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During our Two week Richard Alston intensive learning 'Rouh Cut' with Hannah, I learned a lot about how to bring safe dance practice into a professional Environment.

Firstly, warm ups were crucial to making sure that our bodies were where we needed them to be before learning physically and mentally demanding repertoire. This meant that coming to company class in the morning before class was crucial otherwise your body was not in the right place and would make engaging in the repertoire unsafe. Alston's movement involved a lot of jumps and fast movements that match the uptempo music and without warm up the mind and body beforehand this would have been very dangerous.

Furthermore, making sure that we were getting enough rest and sleep outside of class was also crucial. The rep demanded a lot on the brain so making sure that we were in the best place mentally was crucial. Sometimes the rep was overwhelming and stressful so taking care of our minds was so important in order to engage with it in a calm and controlled way.

Additionally, making sure that we were hydrating and eating throughout the weeks was crucial. The Rep was very demanding and we needed the right energy levels to engage with it safely. Making sure that we were eating enough macro nutrients and Low GI foods such as pasta was vital for retaining the energy levels needed.

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Knowing all of this information was vital for retaining a safe dance space where we could work in a professional way. There is a perception in the dance world that you have to push your body beyond its limits in order to succeed. I have found that this is not the case. In fact knowing your limits and when it is okay to test them and when not too is vital for safely engaging in a professional environment. Of course, as dancers we want to improve but there is a way of doing that without injury or burnout.

This was incredibly vital during the second week when I got into a road accident on my bike before school. Fortunatly i was injured but I was mentally shaken and needed to take a few days out of rehearsal in order to let my mind do what it needed to do. This was challenging for me as I did not enjoy missing rehearsal but i needed that time in order to come back to the process and safely continue. When I did come back Hannah advised me to go slow and not learn any new material and just take the rest of the week calmly. This allowed me to slowly come back into the environment at my own pace and not cause unnecessary stress.

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Within our teaching sessions we worked on collaborating with live musician Dominico to assist with teaching movement. When we were creating our exercises we had to think about what time signature we would use and how that would aid the warm up material. If it was a swing exercise a 6/8 signature would have worked better for example as it tells you where the weight should be by the accents and down beats in the music.

We would also need to pick a tempo that would best challenge and warm up our dancers given the material we had created. I decided that for my shoulder exercise I would use a simple 4/4 time signature at a mid tempo so that people could find the mobility in their shoulders and allow them to safely warm up their bodies.

However, in the second week Jeanie challenged me to use a different time signature and work more with Dominico to challenge the dancers most. I decided to do the exercise at two different tempos. The first time I used a mid tempo so that the dancers could mobilise their shoulders and upper back. The second time I sped up the material so that the dancers could through the movements more and find more flow through the different movements. During the exercise once the dancers were about to finish the slower tempo I would go to Dominico and count the faster tempo and then he would speed up so that we didn't have interrupt the flow of the warm up.

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Working with a musician is crucial to engaging and safe dance practice as you can set different exercises to the correct tempo and then challenge your dancers either to go slower or faster depending on the exercise. Furthermore, it requires you to understand the counts of your music and know how material will fit with music. As a musician myself I enjoyed this process as i could relate the movement to the music and understand how they fit together.

However, in order to engage with safe dance practice you have to make sure that the exercise is possible and safe at the tempo you set it at. Jeanie advised us to count in the faster tempos by demonstrating the most challenging part of the sequence to make sure that it is possible and to show how it works to your dancers. If the dancers are aware that the sequence is possible at the set tempo the it alleviates stress and tension and allows them to do the exercise to the best of their abilities.

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As a dancer with not much previous Hip Hop training I found popping extremely challenging at the start. Having done groove technique in term 1 I had some understanding of how the movement should sit in the body but the technique of 'popping' different body parts and then relaxing them very quickly was very new.

In the first few classes we started by focusing on popping the legs by moving the weight onto either leg and popping that leg.  At first I found it hard to 'pop' the knee back and relax it without over stressing it and causing pain in the leg. However, what i found more challenging was popping the arms. Somehow, I just couldn't find the sensation that Vicky was explaining and it wasn't feeling right or looking with. I was focusing to much on tensing the hands rather than the entire arm. However, Vicky gave me some exercises to do which would help me activate my biceps when popping. One exercise was to bring my arms into cactus position and feel my elbows pushing down without moving the lower. This exercise really helped my find what I was missing and engage with the technique.

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Because of this growing knowledge and confidence within the technique i could bring all of my understanding from groove and implement it into popping. Vicky told that class that groove and popping should be done together in order to fit the vibe of the movement with that of the music playing. We then continued to work on syncing the legs and arms together which I had to take slowly in order to understand how it should function. However, because I had been working on the sensations at home and training my body to work in this new way I was able to achieve this.

Additionally, popping really helped me gain confidence within Cyphers as I could keep on implement what i had learned in class which made it a game. Furthermore, Vicky introduced us to dominoes where one person would do a movement and then the next person would do it in cannon. We then used this in Cyphers were the soloist would do 2 pops in one position and then the rest of the group would follow. This took away the fear of soloing and allowed us to solo in a calm and safe environment.

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Since starting flying low with Julia it has become one of my favourite dance practices. I have enjoyed the intense,fast paced nature of it combined with the high energy atmosphere of the classes. However, what flying low has really taught me is that we can work best and efficiently when we work collaboratively.

Before moving to LCDS, a lot of my dance training focused on the individual experience and working on your own practice within dance. Coming from a fairly traditional Ballet, contemporary and Jazz background I always struggled with the lack of community within class. I did not understand why  myself and my classmates weren't looking at each other when we dances and classes never felt like a collaborative endeavour.

However, flying low is the antithesis to this and has become a favourite style accordingly. Within flying low the class is viewed as one unit and Julia really tries to push this within our sessions. for example, when one person as a question we will gather as a collective and aid that person with finding the solution as Julia says 'your question is my question is his question is their question.' This allows the group to feel connected when facing a physically and technically demanding new style. Additionally when moving around in the space and during exercises Julia will challenge us to look to each other throughout the movements and connect with others. This not only aids safe dance practice as it makes sure we can see each other during fast sequences and not collide with each other, it also allows us to shift our focus and notice each other and the space around us meaning we our 'sending' our energy around the room.

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I have found the emphasis on community within a dance practice incredibly beneficial as I feel more supported by my class mates and more comfortable in a style that is new to me. Furthermore, it means that I can learn from other people and take what other peoples are doing and bring it into my own practice. This has allowed me to progress quicker as I am constantly learning from other peoples success and their questions that most of the time I will also have.

Additionally, the energy within class is really high because of this sense of community. When we are wither shouting together, looking to one another or feeling out for each other with our hands when we move I feel very connected to other people and It makes the classes much more engaging and satisfying. This is the same energy that make popping and locking classes enjoyable as when you connect with other people and share your passion with other people it allows you to make connections within the group and progress as a collective.

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I have now tried to bring this sense of community into my other classes such a ballet in order to bring more life and progression into them. During technique based classes we can sometimes bring a lot our attention inwards and forget the other people in the room. Now, during travelling exercises and centre work I will try and shift my focus around the room when I can and try to connect with the other dancers. Additionally I have become much better at taking other peoples feedback and applying it to myself after working with Julia in flying low. This also applies to watching other dancers do exercises and figuring out how i can apply their movements into my own practice. I have challenged myself to continue to work in this way as it had aided my progressions and allowed me to have more fun in class.

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Before coming to the place I had come from a very strict and very traditional ballet background. This had lead me to become very negative towards ballet as I had always found that it had lost what I found fun about dance such as freedom of expression and individuality. However, coming to the place I have changed how i view ballet as a dance style.

During the first week of ballet I had found that the exercises were much more functional than the exercises I had done before. They were about strengthening certain parts of the body and finding fluidity and spirals within the body which I wasn't used to. I enjoyed being able to wear the same clothes I could for contemporary and it made me feel much more comfortable in the space and able to do the movements to the best of my Abilities. Since then, Kate has challenged us to work on vital parts of technique whilst working in a more somatic way and focusing less on muscles working hard.

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Because of Kate's emphasis on somatic practice within dance and focusing on how the movement feels and functions, I am less concerned with its aesthetics and more with how it functions. For example, at the bar Kate consistently reminds us to place our weight in the centre of our feet and not in our heels. This means for faster movements and movements on one leg I can now stabilise myself and find a sense of grounding into the floor instead of wobbling or relying on tensing muscles because my weight is in the wrong place. I can find this not by looking in the mirror, but by listing to where the weight is and shift it accordingly.

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Because of Kate's methodology and way of practice, I have found rapid improvement within Ballet and have really started to enjoy it. Because of Kate's calm but challenging approach to Ballet I have been able to start challenging myself and finding the fun within a practice I used to find incredibly tedious. With the focus on somatic practice, I can approach ballet like i would a Cunningham class and think about how the body functions and how to approach movements in the simplest way rather than over-complicating it. Furthermore, the focus on working with other people in the class and finding support within the group has really helped create a collaborative energy within class and has made me feel much more comfortable and able to progress.

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I have always found mirrors a blessing and a curse in my dance training. On one hand, the allow you to check alignment and posture when dancing and can be a, invaluable tool when learning. During Cunningham classes we would often check the mirrors when doing back exercises to make sure the lines were correct and that our weight was in the right place. On the other hand, by focusing on the mirrors it takes your focus away from the rest of the space and forces you to focus on aesthetic rather than how the movement feels and sits within the body.

During the middle of unit three I was really struggling with mirrors specifically within Pilates. Pieter had decided to open the curtains so that we could see the mirrors which messed with my concentration within class. I started focusing on how the positions looked aesthetically rather than how they felt in the body and how they could help me improve. I started to try to make my movements look more impressive which meant i was over tensing my body and no allowing positions to settle within my body. I also began comparing how my shapes looked to others and given that many of my classmates have more flexibility than I do it really messed with my confidence.

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After a month and a half of this I decided to have a conversation with Pieter about how I had been struggling in class and had started to doubt my own abilities. As it turned out, Pieter had noticed this within class and my declining concentration within class and wanted to talk to me about what was going on. Pieter commented that this lack of confident most likely was to do with the presence of the mirror within the room and it all started to make sense. We agreed that within Pilates the mirrors would be covered up and she challenged me to try and look in the mirrors less during other technique classes such as Cunningham and ballet so I would focus less on aesthetics.

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During our teaching practice sessions with Jeanie, I learned a lot about how to clearly present exercises and material to a class and how to guide them through it quickly and safely with the assistance of a musician. During the first two sessions we had to create a short warm up phrase focusing on  one specific part of the body and then teach it to the rest of the class. I decided to create a shoulder exercise and teach it to the class. The first week I taught my exercise I managed to demonstrate the exercise clearly and keep it focused on one specific area of the body. However, because I was nervous I rushed the teaching process and kept on repeating myself.

The next week, a key piece of advice Jeanie gave to us was to demonstrate an exercise in its entirety first and then break it down. This is so that the dancers can understand the journey of the sequence and what will be required of them before breaking it down. Allowing the dancers to understand the structure of the exercises assists them with learning the movements quickly as they can map it out before doing it physically. Additionally, Jeanie advised us to be more direct with our instructions instead of using phrases such as 'kind of' or 'sort of.' By being direct and confident with your instructions the dancers will better understand the pathways and direction of the movement and allows them to find more clarity in the exercise helping them to engage with it safely.

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I found that Jeanie's advice in the second class allowed me to reflect on my work in the previous class in order to understand how I could improve my practice. I found that in the first class, because my confidence was lacking my interactions were fairly vague a lot of the time and didn't help the dancers find the needed clarity in the exercise in order to get the most out of it.

I also noticed that because I was facing the front when teaching I could see the students so I couldn't tell who was understanding or who was struggling so I didn't know what feedback would be the most beneficial to the class. Additionally, although the exercise did help warm up the shoulders and the upper body I didn't clearly lay that out before teaching so it was unclear what the intention of the warm up was.

However, Jeanie's advice of being clear instead of vague really helped me to go through my exercise and understand what each part was doing to the body and how I could communicate that to the class. This also has helped when giving feedback in Cunningham and ballet classes when we split off into partners as I can be more precise with my feedback allowing for more focused training and enhanced progression.

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Within our Dance fitness classes this term we have been moving from working Aerobically to working Anaerobically meaning we have been pushing ourselves with harder and more intense movements to create more endurance so that we can do more intense work for longer amounts of time.

One of the ways Khyle is pushing our bodies is through single hand press ups. The focus with a single hand push-up is to go from a single hand plank to the floor and try to fail less each time you come down. For my first few attempts I came down to the floor and fell at the last bit. However, Khyle normalized failure and said we had to try to fail either less or more gracefully each time. As I tried more times, my falls decreased in size until i managed to come down to the floor smoothly and push myself back up.

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Throughout my classes the idea of failing has become more normalized throughout because failing at something does not mean you have failed completely.

This is evident in my Cunningham classes where Hannah tells us to push ourselves and take more risks during more complex movements and to expect failure during the process of learning. Through taking risks and failing our bodies adapt and learn faster and we become better dancers.

Additionally, within Lewis' floor work classes we have been attempting increasingly complex and physically challenging movements which no one managed to do the first time or in the first class. Likewise, Lewis normalized the idea of failure as he told us that these movements will take time to become achievable and we shouldn't expect them to be perfect first try.

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As a perfectionist, it is harder for me to accept that I won't be able to achieve certain things straight away and that they won't be perfect for a whilst. However, throughout my classes, because failure has become normalized, I have tried to take more risks within class and become more comfortable with the fact that I might fail or make mistakes.

This is evident within our main floor work sequence as there are a lot of complicated and physically demanding movement sequences that I found particularly challenging when i first came across them. However, by taking more risks and accepting occasional failures, the movement has become stronger, and I have become more confident when doing challenging movements.

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When I first started Locking classes with Sam a key piece of feedback for me was to keep my weight more forwards. Where I was keeping my weight up and Torso up, it meant that my movement within this style was much more limited and rigid. Locking was a completely new style to me, and it took me a while to become comfortable within that style and keep my weight more forward and get lower.

Additionally, Where I was keeping my weight up it sometimes tended to go back without my realizing which meant my movement was much more rigid and unstable which did not fit the style.

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In a comparable way, within our Cunningham classes both this term and last term a key piece of feedback has also been my weight placement. Last term i was keeping my weight far to back which meant I wasn't stacking my torso on top of my legs which meant that I had to work harder to maintain stability. Furthermore, where the weight was sometimes backwards it meant that the shapes were not stable, and I could not maintain balances without engaging far too much.

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Within my Locking classes i have worked on keeping my weight more forward and bringing both my shoulders and back forward during moments. This has really helped the movements become a lot more relaxed and comfortable within my body and it means i can do faster and more complicated movements more easily. This has also made my Up-Groove more prevalent throughout all my movements which makes it look more in line with the style. Additionally, during complex sequences that require jumping such as Scoobie-doos or the Skeeta Rabbit, the weight placement has made them much more comfortable and means that I can do them much faster.

In addition, Within Cunningham classes my focus on keeping the weight forward during the center exercises builds me up for the travelling exercises. During these more complex exercises I now practice the sequence once to find the movement and the facings. Then I do it a second time but focusing on where the weight is and what parts I need to focus more on. This has helped me create more awareness of my weight and where it can be forwards and when the weight can be more off center to create falls and moments of excitement.

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During my Floor Work Tutorial with Lewis, a key correction for me was to find more expansion in my movement and extend throughout all my limbs. Throughout Our Floor work classes, Lewis has told us that this reach continues throughout movements (both standing and, on the floor,) as if you are moving the air around you. Additionally through this reaching sensation and finding more expansion within movement you can take up more space which is more exciting for an audience and as a dancer.

This is evident in Lewis's main floor phrase where at the beginning there are a lot of arm movements and reaches throughout all the limbs. The arms are heavy and within the arm swings and reaches I can find more expansion which will create a larger surface area creating more momentum. In this Phrase Lewis wants me to find more expansion in my movement and try to take up more space.

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Whilst reflecting on Lewis's Feedback I realized that this connects to Hannah's teachings in Cunningham. In these classes Hannah has told us to find expansion from the center and to reach away from that center. She also says that this reach never stops and continues to expand increasingly. By doing this we can take up more space whilst making the movement more secure and interesting. By expanding from the Center, we can take more risks in our movement whilst still maintaining alignment which is key especially for Cunningham.

Where I am 5'3 and smaller than a lot of other dancers I find it harder to take up space and be larger in my movement. However, Both Lewis's and Hannah's advice have really helped me to start experimenting to expand through my movement and take more risks.

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Taking both Hannah and Lewis’ advice I have started to experiment with Expanding throughout all my limbs and reaching from the center. In Cunningham, during our Tondu and foot exercises I have tried to reach my feet away from my center and find more length in my legs. Additionally, during the back exercise on six I have tried to extend my arms away from the center and find more breath of movement throughout the exercise. Similarly in Floor work I have tried to extend my movements throughout more complex material and think about the image of moving the space around me.

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Working with different tempos and a live musician really benefited my teaching practice and furthered my understanding on how to safely introduce challenge into movement. I have taken these lessons into my own practice when I am either warming up myself or teaching choreography/sequences to other people. I will find a comfortable tempo that works with the movement and then I will challenge the movement by changing the tempo in order to engage other parts of the body or activate different areas of technique. I have also started experimenting with different time signatures to challenge my brain when dancing and become more comfortable with dancing in different ways.

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After challenging myself with a new practice and being able to face my own fears I have decided to take more risks as a dancer in order to challenge my comfort zones. I have started to place myself at the front more in class in order to become more comfortable in that space. I have also tried to take the same process of breaking things down slowly and using a calm approach towards challenges in other new styles such as flying low or Gaga. Allowing myself to break free from my comfort zones has made me more confident within class and more able to deal with challenges and practices that are not in my comfort zone. Only by breaking down our own fears can we truly progress at dancers.

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The lessons I learned about safe dance practice within a professional space are vital and will stick with me through the rest of my dance career. Knowing how to engage salfet within a intensive setting whilst managing both professional and personal life is crucial to engaging with safe dance practice. I have taken these experiences through all of my class now and adapted how I plan my weeks so that I can come to class, warm up and make sure that I can safely take part. This has relieved a lot of stress and have allowed me to enjoy my practice much more because I am allowing myself to be kind to my body.

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In our second Teaching class I took on Jeanie's feedback when teaching my phrase to the class. I started by demonstrating the entire sequence left and right with counts so that they could understand the flow and structure of the exercise. I then did it with them slowly and broke down the most technically demanding sections stopping for questions so that the dancers could get the clarity they needed. I managed to interact with them much more as i was facing the front more and could see which sections were causing the most problems and breaking them down further. I could also check for any technical corrects on alignment or weigh placement and challenge the dancers to go further with dynamic shifts and extending through movements to get the most out of the exercise.

A key principal i took away from our teaching classes is the the warm up is the most important part of the class and must be presented clearly so that dancers can warm up the right parts of the body in order to participate in a class safely. By taking on Jeanie's feedback I could present my exercise in the best way so that the dancers could get the most from the exercise.

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Focusing less on the mirrors has made feel much more comfortable within class and allowed me to focus on how movements feel within my body rather than how they look and compare to others. Additionally It has allowed me to movement focus around the room whilst I'm dancing and use my head more which has allowed me to engage my spine whilst dancing be more full-bodied within the space. Thanks to Pieter and being strict to myself about use of mirrors I have gained a lot of confidence as a dancer and now don't mind how the movement looks rather how it functions and feels. Obviously, correct technique is important, however there are other ways of finding it than using a mirror which i have been able to explore. I have also suggested to my ballet teacher that we have 'No mirror Thursday' as many of my class mates felt the same way and it has made ballet much more enjoyable.