Apologies for the delay in getting the post up from yesterday's session. Since I have already put up a post regarding Yesterday I want to keep this one quite brief. It was a great session yesterday, despite the lack of focus and disruptions in class. This makes us wonder how much further you could have all travelled without the focus. So, do keep this in mind.
It was a challenging session in many ways. You were encountering completely new skills and learning the importance of accuracy of technique to avoid injuries and to allow this new language to settle into your body memories. You were forced into close physical contact with the additional nerves of dealing with concepts of 'weight'- sharing. All of these made the session edgier as your own body's capacities and limitations became more exposed.
In the light of the above please reflect on the following question:
1. What did you learn about your own body's capacity to:
a. learn precise physical technique
b. encounter issues of body weight
c. shift its relationship to gravity
d. understand the significance of touch as a means of communication
I leave you with a quote from Steve Paxton, the revolutionary movement artist of 1960-70's America to whom contact improvisation is attributed. Paxton says of touch,
"Touch sensitises, promotes awareness... Touch, along with the other senses, integrates out physicality…It is difficult to imagine that while grazing each other’s minds in touch and movement we would not bump into some of its manifestations."
Looking forward to your responses on this post and the one on Yesterday.
Royona
21 comments:
As I have already said well done from yesterdays session I will just answer the question at hand in this blog post.
I learned yesterday that our body’s movements had to be precise as this could cost us or our partners some serious injury if we did not remain the focus which the group did not do well compared to the last two sessions on which we have had.
The physical techniques that we learned yesterday for me was a key tool to succeeding in the tasks which were set by Paul and Royona, these tools were very interesting to do and required lots of physical and mental strength. Like when Royona said "oh my god I am going to die" this is clearly not going to happen it is just because we are not use to working and exploring our body in this manner that we faced that feeling.
For myself I did not even begin to think about my body weight. As pointed out by Richard I am a big guy but I do not think about my body weight one bit as Royona said it is not about the weight but more about the strength. I can imagine some of the members of the group were worried about their weight but this was not a problem for me.
My relation to gravity did not change that much. I did find it rather tricky balancing on Laurens back because I felt like I was going to fall off, however this did not happen.
Touch as a means of communication in yesterday’s session was a key to success.
When I worked with Lauren and Royona I could tell when myself and Royona were touching because I could fell her back muscles against mine, when I was working with Lauren I found this a little difficult because I could not feel our spines connecting at first but we eventually we cracked the technique and focused on trying to do the task which proved very very difficult.
Yesterdays session was a great session despite the interruptions because I awoke today very aching and tender in the legs.
Hi all, hope you aren't aching too much! I struggled to get out of bed this morning!
a.) The main physical technique that stood out to me was that your head doesn't always rule the body - and often, when we let our heads be in control, it actually makes your body work harder. It was difficult at first to trust myself not to fall flat on my face, but once I realised that my arms were able to take the weight, which didn't turn out to be that much as it had already been taken by my legs, I found it much easier to do it that way and the original way (hands first, then feet) felt wrong and awkward.
b.) The issue of weight didn't really come into mind for me, it was more about the strength of my body. I realised that I am much stronger than I thought, and when David was telling me to push against him harder, I honestly didn't think I could and was pretty proud when I did! I don't feel I gained anything from the exercise where we walked lightly around the room, but I think this is because I'm pretty light on my feet anyway.
c.) We did experience some shifts in gravity during the exercise and we realised that just the slightest change of movement made a difference. Once me and David found the problem and corrected it, our bodies remembered and we were able to feel when the positioning wasn't correct right, at the begining when we stood back to back.
d.) During the back to back exercise, the use of our bodies touching was essential. Once we'd done the exercise a couple of times, we could tell straight away whether our bodies were connected and stable enough to support each other. The exercise was much simpler to do once we had established the connection and once we could communicate through the feeling of our bodies contact.
First of all let me just thank you personaly Royona for the excrusiating pain I felt rip through my body over the weekend, courtesy of friday's lesson!!
Regardless of the after effects of the lesson I have to admit I really enjoyed it. I learnt to ignore the off putting voices in my mind (Im 100% sain people) and focus on the task at hand rather than tellin myself I could not do it. Once I had a try the task became easier each time. My plan was to continue to practise throughout the week but as I cannot even bend to tie my shoe lace i'll think i'll give it a miss for now.
having developed trust within myself during the session it became easier to trust others.
Astonishingly weight was not an issue in this session which i thought it would be considering the tasks at hand. I thought if I fall on my partner i'd crush them or even worst hurt myself (lol) but I overcome that and now know that weight will provide no restrictions for this particular type of work. Its about finding the centre between yourself and your partner and understanding that focus and concentration plays a major role in a session like last fridays.
As I didnt take part in the final part of the session I find it hard to answer the remainding questions.
I look forward to this weeks lesson.
Finally thanks again Royona :-D
Personally learning the precise physical technique wasn’t the problem; it was actually remembering and going back to the body memory. The first task that I found a problem was when we were told to fall over our partner; with me when I fell it was my hands that went first. I think the reasoning for this was because I was thinking about it too much and not letting my body does what it needs to do. The second was the balancing technique where we were back to back with our partner, again the learning of the technique was fine but when putting it into practise it didn’t quite work. Personally I feel that this happened because I wasn’t fully locked with my partner so we were lowering to the floor when I full well knew that we wouldn’t be able to come back up.
Body weight doesn’t really bother me being it mine or some one else’s, I will take the task in hand digest it and then transfer it when working with my partner. For me the issue of body weight doesn’t stand in the way of what needs to be done.
The relationship with gravity came into play when dealing with the back to back task, and again I failed being able to control it and being able to stop myself falling flat on the floor. Again I feel this was because I wasn’t fully locked with my partner so I was concentrating on that rather then concentrating on needing to control my relationship with gravity.
I felt with the every task that we did as partners I was able to communicate through touch rather than speaking. It was only when I came across a personal barrier I felt the need to speak and this was down to reassuring myself, that I was under control and in fact I could actually do the task.
With regard to my own body's capacity to learn precise physical technique, I find myself shocked at how much I did learn! I had no idea that my body would do things of it's own accord to stop something horrendous happening! I've discovered that what may look difficult can actually be easier and more comfortable than something that appears fairly simple. My body still aches but considering how much it has learned I'm not surprised.
One of the greatest challenges for most people this session was that of body weight. I worked with Luke and initially we were more than happy for him to take as much of my weight as possible to complete the exercise in relative comfort without wither of us pushing our boundaries. I was weary of taking weight and Luke was weary of giving me any weight. By the end of the session, with thanks to Royona for her guidance, we both felt confident that it was our mind prohibiting our bodies from achieving things. Weight only becomes an issue when our minds let it become an issue. I held Luke on my back! I also let myself 'fall' above Rich! Initially I had worried with both of these tasks but now I feel much more comfortable with my weight and in particular, how my body can hold more than I weigh and can prevent itself from hitting the ground my things I can only describe as pre-programmed or learnt reflexes!
My body and gravity... That is a strange relationship! Ideology teaches is that we're pulled to the floor by gravity. If we jump we'll be pulled back down and our body mass works with gravity to make us heavy. This gives us our weight. This session somewhat questioned that basic knowledge.
During the walking exercise I made myself lighter. Gravity's force didn't alter but my relationship with it did as a result of my body's alterations. I've learnt that my body can manipulate gravity. This is why when we did the exercise where we uncurled our spine and shot our legs out first, we didn't crash to the floor. Our body weight was balanced and our body reacted against gravity to stop us hitting the floor and to stop us hitting out partners.
I have learned that when we touch, we don't just touch with the hands. It is with our whole body. Our spine, our hips, our ankles- all of it. We communicate through minute signals and when working with a partner or a group, the way our body moves and the sense of touch enables the partner or group to respond to us and our touch. For example, when we were supporting each other to sit down and stand up, I became aware from the touch of Luke's back if he was comfortable or anxious but also if he was grounded. Touch in this sense enabled communication on both parts to derive whether we were stable to perform the exercise, whether we were comfortable and balanced.
Overall, I still ache but now I know what I'm getting into I can't wait for Friday's session. I am determined to focus and be less cautious to hopefully discover more of my body's abilities.
See you all Friday,
Michaela Lloyd
Firstly I must say how much it hurt me to walk over the weekend, and I havnt been able to bend down for two days.
a) In terms of technique i found the first exercise easier on my body. It suprsised me how quickly my body memory kicked in after being repositioned into the correct position. However after i felt like I had done the technique correctly several times, as soon as Paul came over and was consiously watched me the technique dissapeared and i could'nt get the exercise right. Contradictory to that when we were asked to do the exercise the wrong way after practicing it the correct way, my body automatically did it the right way without thinking. That is why I was suprised at how quickly my body memory reacted.
However it took my body alot longer to master the technique of the second task, and alot more perseverance was needed. I found it good for me to not find the tasks easy as it made me more determind and a sense of achievement was felt.
b) In the second exercise I worked with Kelly and although other people said there "weight" diidn't matter , i didnt come across that not making a difference as we are very similar heights, and our bodies are not dissimilar either.
I realised the importance of body weight in this exercise as it would not have worked without it. We could not understand how much weight was actually neeeded at first, so we was not suceeding in the exercise. However Paul did it with me and once i felt how it must feel to get it right, then I could use my body memory to help myself and Kelly acomplish the task.
c) I realised during the second task the effect that gravity can have on your body. After finally completing the sitting task a couple of times my body failed to do it again, the gravity pulling down on my body was greater than my body strength trying to get myself up into the standing position. I realised that the mind and body do not always work together, as my mind wanted to do something and the body wouldn't let it.
d) Touch as a means of communication was essential in thi exercise and it is the key to completing it safely and sucessfully. When Paul demonstarted it with me i could really feel his back against mine, and i knew it felt right and knew we were ready, ust by the feeling of the bodies. I then knew as i said before when me and Kelly were ready because our bodies felt right, i could feel the right amount of pressure and all of her back muscles instead of just a few. Few words need to be spoken as the body knows when its ready and clarification from your partner is enough.
During last weeks lecture I discovered muscles I didn’t realise my body had. But in a way this was good as it meant I could teach my body new things easier as those muscles weren't trying to stop me using them. My body was able to learn new physical movements faster then I expected and as soon as I had learnt it I could do it over and over again (even if my muscles where getting tired)
The body weight was not much of an issue in my pair even if height was. However this did not affect us that much just that I had to crouch down more then my partner so that we had the correct amount of contact on our backs.
Gravity only played a part in dragging me down in the sitting action however to overcome the effects of gravity we had to rely on us pushing more onto each other. So that our bodies were more stable and able to force ourselves up.
Touch is a strong means of communication and we felt ready to do the movement of going up and down, only when the muscles in our back said so and the touch of our back on each other felt ready to move. We only spoke on occasions to make sure we were ready to move on the first few times. But as our sense of touch grew and we knew what felt right we spoke less and less to each other. Until at the end we could just perform without speaking.
In all honesty I don’t really understand the idea of body memory yet – so that didn’t play apart into my learning of the physical techniques. In doing the first task ‘falling’ to the ground with the equal distribution of weight throughout the body, I felt as though my body was capable to do it well (except for keeping myself up – as I have no upper body strength at all), however, it wasn’t until my head started thinking about; it was then that I started to get the exercise wrong.
Well, I have a massive issue with weight, and it is something that hold me back in life and I did feel that it would hold me back in Fridays lecture, however, doing the final exercise with Sandi (the back to back exercise, sitting down, the going over your partners back etc) I was surprised that I actually did it. I did think ‘OMG there is no way that she will take my body weight – but she did and its made me realise that maybe weight is not an issue in this work?!? I’m not saying that my weight is never going to be an issue again because I know that it will be as my weight issue is something I have always had – but maybe it will make me think twice??
I think my body’s relationship with gravity change, firstly with the ‘falling’ exercise – as this gave me an understanding to learning to distribute my body weight evenly thereby stopping gravity taking effective and me falling to floor quickly. This was put into even more practice with the ‘back to back sitting’ exercise – as if the balance between me and my partner was correct – we could have stood there all day – and even though our bodies were in a funny position, gravity wouldn’t have pulled us down as we were sharing each others weight.
With each task given I am begging to understand how much touch is just as good a means of communication as speaking. If the task in hand is done well you don’t need to speak – you can just feel that the task is being done correctly. Admittedly, like Anna said at the end of the lecture, because this is completely new work for us, we do use speak as a way of comforting each other and to express that we are either nervous or fearful of the task. But just on the work alone – touch is a very powerful form of communication.
Oh my god, i couldn’t walk over the weekend so it proves i must have worked hard as muscles in my body, that i didn’t know existed really hurt!!
For me Friday’s lesson was all about "mind over matter." In order to learn a physical technique i needed to over come what my mind was telling me like that I "couldn’t" drop to the floor and my hands to support me. I needed to allow my body memory to take over what my head was telling me in order to complete these basic control techniques. When doing the first task I found it rather hard for me to keep myself in the same position whilst Royona spoke, but once the exercise was repeated several times my body memory allowed me to land in a position where my weight was distributed more evenly.
When the second task was in hand I didn’t quite understand what was meant by body weight until doing the exercise. When working with Sarah I didn’t feel like we were both giving each other enough body weight, especially when we managed to get to the floor but couldn’t get back up. Once practiced a few times and when we understood the meaning of giving each other equal body weight the task was a success and a great sense of accomplishment was felt. Watching other groups made you realize when one person was giving more weight than the other. I don’t mean that in the sense of physical weight i mean body weight. For example when I was watching Nic and Amy you could see when Amy was pushing so hard and Nic was pushing the equal amount back. Watching this helped me realize how much weight is needed to support one another controlled and comfortably.
Touch was essential in this task as i needed to feel the way in which my partners back was moving so i knew how to move with her. Just like in a performance you need to feel the way in which your partner is moving so you can move with them in a successful way. For the last part of the task, after me and Sarah had a success with the task before we were determined to concentrate and progress in the session, I felt that this was achieved as we both worked our bodies and weight in order to successfully complete the task of taking either your partners weight over yourself or vise versa.
a) For the body to learn precise physical technique it seemed it had to undergo a few processes. Firstly observing the technique, then attempting the technique, then gaining feedback on the technique then attempting it again with corrections. The learning process takes the approach of many different learning styles: Visual, aural and kinesthetic. Once the body has undergone this learning process then body memory holds the learn information.
b) It became apparent throughout the session that weight had nothing to do with the ability to perform the tasks. Using the correct technique eliminated any issues of weight, this was because weight was being distributed through the floor and the partners were merely supporting balance. If anything a lack of pressure in the partner work made it more difficult to achieve as there was not enough of a physical connection between the two bodies.
c) The body in relation to gravity is quite difficult to explain. in a scientific sense gravity is constant, it does not change and that perhaps, initially, might lead us to think that our bodies relation to it is constant also. However, in the exercise where we dropped to the floor our bodies interacted with gravity in a much more dynamic way than usual. The idea of "gravitational play" returns in the sense that one moment you are free falling then at the last moment support yourself again. It is also apparent in the partner exercise, where between you a game is played with gravity to shift its affects onto different parts of the body.
d) Touch is an imperative part of communication within the genre. It can communicate several ideas without the need for spoken word. When working with Ellen I noticed that although we did always ask "Ready" it was rare to hear the response "no" It seemed as though we only vocalised once our bodies knew we were ready.
I realised that my body and mind do not work in unison. My mind has no barriers, I will never refuse to give something a try, and my mind tells my body it can do anything it says to. But my body is quite restrictive. In terms of not having to use specific muscle groups in such an intense way, I found it quite straining on certain points.
Weight is not an issue in Process. I didn’t actually think about weight being an issue, until people brought it up with such a lack in confidence, which then made me think it might be of concern. That thought soon dissolved when we started the task. I think it is down to trust of both yourself and of your partner.
I thought that when we had to jump into the plank, that my body would not hold because I have a lack of upper body strength. But surprisingly I managed to hold my own, and not collapse through the gravitational pull was trying to bring me down. When we were doing to sitting down task with our partners, I think gravity played an important roll there. My partner and I managed to sit down and stand up on our first try, but it was an enduring task and tiredness started to set in. We were able to sit down, but as we tried to stand up again, we would often reach half way, and not have the strength to go all the way and fall back to the floor. This is because we were working against gravity.
Touch was the central form of communication in the standing/sitting. It allowed you to sense you’re positioning, and readjust if needs be. It was a way of talking to your partner, without actually saying a word. If my partner felt I wasn’t pushing hard enough on them, she would push harder on me, which in turn made me do the same and vice versa. Touch was the key of either doing the task correctly or incorrectly. If you didn’t have your positioning correct with you partner at the start, you would 9 times out of 10 be making it more difficult for both partners and then end up not being able to complete the task with fluidity.
Zara Bailey's Comments:
Friday’s lesson, I really enjoyed, thank you.
Answering last weeks question; this week I got a chance to use body memory and found it successful, where I found my body re enacting the moves it had once done. Thank you.
This lesson covered many areas, one of which was learning physical technique.
Physical technique learnt where we were able to do movements without injuring or hurting the body.
An example of this was the fall to the floor. For me personal I did not like this at all. I have a somewhat kind of fear when it comes to my body in force contact with the floor from standing. Whether it’s dropping, sliding on, running unto, I don’t like to be put in a threatening position where I feel I’m going to be hurt.
So when was shown an example of what we had to do, I was very anxious and worried. When did it, I still wasn’t really put to ease as the fall didn’t go as well as it could of.
However Royanna and Paul then showed us the right Physical technique to the fall where the body weight was evenend. I was still scared to try it but when did, found that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I took deep breathes and carried on practicing the floor and technique where eventually I got it right and started to in fact feel comfortable with the fall and felt proud of myself for overcoming a barrier, although I still have a long way to go and have some work to do in terms of that.
The last exercise we did, we had to choose a partner go back to back and slowly fall to floor, then slowly get back up standing. I learnt from doing this exercise and observing others that body weight in this form is not important at all.
It’s how you share your body weight, how you give, how you take and how the body weight is distributed between each other.
Touch to me is very important, just as useful and significant as to words, vocal communication. The touch of the body can communicate the same way words can.
I found in this lesson that two bodies can actually talk to each other, just through touch.
In the Floor exercise I was partnered with Emilia, throughout the whole time of first pairing we did not seem to successfully complete the exercise and didn’t really understand why, so kept on trying and trying again.. trying to find out where we had went wrong. However once Paul spotted us he made sure that our backs where touching, in complicity. The contact of our backs felt very close therefore lead our bodies to be in a close relationship, like one. We did it a last time and succeeded, I was very proud that we did it and I high fived Emilia.
.To be honest I didn’t really agree with the man saying no high fives at the end of the session last week. I understood why he said that but I believe in reinforcing good behavior and for me doing something right, I felt proud and wanted to high five my partner in encouragement to her and myself to say ‘we did it once and can do it again’.
Firstly I would like to thank Leigh-Anne for repeating the back to back exercise so that I could have that experience.
When working on the dropping to the floor exercise my fears got in the way and instead of doing the exercise properly, which would’ve distributed my weight evenly, I panicked and kept dropping my hands first. This caused one of my wrists to hurt due to the strain. I took Royona’s advice from the first lecture and didn’t let the pain prevent me from carrying on and it soon stopped hurting when I managed to fall correctly. I found the exercise much easier with a partner as I had to fall properly – there was no other option.
During the back to back exercise I was amazed at how easy it was to move together when our backs were fully in contact and the weight was equal. Having said this I didn’t put enough weight on Leigh-Anne’s back to create a strong enough stance at times. As Leigh-Anne had previously done the exercise her body remembered how it should feel to be ready and she wouldn’t move until we were in the right position.
Having been afraid of the falling to the floor exercise, and surviving it, I now know that my body is more capable than my mind gives it credit for. I also was surprised that I managed to hold my body up longer than the previous week – although when repeating the exercise further I couldn’t keep myself up for as long. I believe I find it difficult to cope with the relationship to gravity as I like to be in control of my body. The first few times I practised the drop I felt uncomfortable and out of control which came through in my actions. However when I did the fall correctly I was more in control as I wasn’t worrying.
Without the use of communication through touch in the back to back exercise I wouldn’t have applied enough weight to support Leigh-Anne. Although we did talk to get into position a few times I could feel when it was right and ready to move. I believe we could’ve gone through the exercise without talking and will work on that next lecture.
Looking forward to more pain and challenges on Friday
Sarah
Hey I know this irrelevant to this particular blog, but did anyone see the programme on Akram Khan last night? I just caught the last ten minutes of it as I ws flicking through, but it looked quite good and relevant to what were doing. It was about his new show "In I", and it was interesting to watch the physical theatre.
xxx
a) In both the sessions main exercises I was surprised how quickly my body learnt and remembered the techniques. In the ‘falling’ exercise I found myself thinking about it too much to begin with, for example when I was landing with my hands not far enough forward, it was harder to hold myself up. Although I was still thinking about it in my head, it was almost unnecessary as my body knew what felt right and comfortable – my head was only reiterating was my body was already telling me.
It was the same with back-to-back partner exercise. It seemed that if I thought too much, if I was giving my partner enough or too much weight etc, the exercise wouldn’t go right.
b) Considering the tasks we were doing, it was surprising that body weight really wasn’t an issue; it was far more about technique, strength and weight sharing. With the first task, it didn’t matter how strong you were, if the technique was used correctly then you were able to catch your whole body weight without a problem.
In the second task it was all about weight sharing and distributing your weight evenly with your partner and the floor. When I did this exercise with Jay, once we discovered that when as much of our backs were in contact as possible our weight was shared more evenly, we were stable and the task was far easier. This was proven when Paul leaned on my shoulder; it did not even shift me as it felt like I was leaning on a brick wall.
c) In the first exercise I found that my body was able to shift its relationship to gravity with slight adjustments, for example landing with my hands further forwards, and my feet wider apart. It was these small changes that meant my weight was distributed more evenly and gravity had a smaller effect on a larger surface area, rather than a large effect on a small part of my body eg. more on my arms when i was in the wrong position.
d) In the back-to-back exercise touch was a major way, and could easily have been the only way of communicating. Even though there was verbal communication going on to say when to start, to tell your partner to give you more weight etc, this task really could be done without any words at all. The body really is far more intelligent than we give it credit for. When the contact between my partners body and mine was right, my body knew, just like it could feel if me or my partner were holding back at all.
Gina's Comments:
A) When I saw and heard what we were being asked to do in the last lecture, I was terrified. All I could think was 'I'm too heavy!' and 'my body is NOT capable of that!' However, it is through learning precise physical technique that I was able to do these things. By the examples shown my Paul and Royona, it was obvious that we had to get it right. It was an exact technique that we had to learn to achieve the aim.
This was especially obvious when we were doing partner work. Blake asked me to be his partner and I really did not want to go with him-I thought our difference in height and especially body weight was a disaster waiting to happen! Blake and I did not even try to go down until we were balanced against each other correctly. We could feel it was not quite right. However, when we got it right, we went straight to the floor and came back up with no problems! This was such a good feeling to be able to do something so easilly that I did not think my body was capable of; it was because the technique was so important.
B) Body weight, as already mentioned was a very big problem for me. Since the beginning of this module I have been terrified of the prospect of what is to come. I know my body weight is going to be an issue in the future of this module, but last week really taught me how to feel good about it. As mentioned by Paul and Royona-it really is not about your body weight, it is about how you use it against each other. Once Blake and I had that proportion right, we went right from standing to sitting and back again! As soon as we got overconfident and speeded up, it did not work! I was so excited when it was working though, because I didn’t not realise my body’s capacity and how good it feels when you break one of those barriers!
C) I found gravity played a huge part in the first exercise where we were trying to hold our bodies straight and everyone struggled to hold it. Naturally, your body is being pulled down towards the floor, and that’s a very strange feeling. You feel you have no control over it. I feel unable to answer this question to a certain extent, because I do not feel I have shifted my body’s relationship to gravity yet. However, I think if you can be in a real neutral state, the time you may be able to hold your body could be amazing.
D) Although there was a lot of communication in this lecture, and we did not use our bodies as the means as much, it is easy to see how it works. Even though Blake and I spoke quite a lot, it was because I was terrified. Without words of assurance from Blake, I would never have trusted him to take my weight. I could have gone with someone of a similar size to myself, but I went with Blake begrudgingly! However, after his help, I felt like I had climbed a mountain! Thank you Blake!
However, there were many times, when Blake and I stopped talking. Instead of one of us asking ‘are you ready to stand/sit?’ we just went. When I had Blake on my back, we could tell when we did not have it right from where our spines were touching etc.
This was a massive barrier for me to break a little, and I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture! I took risks, I tried hard and it paid off. I have no doubt that things will be a problem for me again and again, but I am now looking forward to taking those on! My positive attitude is shocking me!
Yes Sarah I saw most of the documentary. Was really interesting. Especially as the woman he was performing his new show with was not a trained dancer.
Hopefully it might be on iPlayer for those that didn't see it.
The Akram Khan documentary is on iplayer for anyone that whats to watch it.
a.I found that my body took a while to find precise physical technique as I thought that me and my partner were doing the 'back to back' excersise quite well until we actually realised that I was holding her wait rather than being equal wait.
b.I did not have any issues regarding my partners body weight although she did with mine, as she had two injured knees and found it quite difficult to hold my whole wait on her back.
c. At first I found it quite difficult to shift my bodies relationship to gravity. The excersise with extending both arms and legs at the same time to the floor I found quite difficult until we had to do it over our partners. I found that because we had slight presure on us, it was easier to execute the excersise.
d. Touch in this session was essential, especially in the 'back to back' excersise. At first, mine and my partners backs were not 'connected' correctly, meaning we didnt do the excersise efficiently. Then, after practise, realising our back must be totally against each other we realised how significance of touch as communication.
1.
a. I think that learning and mastering precise physical technique can only be obtained by practicing, repeating and focusing deeply on particular tasks. It is important to be conscious of mistakes that you are doing and correct them. An exemplary exercise should be learnt and added to the repertoire of our body memory so to repeat it easily and precisely when needed in a performance or just in one of sessions. In my case during the sessions I possess this feeling of will in my body to repeat and try again and again an exercise. I think it could be one of the ways to gain the success in a particular technique.
b. What I learnt and discovered with the help of Royona and Paul was that weight is not the crucial factor of succeeding in a technique or a motion. Different weights can still bring the expected result and even make a performance more interesting. I think that finding and matching centres and reaching bodies’ contact is the essence. As our teachers said – ‘Not weight, but technique is significant’.
c. I was not thinking too much about gravity while focusing on tasks but it was a very pleasant experience to balance on my partner’s back not having any contact with the floor. Maybe it was the moment of trembling of gravity and facing it. In my opinion our bodies will be not once playing or fighting with gravity. I will try to remember and analyze this factor while doing exercises on next sessions.
d. I think that in pairs’ exercises mostly one of partners is a supporter and the second one is a doer. According to the term ‘body memory’, our brains should be switched off and we should not communicate verbally as well. So the contact can only be reached by the touch. In my opinion this kind of a link between bodies is extremely crucial because a supporter must feel a doer’s intentions (and vice versa) to execute an exercise precisely. It brings also a feeling and physical impulse of trust between performers.
I agree with the quote of Steve Paxton and treat the touch as one of the basic and most important factors of physical theatre. As he says, the touch gives birth to strong emotions and relationships which we can find later on stage, vividly vibrating between performers.
After watching Yesterday, i was just so overwhelmed with the performance, but then it sort of geared me up that little bit more. I know that I’m not going to be able to do those things overnight but with practice and learning different techniques I feel that the taks at hand is more achieveable than I first anticipated. The way I went into this session was completely learning these new techniques and pushing my body to the extreme, because I realise that if I’m going to buckle at the first bit of pain then there is no way im going to get anywhere near to the body compositions as the dancers from yesterday and i did find my body was in pain the next morning but then that showed me I was doing everything properly and my muscles were being exercised in the correct way and like they say no pain no gain.
I learned that as long as you had the technique right and the concentration you can execute lifts and carry weight without it being a struggle. With the first technique where we had to fall to the ground distributing our weight evenly without causing injury, I found it a bit of a challenge at first to get my body out of the old habit of using my hands first, and after a couple of go’s, I got used to it and found it was a lot easier for my body, it felt a lot more balanced and less of a strain.
Getting the hang of the first technique so easily I thought the second task would be a doddle because I’ve always thought I had strength in my hamstrings, but as the exercised proved I clearly didn’t, I was with Ed and we had the initial body lock in the right position and got down to the floor fine but when we had to get up I just felt like I was superglued to the floor or something, and I tried and tried to get myself up but I realised that I needed to both push up and push against my partner’s body and once we grasped that it was plain sailing, and I realised that I needed to just give it that extra push, and what I thought helped us get it done accurately was we weren’t talking, we were dedicated to getting it done properly, we were fully focused and 100% mind on the task and if it didn’t go right or we felt we’d done it wrong we were determined to get it done.
I feel like my relationship with gravity now has changed a lot, before I was scared of falling and composing my weight/body, but now with all the techniques I’ve learnt from this session I’ve found that my body works with gravity now as opposed to against it, as I have complete control over how much of my body I move and how I distribute my weight in accordance to where and how I’m positioning my body. And instead of worrying about whether I’m going to fall flat on my face my body now instantly reacts to how and where it’s moving.
Touch is essential in terms of communication as it can allow us to connect to our partners through our bodies. And I think its paramount because my partner needs to be aware if I feel he/she needs to apply more pressure etc. Like with the back to back exercise once I felt Ed was powering his push even more I took that as a signal to also push harder and so was able to execute what we were trying to tell each other through our bodies.
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