure of the class. And so, my first experience of teaching practice at LCDS was unfamiliar and even stressful for me, particularly as my students were my own age and my peers. Me and my partner chose to teach a ballet warm-up, focusing on activating the turn-out muscles and the feet with a sequence of tendus, alternating between parallel and turned-out.

I chose this exercise as I often find it difficult to engage my turn-out muscles when starting with plies at the beginning of the class. First position would feel uncomfortable and unnatural to me, and I would often wish that we would start facing towards the barre with a simple warm-up. The sequence me and my partner formulated was therefore intended for the very beginning of the class before plie. Because of this, it was important that the exercise was not overly complex or fast, as we would not be sure how much warm-up our students had engaged in prior to the class.

Additionally, it was important for us to think about the pace of the music and what effect it would have on movement. Both Jeannie and Dom spent a lot of our time in teaching practice discussing the effects of music and rhythm choice on an exercise and how it can not only change the feeling but also help to emphasise different intentions. For example, when my exercise was counted with binary subdivision, it was slower and there was more time to spend articulating the feet, whereas with ternary subdivision, focus was shifted towards quick and smooth transitions from one step to another and finding lightness in quality. This experience was interesting as it encouraged me to think about the music in my own classes and how it can encourage me to work in particular ways, and additionally helping me to think about these decisions in future, If I am ever to teach my own classes.

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TEACHING PRACTICE: the power of your voice.

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TEACHING PRACTICE: the power of your voice.

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In my last teaching practice class, I had the opportunity to teach my phrase for a second time, allowing me to draw comparisons between my first and second attempts and see how what I have learned in the previous sessions has affected my practice. In watching my peers teach, I found that the most enjoyable sessions were the ones where the voice was really utilised. For example, one student was able to use a loud, assertive, and almost musical voice when teaching, singing along with the rhythm and encouraging people to enjoy themselves and really connect with the music.

Observing the powerful and positive effect this had on the class, I aimed to bring some of that same energy into my second attempt through my voice. When counting in for my exercise, I aimed to set the rhythm for both the students and the musician, almost singing the quality. I found that this really helped people to maintain consistent timing throughout the exercise, and as shared with me by Dom, it allowed him to assess how much energy to bring when beginning to play. By simply being clear and musical when counting in the sequence, I felt I was able to provide more clarity than in my first attempt.

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FLYING LOW: how using the voice can increase awareness.

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FLYING LOW: how using the voice can increase awareness.

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One thing I find particularly interesting about flying low classes with Julia Testa’s is the use of the voice. In most of Julia’s classes, we discuss ideas of sending and gathering energy through the body. Learning sequences with Julia, I have been able to associate specific movements with the idea of sending and others with gathering, almost developing a sense of language within the practice. In our first class, Julia had us say the words, sending and gathering them out loud alongside the movements. She encouraged us to have the confidence to say them clearly and with energy, and to say them in accordance with the duration of the movement. What I found interesting about this was the way it increased mental awareness. By saying the word 'gathering' aloud, I was more clearly able to see when I was transitioning into the idea of sending, making that decision more consciously. It helped to distinguish between one idea and the other, and additionally, I found it helped me not to rush through the movement but to truly engage with the ideas as they were at the forefront of my mind when I said them aloud. I also find that speaking aloud as a group helped us to move in unison, increasing feelings of connection and togetherness in the space, an idea that seems to me to be integral to the practice. As dancers, I believe that using our voices can be intimidating, and so while I find that it helps me to engage with key concepts, it also helps to release tension and overcome fears of being loud or seeming ‘ridiculous’, gradually becoming more comfortable with things that may seem unconventional.

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For me, imagery has always been a useful tool in improving my dance practice, but I have always found it to be most effective in ballet. Since I was a child, my teachers have used imagery to improve technique, encourage imagination, and help me find quality. While it has always been a large part of my ballet training, in this task of reflection I have had the opportunity to think more actively about the imagery that is used by my teachers at LCDS and how I can get even more out of it than before.

One idea shared with me by Anna Helsby is the idea of imagining the bottom rib closing towards the pelvis. By using imagery, I am inadvertently engaging my core, allowing me to find more stable and secure balances. It is interesting to see how this idea helps me find strong core engagement by thinking about ‘shortening’ the stomach muscles, whereas simply being told to use my core does not have the same effect. Similarly, I have been able to find more stability by engaging my back muscles with the idea of wings that are widespread across the upper back. Having naturally protruding shoulder blades, I have found it difficult to flatten my back surface, creating the round, engaged shape that supports balance and turns. But this idea of wings, first shared with me at LCDS, has really helped me to find those feelings and helped to improve my overall performance. I am fascinated by the way imagery can manipulate and affect movement within dancers, using it to guide my own movement and finding it to be my natural style of teaching others, having used it on children and my peers during teaching practice.

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I have chosen to use the Gibbs model of reflection for this log, as I feel the model effectively helps to breakdown a single event, particularly a stressful one, as they can be difficult to navigate.

DESCRIPTION

What happened?

There was a member of staff from the school watching our floorwork class, interested in seeing what we do. We had been working on a travelling phrase that I found difficult, as it contained a number of steps I had not yet mastered. Therefore, when it came time to do the exercise, I told the teacher jokingly, ‘I can’t do this with someone watching’.

FEELINGS

What were you thinking and feeling?

I felt the exercise wasn’t worthy of being shown because I wasn’t able to do some of the steps. I had an internal sense that I needed to impress this audience by showing things that were perfect, or else I would be embarrassed.

EVALUATION

What was good and bad about the experience?

By having this mindset, I limit myself from progressing because I avoid doing the exercise and therefore get less practice time and lower my own confidence. I know that I am physically capable of doing everything in the class, but my lack of confidence makes it harder for me to even try.

ANALYSIS

What sense can you make of a situation?

I have noticed my own tendency to self-deprecate in class, noticing I will often say ‘I can’t do this’ aloud to my classmates and teachers. I feel like I do this to say it myself before anyone else can. If I have cemented in others minds that this is something I can’t do, then it won’t be surprising if I fail, which gives me a sense of control. I often feel I need to be seen as perfect and capable of everything. I didn’t want an outsider who ‘hasn’t seen all my best abilities’ to perceive me based on a weaker moment.

CONCLUSION

What else could you have done?

I could have changed this experience with a different mindset. I could see that this person was not there to pass judgement on us but probably to enjoy it. I could approach the exercise with an accepting attitude, acknowledging that it’s okay to have weaker moments. I could see that avoiding the phrase was taking away from my own practice time and an opportunity to improve.

ACTION PLAN

If it arose again what would you do?

I have made an active decision to stop saying negative things about myself and my abilities. I have reflected on the harmful impact this has on me and others around me, and by making this change, I hope to bring a more positive attitude to the class.