BarbicanLondon. (2010). Merce Cunningham Dance Company - Nearly Ninety. [Online Video]. 06 July. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpV5ZY9N-bg. [Accessed: 18 November 2011].Merce Cunninghams dancers have such a sense of power and authority about their prescence on stage it is truely inspiring to watch. In is interesting to observe how elements of class work in cunningham technique are used in his choreography, and how the technique we learn creates these hyper strong dancers which he could manipulate into any posistion he chose. In class we work a lot on triplets focusing on the distance we move, pushing turnout forward through the heels, the contrast vertically on the rise and allowing the upper body to stay strong, rigid and working as one. At 29 seconds into this video there is a travelling triplet section and it is beneficial to be able to see the proffessionals who worked with the originator of this technique showing how it should be excecuted and the sense of drive and power they have is an element I will be taking forward with me into my next cunningham class. In this section you see other aspects such as the upper body curve in practice, this being something I believed myself to be good at, being done with ability to lock their incredibly strong centres and view a definite upper lower body cut off point. Watching this videos makes me think how long it would take me to reach such a high levell of technique and question how would these dancers perform in another technique such as release when they are prestinely trained in and by Cunningham?
Approaching class with a relaxed positive mind set does wonders on the body, allowing yourself to breathe through the movement and if you do something wrong just brushing it off is a much more effective way of working. I still have moments of frustration but I find these are shorter bursts as opposed to putting a grey cloud over the rest of the class. I think because I am feeling an improvement in my strength and flexibilty that this has affected my emotions as I can see I am getting better, surely this will eventually come too?
We have been working on travelling triplet excercises since the beginning of last year and today I really conccentrated on achieving the sense of lift through the movement, and moving the upper body as a whole through turning sequences. It is about disconnecting the upper body and lower body but to acurately achieve this you need to lengthen down the lumbar spine while lifting upwards in the abdominals, increasing this lift needs the shoulders to be held down the back but still lifting through the top of the head. There is a pull both upwards and downwards and this is what has not been working for me in the past. Today however, this excercise felt nice to perform and my relaxed attitude to class obviously had an effect. I prepared my body while waiting to cross the space so I already had the disconnection in the body, allowing me to emphasise the over curves in the body and the up and down motion in the feet. Pushing forward through the space seemed to come naturally as a result of the body being held so precisely, I felt like one of Cunninghams dancers which could have given me the confidence to perform this excercise well. An insight I can draw from todays class is that sometimes if prentend yourself to be something this can help you become it, I thought of myself as one of Cunninghams dancers and I instantly improved in terms of technicality and performance. The power of imagery in ones self can be truely motivating and changing in the body.
I have been reading through some chapters of "Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology" by Karen Clippinger and it offers an interesting insight into the bodys skeletal and muscular system in relation to dance, how we can prepare our body for the demands of different techniques, for example increasing your intake of calcium before beginning pointe work assists in srengthening and protecting the small bones in the feet preventing injury. Each technique requires different muscles to be stronger or more lengthened and this reading identifys key areas that focused on can improve performance, it provides excercises on strengthen the back and abdominals and advice for partnering. It emphasises the point that having a fuller understanding on the bodys workings can help become a more versatile dancer and a deeper understanding of your own body.
