I found this article on movement and feeling a challenging prospect in the beginning, I am definitely one to generally withhold my emotions and as they say "bottle it up" for a long as possible, so the idea of taking time to consciously identify my emotions is a daunting activity. However, from reading this I can see that the use of emotions can give us a deeper understand out ourselves by analysing our bodies chemical reactions and patterns of energising when experiencing different emotions. I find when I am placed in a stressful situation and becoming stressed myself I immediately feel a tension in shoulders, neck and especially my upper arms, my hands remain relaxed but I can feel a vitality and a pulse in the biceps that is not usually there. My tense shoulders are a signal to others regarding my emotional state but it is in my upper arms where I can identify it myself, even if consciously I am experiencing a contrasting emotion but there is a worry in the back of my mind causing minor stress my shoulders will still be tensed. This week especially others have been noticing a tension in my shoulders and neck that would not usually be there, an internal sign of stress. This article has made me consider exposing my emotions more in class, if I'm annoyed about something use the extra energy it releases to jump a little bit higher or reach a little further, I contradict the opening statement as in my opinion the exposing of emotions enables you to learn how to control them.
Today I was feeling excitement as I knew after class we had residencey with Charlotte Vincent and this positive but energising emotion really assisted me in working through class today, I felt comfortable and had an impression that I could do anything if I really focused my body and mind towards the tasks being given, especially taking note of criticisms given previously regarding Grahams floor work sequences, such as constant extension through the legs all the way from the hamstrings and inner thighs to the toes andalways keeping a constant lift through the body. This class I find particularly physically demanding and I find how you react mentally in the times where your body seemingly will not give any more, you can have a defeatest view and consider not putting in effort through a fear of pushing the body too far and exposing physical flaws or you can push your body further, take the shakes as a sign of the body becoming stronger and take a risk in your movement. From watching others, I have noticed that when bodies are tired the dancers engage more with the breath to support there movement giving a deeper sene of connection and expansion in the movement as they relax through it, to understand how to control your body in this way you need to reach this stage of exhaustion enough times that you can identify the differences in the body and use this in performance.
In all honestly towards the end of this class, my body felt completely drained after a long weeks work. This sequence was taught towards the end of class and it will be interesting to see the difference in quality of movement when excecuted on a Monday morning after a weekend of rest.
I was really seeking to improve my extensions in class today, both in the arms and legs, by lengthening through the extremities of the hands and feet to allow and help the preceeding muscles to engage as much as possible to give the illusion of longer limbs reaching into space. I can identify in this video moments of success and failure at this goal. At 16 seconds I could have really pushed through ths moment of dual extension and played with the sense of opposing forces, arms pulling me forwards and the leg holding me backward. I should have held this moment for a fragile longer to allow the leg to reach full extension through the backs of the legs and the arms to reach just a little further. However, at 20 seconds on the rotating arabesque I feel my leg was lengthed and I could really identify the increase in the strength of my inner thighs to allow me to hold for that long, the posistioning could be better in moving from parallel to turned out posistion so I will focus on that next time. I find generally from watching this video that I need to finish on movements before moving into another, I tend to cut short movement especially in the arms to rush onto the next one. I think this is an issue of clarity in my head of the sequence as this was a first attempt but concetrating on exact positioning when marking in future will help improve this. I can also see in the moments of relax such as the drop at 14 seconds that this appears deeper and breath orientated due to the exhaustion my body was feeling at the time, my body dropped as deep as possible for this moment of breath before pulling back up to continue on with the sequence.
This travelling sequence really helps me identify how anatomically I can improve my elevation and precision in practice of these movements. I was actually suprised at how little I use my plie in this excericise, by deepening into the plie allows further power pushing from the quadriceps to the then utilising the muscles in the forefoot to support the body and create the lengthening sensation I was focusing on in class.
I questioned today my versatility as a performer, what can I do? Where can I go with my movement from where I am now? I feel I need to work on creating the illusion of effortlessness during performance, as opposed to have a constant showing drive I aim to learn to express a sense of ease of movement, controlling the physical strains happening underneath.
