February Entry

Mid term challenges of the last year at university

So even though this month was probably the most stressful, it was also the month when some things seem to fall into places. The little pieces take its place in a bigger image of our practice. As we finally got to controlateral pattern exploration (opposition), the previously explored patterns really seem to make sense understanding the process of movement pattern development within the body. Now that we can recognize those patterns, it does not only help to find what needs more attention in personal practice and movement development, but also highly supports teaching abilities, as we now can recognize and verbally articulate what the intentions of certain movements are, by using a number of learning tools, which we are about to experiment in the coming weeks.

Coming back to the exploration of controlateral pattern, the most significant thing for me was to find a way to incorporate previously explored qualities of movement in a very gentle way of transitioning from one to the other / combining different patterns, which I was struggling with before because of its complexity. Again, I found that the problem I had was over-thinking and focusing to the details too much; the resolution was hid in lighter attention to the detail and just trusting the unconscious to do the best job.
Although, bringing awareness to the details of patterns was needed to remind the body the better qualities of movement, which is a birthright. For example, noticing of the crawling qualities was a very fun experience, which also highly informed my practice in finding the relationship of movement, hearing and seeing. As my interest in the ability to see and be seen was present for the last few months, this new information almost felt like finding a treasure, a magic tool to work with in order to improve.
These new qualities were apparent in all the classes recently. Such an obvious changes appeared, like dynamics of my movements,increased general presence, higher tone, more interaction with the external rather than just internal relationships that I was so used to. Consequently, this gave me the opportunity for a greater exploration and connection to the nervous system, helping me notice the transitions and even recognize the conscious and unconscious choices of my movement and its effects. Even though I still catch myself on moments when I lose my presence and start to block out the information given or some potential unfolds, I think this recognition and critical but not judgmental evaluation of it is a good point for improvement.
I think every single class we had recently had it's impact in it's own way. Makes you wonder, how such different material refer to one another, and how intellectual understanding can actually make a difference on the technical side of movement and vice versa....Few years ago nobody would have made me believe that dance art form would be so intelligent ;]]]]]]