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.