Week 3 - Class

This week in class, the Black Butterfly piece began to come together in a fairly cohesive fashion. We still have choreography to learn, but what we do have is now fairly ingrained within the dancer's movement and melding with the music.

The score we are working with is quite beautiful. It is unlike music I have danced to before. In some ways this is quite excellent. I am able to move in creative ways with this music and it speaks quite loudly to the piece and to myself as a dancer. The challenges I have with both the music and to some extent the method of choreography is that the music doesn't really work with the standard 8-count method that I have been taught. I am attempting to feel the music and the choreography as one, but I am still getting lost. It is helping me to grow as an artist, though. I am finding that I am not dependent on strict, ritualized methods of dance, which will contribute to my flow, emotion and creativity. I will grow as a dancer, but until I feel comfortable with this way of working, it will continue to be a challenge. I am truly trying to feel the music as part of me and part of the dance. I'm getting closer.

We didn't have a rehearsal this week, as none of us could find a time where we had the theatre booked that worked for the four or even three of us. Rehearsal won't work if we are down two butterflies.

We got to see the beginnings of the shawl dance this class and I can't wait to see it in its entirety and when it is completed with full costuming and the music that will be used with it. It is going to be quite beautiful. I am also really looking forward to the hoop dance and interested to see how Sly Old Bag comes together. All in all, the whole performance is going to be something. I'm just pleased to be able to be part of the cast.

Week 2 - Reheasal

We had our first rehearsal Sunday for the Butterflies. It was interesting. Less structured than I am used to, but the whole method of movement is also much less structured. It was a creative jam session, for lack of a better term. We were allowed input and it was welcomed. This is great. More of a group work, which is nice. We worked on various sequences, discussed the roles each of us is to take while performing. I am to perform a duet with Anna, which should be quite fun. Carine gets to be the "aggressive butterfly" which should allow her quite the interpretation and creativity with the role.

The sequences we're working on are from the original choreography that the Professor had worked out a few years back, but we're using the basics and reworking it to suit our talents, abilities and personalities. We were able to already tweak the choreography so it fits our class much better. The finished piece will still be a work in progress, as is any good piece of performance art. The process is so important, much more so than the end result. The artists are able to grow as performers and learn about themselves and life and explore. This shows in the reworking of each piece as time goes on - the continuum from one performance to another diachronically, is extremely instructional to an observer and performer.

I am interested to see how quickly this performance develops in contrast with other shows I have been in. It should come together quickly and polish up in a hurry - in all reality we have very little time. It also has the basic choreography together and we have plenty of experience dancers and performers. I am interested in the contrasting style of instruction and choreography in this class as compared to my RAD training. It will be a challenge and I am looking forward to the growth that will come from this.

Week 2 - Training

This week in class was a very good work out for me. Not necessarily that I found the physicality difficult, but re-training my body from mostly classical Western dance tradition, particularly ballet, into alternate movements is proving a challenge. I started ballet when I was two years old and continued my training through my most formative years. I took a pause in the middle, but I did continue with modern ballet and shortly took up classical ballet again. So, as a child, learning how to move, balance and interact with the world at large, ballet was a pivotal foundation for forming my movements. I can still tell other dancers like me by watching the way they move around.

I have wanted, particularly through the past few years, wanted to try my hand at forms of dance I haven't had formal training in. Which is part of the reason I wanted to enroll in this class. Other forms of movement fascinate me, and using the body as a vehicle of communication that is rigid and structured as opposed to instinctive and enculturated forms of body language is an interesting phenomenon that appeals to the anthropologist lurking inside my brain. Not that much of the movements we've been practicing, particularly in warm up, have been rigidly structured. I am enjoying the freedom implied that I experience within the loosely directed movement. I feel able to discover movement and that I can communicate emotion, whether mine or felt within the music or in the simple movements given to utilize in many ways.

The difficulty I have seems to center around my balance point. In ballet, the balance is very specific which means that posture and ways of moving are strictly defined and carried out. It is the Foucaultian theory of docile bodies that explains some of the training that I have been through. It has been quite a positive thing in my life, and has enabled me to function well within my world, physically. I have had good posture and kept healthy in part due to the docility I was trained in at such a young age. However, the rigid structure and form of ballet has made it challenging to adapt to other types of movements. It is taking me a few tries to find the new center of balance for each move and to work my body in different ways. I have to consciously think about the manner in which my body is moving, rather than having it be an unconscious act.

I am glad to be training my body to move in new ways - to reassess my notions of center, balance and flow. My body will work even better and move well with these new ways of acting and reacting. I will eventually find my own flow and stop having to think about this. I am enjoying the consciousness of the new movement though, but when it becomes unconscious, it will be part of my muscle memory and therefore part of me.

Week One

This was the first week of Indigenous Contemporary Theatre. I am quite excited for this class, as it engages me not only mentally, but physically as well. I am very happy to be part of this class. Talking, learning and sharing through movement is one of the many ways of knowing, and it is devalued in the dominant education system in North America. I am getting my B.A. in Anthropology, which will help me to actively pursue social change, but being able to learn from an Elder in this manner, will help me grow and learn academically and personally.

I am curious to see how each of the students are cast within the outlined programs. I am hoping for certain parts, but I will be happy with anything. I can dance. I almost can't believe that I get credit for this - it seems to be too much fun and too good to be true to be an academic class. I'm happy.

I am quite interested in the various backgrounds of the students within theatre and within their personal experience; we are a fairly diverse group. There are many talents to be drawn on to complete the performance and allow many students access to the knowledge of their peers and then the class can construct knowledge from the collective pool.

The stories to be told through dance are wonderful. I am particularly fond of the Black Butterfly story so far - it resonates with me personally at this stage in my life. I quite enjoy and am looking forward to learning the lessons from this and all the stories. I'm sure as the choreography develops and each role is filled and explored by a student, the meaning and understanding will change and grow.

Wednesday night was excellent. I really loved hearing about everyone and their history. I was also quite happy with the discussion about the plan for this class. The show is going to be amazing and I hope that I can reserve enough space for friends and family who want to see it. The experience is what I am looking forward to. Just the warm up and exercises we went through during the first class made me feel good. I enjoyed the unrestricted feel of the movements. I know the professor was evaluating us and attempting to see who would fit which roles, but none of that mattered. I was rediscovering what it feels like to dance, to move with music and express emotion, energy, self all of that and so much more.

Strangely enough, I had been trying to find an extra-cirricular dance class to pick up on my own, as I have been feeling the lack of a class and the connection with other dancers and myself and the expression. So much has been missing. And I hear from Raya that this class is being run and it fit into my schedule. I am quite happy. Also, same week, I was visiting a friend who I've known for a very long time but hadn't seen and she mentioned a class she's taking Monday nights in town, so I believe that I will be picking that up with her. Good social time, extra work out, more dancing. Everything is good. More dance class makes me very happy. Plus, it will help develop balance, and help me explore alternate movements. It is a jazz class, but more lyrical like modern. I am looking forward to trying it out. First class is tonight.