07/10/2011 Graham Technique

I have always been interested in Graham technique but this semester will be my first chance to intensively experience her technique and the ideals she gave the world as a dance pioneer and proclaimed mother of modern dance. The class started with a set of floor work excercises that pushed my body in directions it had never been and excercised muscles I barely knew I had. I was amazed with how different Graham contractions felt in comparison to the contractions undertaken in Cunnighams technique, Graham contractions are more about lifting the body while contracting creating smaller motion in the centre and pelvis, whereas Cunninghams contractions involve the upper body into the curve creating a deeper curve in the back as well as in the centre. The sensations of the two curves feel completely different, there is something satisfying about Cunninghams curve as it has a relaxing quality as you the thoracic spine curves and the muscles in the back relax as the core muscles contract whereas I find the Graham contraction a lot more challenging, trying to achieve the opposising pulls of upwards and inwards is difficult but using the breath to connect the centre to the spine does help achieve this.

"Her fierce choreography sometimes amazed and sometimes horrified, but in it she embodied modern dance--arrogantly and spectacularly"  Teachout, T, 1998. TIME 100/Most Influential Dancer . Time Magazine, Vol. 151, Issue 22, p200.

I aim to eventually have this arrogance of embodiment in my performance, become a true modern dance in my work. To me this does not mean having the best technique but being a modern dance artist. Creating shapes that challenge body and space, whether that be the dancers body or the audiences. Space can change in width, depth and height but then there is the posibilty of site specific work and creating digital space or numerous spaces through dance film. I want to use technique classes to equipt my body as an instrument for these changes to discover how I can create work to suit any space and style. Graham as choreographer was ground breaking and her work was sometimes intimate and personal such asher early work "Lamentation" (1930), or lighter and on larger scale such as later work "Maple Leaf Rag" (1990). This diversity and range is something I aim to explore and achieve in a career that would hopefully span as long as Grahams.

My first Graham class was a great experience and I learnt a lot about the ways my body needs to improve and change to work with this technique. Over the semester I aim to increase the flexibilty for use during the floorwork, especially in my legs in second and extended in parallel posisition as I found both of these frustrating as my body struggled to work through these posistions. The simple way to improve this is my daily practice of sitting and relaxing in these posistions. In second posisition I find that I have more flexibilty in my back than in my hips so I need to focus on widening my posisitions by sitting against a wall/mirrors or asking a peer to help me and physically push against them to help increase the rotation I have. In parallel posistion I will daily try and spend time just relaxed int he posisition f or an extended amount of time after class, relaxing is a great way to easily increase flexibilty as it feels natural and not too painful as your body relaxes into the posisiton and allows gravity to do the work for you. I will do both of these posisitons with pointed and flexed feet to develop both posisitions equally and hopefully increase progress quicker by doing different variations regularly.