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-At the very start of this term I knew I would be least confident in locking, having previously felt pretty weak in some of the groove classes last term. Locking was a completely new style to me and I understand that I'm not necessarily the best at adapting to new things or ‘change’. However I realised I was approaching the class critically and wasn't fully engaging because I was already in the mindset that I was set up to fail. This led to me having a ‘rocky’ start to the classes. After having a conversation with Sam (who is teaching the classes) I was able to approach the classes in a different way in that I was more focused on having fun or intrinsic reasons rather than extrinsic. Something that Sam addressed which had stuck with me is to take what I want from the class and enjoy it. This mindset has helped me in all my classes and has meant I've felt less pressure or stress to do things perfectly in locking. This was my initial challenge in locking and since overcoming I have been able to focus on embodying the style and movements without holding myself back. Ultimately I am grateful to have grown from the experience and to have expanded my dance vocabulary in doing so; where I may have taken the class for granted before I can now recognise its importance.

- The structure of Locking classes is immediately different to our other classes in that we are presented with locking grooves such as the rock steady, water gate, camel walk and iron horse then are expected to copy them which allows us to discover them for ourselves and put them into our own style. We then go into more detail and break the moves down in order to fully understand then.

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-For me, Pilates is one of the classes I value the most because of how helpful it is. I was extremely glad to be able to carry on classes into this term and continue to improves my Pilates technique. It has been 5 weeks of Pilates now and I have began to notice my improvement in class in areas such as holding balances, core strength, fluidity between poses and even my motivation. I have also began to make  links between my other dance practices, but for now mainly  Cunningham.
-On week 4, I attended an extra Cunningham session led by Jeannie Steele, where I was able to ask questions and explore areas of the technique in a bit more detail due to the size of the group and the goals of the session. In this session Jeannie explained how Cunningham was a functional technique that derived a lot from Pilates. This is something I had not known about before so having this understanding meant I approached Pilates differently.
-With this knowledge, I am able to apply exercises from Pilates to Cunningham. For example, core strengthening exercises and back arches can be applied to both curves and high releases all while remembering to keep my pelvis stable. Learning control and correct technique in Pilates means I am able improve in Cunningham and safely understand how to move in my body.

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-Going into floorwork I felt fairly confident as it is something I was very comfortable in and was excited to start following the ground based foundation classes in the first term. Now, having completed the block of floorwork classes and being able to reflect on the experience, I have found that despite feeling confident, there are still certain things for me to work on. For instance, I believe that I was possibly too eager as, at points in the class I would rush into things instead of taking it slow, indulging in the movement or not taking the time to fully understand things. This is something that was brought up in my tutorial session, particularly my habit of shortcutting movements and rushing counts in some of the phrases. Becoming aware of this habit as well as overcoming it was something I found very difficult.

-At first I felt as though slowing down meant I wasn't putting enough energy into my movement and was ruining the flow of the phrase but I realised pretty early on that slowing down meant I had more time to fully engage with each movement, such as in the sitting down phrase; there is a roll on the back that reaches outward before folding inwards to sit up. Before I was rushing this but taking the time to slow it down meant I was able to extend fully on the reach out before the folding inwards which elevated the whole movement and actually made it feel a lot nicer to do.

-It took this realisation to really help my progression in the class as I was now taking the time to try to fully comprehend and reach the full potential of what I was doing, regardless of if I could already do it or not. Like handstands, for example, as I knew I was already confident being on my hands but actively thinking about what I was doing instead of just doing it and relying on the fact that I knew I could do it meant I saw more progression. Specifically in my technique and the length of time I was able to stay in a handstand for. Developing my technique ultimately meant that I am more secure and safe when doing things such as handstands.

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Notes I took from the first teaching practice class:

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-I was very nervous for the first teaching class as I know I'm not good at speaking in front of lots of people and I had very little experience teaching. Nevertheless I do feel as though I learned a lot.
-The very first thing we did is sit in groups and discuss what we thought made a good/bad teacher taking into consideration things such as approachability, respect, giving corrections and attitude towards teaching, amongst other things. I found this interesting and useful as we all had an idea of what a good teacher is and with that, we then knew what was needed from ourselves as we went to into teaching.
-After this we split off into pairs and was asked to create  short warm up phrase that we would then individually teach to the rest of the group. I found the creating fairly straight forward as I knew the things I had to consider, like the intensity of the phrase, as well how to make it accessible to everyone for example towards the end of our phrase we included two push ups, however not everyone is comfortable doing full push ups especially in a warm up and so we also provided the option of going onto the knees for the push up.
-When it came to actually teaching the class I found it particularly difficult to find a flow or relax into the teaching, and while I managed to teach the phrase successfully, I feel as though my lack of confidence meant the energy of my teaching did not feel right. However Jeannie explained that the best way to get better at this is through practice and actual experience which gives me more hope in my teaching ability and improvement.

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-Cunningham classes are always both a challenging and rewarding experience for me, I am not a very technical dancer however I find these classes to be very useful. Having had Hannah Kidd throughout last term I was somewhat used to her classes and so it was beneficial to also have Kate Price delivering classes this term as it has offered me another approach to Cunningham.
-Something in particular, I struggle with is turn out and staying stable in both balances and foot exercises, especially when turned out going to the back as I tend to focus on keeping my hips completely square whilst also maintaining turn out; which made me lose my balance. I had to accept the fact that my turn out is not ideal and it is something I have to continue working on where as before I would overcompensate and ruin my knee and hip alignment to 'fake' my turnout. Another thing that I applied is something Kate had said in the first week while doing a foot exercise which was, that no one is going to be able to stay completely square with perfect turn out while tenduing to the back and so altering and opening the hips slightly will help this movement and general stability, which it did. I feel as though, as technical dancers, there is a standard and an ideal which we all compare ourselves to which is unrealistic. In these situations it is beneficial to understand the limits and boundaries of your body.

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-Second week of dance teaching and I feel as though I have learned mostly through observation and recognising things that I missed when I taught the previous week. This week Charli taught our phase and I assisted which gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own teaching. One thing that I noticed I didn't do as much was explaining the focus or the details of the phase which is something charli managed to do really well. For example in our piece we wanted the focus to be on the spine and mobilisation of the back, this is something that was made clear in charli's teaching and something I realised I wanted to incorporate more into mine. Something else which was mentioned by Domenico was the groups tendency to count over the music; he explained how this could be rude as it taking away from the work of the musician.

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-Being able to learn and perform 'Gypsy mixture' by Richard Alston was very fun  whilst also being a challenging and incredible opportunity for me to learn. It was the piece I felt most drawn to from the three we were shown due to the exciting and playful nature of the piece, which made it really enjoyable to dance and be a part of.
-The experience was useful in terms of being able to test and apply my Cunningham skills and technique that I have continued to learn throughout the year so far.
-Our group worked with Elly Braund , who we had previously had for a Cunningham class before, for the two weeks we spent on the rep. We took an hour Cunningham class every morning which really helped me prepare for the rep later in the day; and while Richard Alston's work isn't exclusively Cunningham, it is definitely consistent and so the morning class is what Elly described as 'essential'.
-We also had the opportunity to work creatively in groups as well as individually and incorporate this creative work into the piece. I felt like this was a good opportunity to engage with Richards work and apply Cunningham technique creatively. I found working in a six for creative fairly difficult and somewhat draining, as everyone had different ideas and it was had to listen and use them all however eventually our six found what worked for us and created an effective and fun sextet which fit gypsy mixture really well- this is something I this my whole group managed to do really well, even Elly complemented how successful our creative had been.
-Gradually I was able to become more comfortable with the rep and how it felt in my body, I was able to make it sort of my own while still focusing on technique. I believe that both the music and the energy of my group helped this feeling where I was really enjoying dancing the rep and dancing with my peers. It was really satisfying to this this feeling in other people as well and how everyone was able to come together. the result was performing and showcasing what we had put all our energy into for the past two weeks to an audience. It felt so good to have the chance to perform, especially something I had become so proud of as an individual and as a group.

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Notes after first gaga class:

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-I really enjoyed our first gaga class and feel as though I was able to connect with my body in such an authentic and organic way through focusing on intention as opposed to technique or trying to look 'good'. Chisato  explained that there are many different ways to move the body and this is something that I was able to realise though instructions and ideas visited in the class. One of which being the idea that there are mirrors on every surface of the body that are able to reflect and initiate movement.
-I did find it fairly difficult to connect with the other people in the room as, to me, it felt very internal and intimate sort of like a personal experience as opposed to a social one which is what it is apparently supposed be. Perhaps this is something I will develop over time even if it is only a slight connection with the people around me such as eye contact or even just observing and appreciating the way they are moving.

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-In my dance training, ballet is usually a class that I dread the most as I lack confidence and generally just feel uncomfortable in the technique but at the same time, in my mind it is a necessary part of training and something I have always felt like I ‘had to do’ and ‘had to be good at’ in order to succeed. Ballet this term has allowed me to take a more relaxed perspective and actually somewhat enjoy the technique more as well as appreciate it, which Is something I found so difficult before.
-Part of this uncomfortableness for me is something that I believe comes from knowing the history of ballet and it’s expectations. Particularly the way it dictated and dominated dance. It was a necessity, and there were certain standards and aesthetics. Nowadays, even despite things changing for the better, this is still something that weighs on my mind and I’m sure many others.

-One thing I have really worked hard to improve in ballet is my pirouettes. I have never been particularly good at turning in any technique and so I engaged fully with ways I could improve. One of the things that Kate said is that a turn is just a balance, and once you are able to hold the balance you will be able to stay in the turn longer. With this information I had a plan of action and knew what I had to do to improve. In terms of holding the balance it was important to think about the spine (mainly thoracic spine) proprioceptively and where it was stacked in relation to my foot. I found I actually have a habit of leaning backwards but this was an easy fix once I was aware of it.
Reflecting on the last few weeks I would say that my approach to ballet has been less about aesthetics and more about efficiency. My pirouettes have definitely improved as I am now able to control a single pirouette without hopping, stepping out or leaning back.
- I obviously have much more improvement to do in general for ballet however for now, I think that what I have achieved is something I can be proud of and as my perspective on ballet changes, I believe I will continue to improve.

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-I initially didn’t know what to expect when starting flying low, I thought it was just a floor work technique. Now I realise it is actually much more than that.
-While I am still sort of figuring out what flying low is, I have come to an understanding that sending and gathering while feeling the floor is a huge part of it.
-We always start the class by sending our energy outwards and into the floor and then gathering it back though and into our bodies and repeats this multiple times, letting the movement digest in our bodies. Starting in this way allows me to feel both connected to the floor but also the people around me which is really important when we start speeding phases up and spreading around the space. This connection with people is something that is eagerly encouraged.
-An image we were given to help connect with the floor is chia seeds and the way they feel in the palm of your hand. This is a different but still very similar feeling for everyone and again as you are feeling this connection with the floor and through your body, you also feel it in the people around you which is a very relieving and intimate feeling.