What stops you, what blocks you and why?

On Thursday 13th January I was lucky to have a dance class taken by Cecilia MacFarlane. It was very empowering and it brought many things to my attention. We did a lot of reflective work and one of the things that stood out to me the most was the question 'What stopes me, what blocks me and why?' It could be to do with that dance session only or something that is continually preventing you like an injury. It made me think more about my left arm and how it restricts my dancing.

I was born with Erbs Palsy; a condition that causes paralysis to my left arm. This was due to 1-5 of the primary nerves in my left arm being dead because of the position of my arm in the womb. I regained the usage of my arm after months of physio therapy, thus the treatment stopped. However, when I was 14 and I began to dance more extensively, I realised that I found my left arm wouldn't quite do what I wanted it to do. After experimenting I found I couldn't straighten my arm fully; it would only straighten to 130 degree and there was no lateral rotation possible.

I was referred to a physio who told me that not only did I have limited movement but that my shoulder muscles were not developed properly and went out of place during certain movements. They gave me various exercise to improve my mobility and placement of shoulder muscles but not to get my hopes up.

Since then my shoulder muscles have developed correctly and the physio say it is unnoticable now and it no longer goes out of place. The extension of my arm has also greatly improved. However, the hardest part has been the lateral rotation. There have been some improvements but it has been an extremely slow and frustrating process.

As with anything the more dance and exercises I do, the greater movement range I have and the easier it is to perform. I have just started back into more rigorous dancing after the Christmas holidays and I have found  that my arm has become slightly stiff from the break in dancing. It has made me more aware of the need to step up my arm exercises during breaks so there is less chance of this happening again. I am constantly aware of my arm both during dance and in everyday activities. I have to translate certain dance movements so that I am able to do them and there are some things that I will never be able to do because of it. Yet, I have discovered that although I am continually and painfully aware of my arm it is not noticable to others. Few notice it by themselves and the few that do notice it are usually dancers or physios and it is whilst i'm doing specific movements.

Eden Dance Company Review

 On the 10^th December I was captivated by Eden Dance Company’s wonderful yet challenging work based upon the subject of nature. The piece was choreographed and directed by Alex Howard, who has, amongst other things, performed in Serena Korda’s Decosa Traditional, Stockholm Kiefer/pin. Eden Dance Company is made up of 11 Coventry University Dance students. The piece was originally meant to be performed outside yet due to adverse weather; the choreography was altered, cut out and replaced so that it could take place both inside a theatre as well as outside. The dancers should receive tremendous credit for these last minute changes as rather than looking like it had just been thrown together, the piece was very professional and the dancers all seemed to be on the same ‘level’.

The first part of the dance began in the theatre; the dancers were already performing when the audience entered the theatre space. Rather than allow the audience to take to their seats straight away, Eden Dance Company had instructed their Front of House to lead them around the stage area. This began the idea of nature and made the audience feel like they were on a nature trail, where they could take in their surroundings. It also challenged that performer-audience relationship and literally brought the audience closer to the action. The dancers continually explored all of the space, using different levels and dynamics. This included dancers coming into the audience seating, thus invading the audience’s space. Throughout the piece there were many intricate details and the eye focus of both the performers and audience were on these.

The costume continued the idea of nature, with dresses in natural colours of green and pale pink. The dresses allowed for a wider, unrestricted range of movement needed for this performance. The only props used were plastic sheeting on the ground. This represented snow and at one point the performers enveloped themselves in it. The sheeting created an intriguing ‘crunching’ sound and provided the dancers with extra material to explore.

Halfway through the performance the dancers donned wellies and fur coats and went outside, with the audience in quick pursuit. The dancers continued down the city streets remaining in character despite the on looking public spectators who didn’t know what was going on.  The audience were confronted with the problem of uncertainty as most worried about evading the dancers performance space and were unsure of how close to get. The piece excelled in challenging the long established audience-performer relationship to its limits thus providing the audience with a different view of the piece.

Overall, the choreographic work was enchanting, with so many different aspects happening at once. The dancers were focused on what they were doing and used everything that was available to them in the environment they were in. Also, throughout the piece there was a sense of unity between all of the dancers and this was highlighted in sections of the dance such as when moving through the streets in a tight huddle.

Solo Feedback

Halfway through my choreographic process we had to perform some of our work in order to show how we had progressed and also to gain feedback from our peers so as to push ourselves even further. This is some of that feedback. We were also given feedback at other stages.

The main things that stood out to me were the comments I've circled in red; extend movement-make it bigger and remember wrists and hands. The first refers to how I sometimes cut movement short and the second refers to how my hands can almost be 'dead' on the end of my arms, rather than letting the movement continue to flow all the way from my shoulder to my fingertips. I cut the movement short sometimes by rushing through movement. This happens because of nerves. Sometimes if I'm doing movement  that is unfamiliar to me, I feel extremely vulnerable and this leads to me panicking and rushing. The only thing I can do to improve this is to stay calm and believe in myself. I can also practise doing things out of my comfort zone as this would change the way I approach new things and how I react.

     I have never realised the thing about my hands before so it was actually quite surprising to me. From watching videos of me performing I noticed I don't do it all the time just in certain movements. This was a lot harder to change and I really had to work on it. I just had to think about keeping the arms lenghtened rather than deadening the arms by having lazy wrists.

Solo Score

This is the score that accompanies my solo. It gave the improvisation some form of structure. One of its uses was a floor plan and I vaguely followed its route across the stage.

To make the score I watched videos of me moving to the stimuli and recorded a score. Therefore when my movement developed so did my score.

Beginnings of Solo

This is how my solo began. I took the lyrics to Colours of the Wind and chose phrases in it that stood out to me. I then disected these phrases and wrote down any emotions, dynamics or related words or images that I connected to those lyrics. I then began to explore movement based on this.

Alexander Technique

On Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th of January 2011 I participated in Alexander Technique classes. The first was more of an introductory session whilst the second was a more practical approach. Both were taught by Lucia Walker. I found the classes productive and educational and came out feeling more knowledgable, relaxed and energised.

Christmas Holidays

Coventry University broke up for Christmas on 17th December. During this period I have practised various sequences and have tried to keep my fitness up. However, not dancing everyday and participating in fitness sessions several times a week has had an impact on my fitness and endurance. Thus when we had studio practise on 10th January I certainly felt it. This is not exactly a bad thing. I felt I have recovered and come back refreshed and ready to get straight back into everything. Also throughout the session I felt the work and fitness coming back quicky and by the end it felt like I'd never had a break.