Dear All,
Another great session - thanks to you all.
I think it is worth reflecting first of all on your commitment and engagement with the work. Regardless of reservations, dislikes and problems with some exercises, you all still maintained a level of focus and commitment that was a real pleasure to witness and very encouraging for Royona and I.
Today's session was difficult, it moved some of you out of your comfort zones and exposed you in a different way to last week. Most of you felt that last week you were working without a thought to the aesthetic, but in reality, subconsciously that notion of the aesthetic body was still operating. Today because of being allowed vision you could see what you were doing and subconsciously got driven by the sense of aesthetic again. As a result the work became less challenging and in some cases you found it uninteresting. Continue to think about the aesthetic in this work. Find a comfortable balance between an awareness of the 'placement' of the body, its detailed individual parts and a freedom to access creativity without limitations and inhibitions about how this body appears to the outside eye. If a body is honest, it is captivating to watch - it's as simple as that.
Think about how you easily began to work in the 'body reading' exercise and how the chair became an intervention or an aid in the relationship between you and your partner.
Challenges and set backs will happen - and they should be embraced as part of your growth and reflection, not treated as frustrations and hindrances. They make you more aware, more conscious of your limitations and hopefully more determined to overcome them. You will encounter limitations, from the warm-up exercises to the techniques we teach you. Accept this and set goals to overcome them. Be patient above all.
Look at the picture at the top of the blog. Look at the points of contact the performer has with the floor. Imagine how her body feels, how her muscles are working and more importantly how the position and influence of her spine. Imagine how she feels and imagine the effect gravity is having on her current position and where she might move next.
Think back to your own floor exercises and find the parallels to the image on the top of the blog, captured in time.
The questions we would like you to consider this week are:
1) What does the term 'Body Memory' imply in this genre of working?
Discuss whether you were able to access your own body memory during any part of the session reflecting on learnt principles and techniques from week 1.
2) How did the floor exercise develop your understanding of your spine's relationship with the floor? What role did gravity play in your explorations?
Discuss with detailed examples
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and reflections.
Paul
Bahok, Akram Khan Dance Company
Exploring Liminality
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21 comments:
Again I would like to thanks everyone today for a great session. The atmosphere was great in the room and for me everyone pushed the boundary very high which was great to see.
The word “Body Memory” for me is being able to recall a certain event within the body and not using the brain. What I am trying to say is, today when we walked into the room and were asked to lie down into the position which we discovered last week and recall what it was like through body memory this was quite easy. From last week I was able to remember which body parts were meant to be touching the floor and how this felt last week and if there was any different feelings how would I go about changing them and correcting them so it felt normal? From last week I particularly made contact with my spine once we had been lying down on the floor for quite some time. However this week when I initially lay down I found my spine not to be feeling the same way as it did last week because it felt uncomfortable and hurt but it felt like I was lying in neutral. Once Royona said try and recall what you felt last week through body memory I though right let’s tweak my body position and it instantly dropped into the position I remember ending in last week but I could not figure out what felt right until my mind told me that this was the correct and same position as last week.
When we were told to move across the floor in a way that we were pushing the boundaries this task at face value seemed very scary for me. Once I initially made contact with the floor I instantly forgot about everyone watching me and moved myself accordingly to how I felt most comfortable.
In regards to the spinal contact with the floor, at first I didn’t actually take much time to realise what parts of my body were touching the floor because I think subconsciously I wanted to move from A to B as fast as I could.
When I realised that people were not rushing and they were taking their time I started to slow down my movements and could feel how the spine was controlling certain movements which I were doing and certain ones which were telling me where not achievable. I would of liked to of pushed myself further on the floor exercise and tried out some movements which put pressure on the bottom of my spine rather then shifting my weight from my left to right leg and the same with the arm.
In regards to gravity playing a role within my floor movements I only really noticed this towards the end of the activity simply because I became more risky than before therefore struggled to hold certain positions because the feeling of being pulled down to the floor. For example when I tried to spin my weight from one side to the other I did not push off the floor hard enough and ended up falling into Anna but she kept her balance because I imagine she had found the centre of gravity and managed to distribute her weight accordingly where I failed to do so and did not allow myself enough time to carry out the movement.
The work today was challenging because we added a new obstacle which was the chair, however I found it easier to overcome than I initially though because I kept thinking about how the chair became another obstacle but in a way it became part of the story which partners visually created which I though was very nice.
Paul talked about how the work became less interesting because we brought sight into today’s session, in my own opinion the work went from bring interesting to very interesting, simply because we could observe how other people moved and could try some of the moves which we might think “oh I cannot do that” and actually try them out to again push our bodies more than we are capable.
The work keeps getting better and better and more exciting each week and I am very much looking forward to next weeks session and hope many people are feeling the same way as I am.
Friday's session for me was extremely challenging. However I will 100% commit to trying my absolute best, I know it will take a little longer for me to over come my fears and I am prepared for that so bring on next week.
1."Body memory" for me is the body remembering a stance or movement and performing it without the mind having to tell it to do so. I felt this really worked as last week many of us struggled to find our centre, however using "body memory" to go through the preparation towards finding it became easier as our bodies started to get used to the movements and they began to feel more natural so as a whole our bodies became more relaxed and we could find our centre, I believe this will be beneficial to all movement connected with process and performance.
2. The floor exercise was something I found was extremely challenging, I began to find my mind taking over and not letting my body express itself. In reflection on Friday’s session and listening to some of my peer's feedback, I felt some what disconnected from the floor especially the second time we moved across the floor, I knew in my head I wanted to get from A to B as fast as I could so I never felt a strong connection with the floor or went with my instinct which is what it's all about. I believe if you find your centre and focus on the horizon then you are at one with your body and you can begin to allow yourself to rid of any inhibitions. I will continue to work on my own inhibitions and make my level of work the best it can possibly be.
I am looking forward to facing new challenges and overcoming old ones.
Antoinette's Comments:
The obvious answer for "Body Memory" would be allowing the body to recall its stance, movement, posture or even its central state, without the mind telling it so. In theory especially for this type of genre, this makes complete sense as the brain limits the body from movement it was built to do. In saying this though, I question it's take in practice. For example, at the beginning of the lesson we lye on the floor to connect with the ground and in my eyes almost becoming one. Whilst on the floor we are asked to re-adjust using 'body memory'. So using the techniques I picked up on and what I had seen as an onlooker I did just that. It can be argued that my speculation comes from the fact that I wasn't practically involved within the first lesson, I do accept that. However, surely if you are trying to recall how you felt at that time, or to what distance was your spine was in contact with the floor, then you are using the brain also to recover these positions? Maybe more so your brain than anything else, because your body is working off commands of the brain, so realistically it is your brain that does the work and your body shifts to suit that. I do believe thought that this course is about self teaching the mind and taking the body though an obstacle course.
The floor exercises were designed to push the body into exploring none aesthetic movement, allowing the mind to be less conscious and more imaginative. The task was a lot harder than I anticipated, because whilst trying to support the body weight and keep control gravity is defeating you. I found that my mind wanted to be really experimental but my body wouldn't comply. It made me realise how much of my body is not being utilised which was a shock but I liked the fact that I left with aches, pains and no energy because I knew I had pushed through and persevered.
Antoinette
The rate of responses seems to have slowed down slightly since last week! We only have 3 comments so far and the deadline is tomorrow, 4 pm as usual. This gives us all some time to read all the comments and reflect on them. It also gives Paul and I the opportunity to address thoughts raised on the blog, in class.
So please everyone, keep them coming.
Daniel - it's great to sense your enthusiasm for the work and that you are facing your challenges with such positivity. I think when Paul mentioned that movement became uninteresting, he meant it only for those who became frustrated by the exercise on the floor. Not for everyone. I agree with you, when you were all engaged the quality of the work produced was actually very interesting. But those who were for whatever struggling to engage, relied on a brain-led completion of the task. And this made it uninteresting.
Does this clarify your thoughts?
Amy - Really appreciate your honesty about the task, particularly how it challenged you. In this genre of work, the simplest of tasks on the surface, can become the most challenging of tasks when embodied. Delighted to see you wanting to persevere. It's the only way to tackle the demon within!
Antoinette - great observation about 'body memory'. Yes, it may be true that a posture gained through observation is less connected to the body than a posture attained through activating a physical memory. However, what you have hit upon astutely is the fact that the brain is not disconnected from the exercise but an intrinsic part of it.
However in western culture the brain and the body have been historically treated as two separate entities, where the brain thinks and is superior and the body does and is inferior. Conventional dance works on this premise and has built a stereotype that 'dancer's don't think'.
But a phrase and concept like 'body memory' which physical theatre relies on heavily, challenges this split body-brain concept and tries to argue that they are in fact a symbiotic unit and one does not function without the other.
'Memory' is a brain related activity, and 'body memory' is memory triggered in the body due to past impulses.
Lots to think about. Astute observations. Happy Days.
Royona
'Body memory' is when your body doesnt need to use its brain to remember a movement, position or stance etc.
In this genre of work your body needs to get used to using its body memeory. This genre isn't like any other, it isn't the same as learning a script or position you as a performer should be in whilst reading your lines.
For example in last weeks session we began on the floor, for myself this helps me to get in the right frame of mind,to try and free myself of any inhibitions so i can let my body do as it feels right. The first session we learnt how to connect with the floor for the first time and got into a neutral stance. When we were told to use what we had learnt in the previous session to feel and look neutral and use our spine to connect with the floor, at first it didnt feel natural but as we used the 'routine' many times it came to me as if it was my normal stance. I didnt feel as if i needed to adjust my body in any way. This especially is when i felt i was using my body memeory.
Taking part in the floor exercise helped me realise how much your body can do. This is from my arm taking the majority of my weight to other people putting there limbs behind there heads. From the initial thought of me using my spine and my body parts in different ways to make my way from one side of the room to another made me feel very uncomfortable, but as soon as my body made contact with the floor i was able to block everyone else out and try to concentrate in not using my head to control my movements, as i feel this restricts me. Initially this is very hard to do, from the first time we did this exercise to the second, the way i felt didnt even compare. My body in a way felt free to express itself and push myself to try different ways of moving. I feel i am still struggling to get rid of looking asthetically pleasing to others in our group. I feel this will be my boundary i will have to overcome but hopefully in our sessions i will learn that pointed toes and symmetrical stretched arms isnt the way this genre needs to be to look interesting and show the journey of the performance.
I really enjoy this session and feel that it will be interesting to see how far i can push my body before my inhibitions show.
Within this genre of work body memory is highly important and allows the body to go back to a previous stage of working to in theory relive what the body went through at that particular stage. An example of using body memory is when Royona asked us to get into neutral, for the people who attended the first session imediatley knew what she was referring to and with using body memory were able to do so. Obviously with this genre of work not everyone was able to this due to the fact that it’s about our own individual journey and have different rates of working. Personally I was one of those who struggled to immediatley access my own body memory, but as the class went on I found after I had altered my body to get into neutral I was able to acces my body memory.
Growing up everyone knows how it feels to lie on the floor, and nearly everyone has done it, but do we really know how it feels to lie on the floor? The reason I say this is because when we were asked to simply lie on the floor, I thought whats so hard about this? A lot! When I first lay on the floor I realised that the middle of my spine wasn’t actually connected to floor, it wasn’t until Royona asked us to alter our body, all my spine was actually tied to floor. Personally such a small alteration had a huge impact on how I felt when being in contact with the floor. Because of this I felt that I was able to move my body in ways that I never imagined possible.
Within this genre of working, I personally feel that the term 'body memory'refers to the body automatically placing itself in a stance or position without much thought as to how to get into the stance or position. The body recalls within itself what happened, how it felt to be a certain way and places itself in the position. Our bodies remember where our centre was, how heavy or light our feet or other body parts were in connection to the floor. We do not need to think excessively if at all. The term 'body memory' implies that the body recalls things or events independently from the mind.
During this session I was able to access my ownbody memory to position my body into a neutral satance determined predominantly by how my body felt last time we did it. I didn't think about how neutral should look or what it means, but simply how I and more importantly, my body, felt. This was a direct result of the learning my body undertook in the very first session.
2) How did the floor exercise develop your understanding of your spine's relationship with the floor?
The floor exercise was quite enlightening. I began to undersatnd that in everday situations and under normal circumstances we only use the smallest part of the spine. When I was lying down how I would ordinarily, only very small sections of my spine were actually touching the floor. As the floor exercises developed, progressively more sections of my spine were in contact with the floor. Prior to the exercises, I knew that more sections of my spine could be connected with the floor as I actively do pilates., however, I did not understand the connection between the spine and the floor and how connected they actually are whether in direct contact or not.
Gravity played quite a key part in my own explorations of the floor. I was constantly aware that if I did somehting against gravity, I would fall. Initially this made the movements I was willing to attempt quite basic and mundane. HOwever as I progressed through the exercise and certainly by the second time of travelling along the floor, I became much braver. I tried to defy gravity and use my body and my own strength to attempt more sophisticated and difficult movements. By being more adventurous, I began to learn what my body was capable of as well as it's limitations and how gravity will affect my movements.
I learnt in this session that I am alot more confident when working with a partner or a group than I am when I have to go on my own: I was constantly aware during the floor exercise that people could be watching me! I am going to commit 100% to overcome this and my own fears and boundaries and look forward to Fridays session.
Michaela Lloyd
1.For me the term "Body Memory" in this genre means that the body and not the brain can recall a particular stance or position from a previous event. The neutral position we have been practicing in lesson is the first stance we came across when using body memory. I think you cannot describe body memory until you have experienced it.
After coming into the second lesson and begining in neutreal, and using the body roll to get into it, the term body memory became alot clearer. I was able to find my centre quicker and easier , and i felt like i knew where my centre was, by feeling how my body felt previously. I knew where body was meant to be in relation to the floor. You cannot describe your centre or how you find, i think you just know when your body feels right. Walking neutrally compared to the the first week felt more natural and comfortable. In the first week the neutral position felt strange, but using body memory i found it easier to recall the position and practice it.
2. I found the floor exercises similar to the neutral stace, as like i've mentioned in question one neutral was easier the second lesson and the floor work was more comfortable second time around.
I found the floor work much easier the second time, as the first time i went nearer the end, and i felt that there were more eyes me as people were sirtting around the edge of the room. That does not really make sense as i went at the begining the second time and there were still the same amount of eyes on me accept they were in a different place.
That is just pyscological, so i tried to not let that affect me, i was just concious of it. I think the second around i felt it easier as i had done it done it once and i felt i could push myself more. I felt more of a relation to floor the second time around as i didnt notice anyone around me just myself and floor. I felt i could experiment more with what my spine could do, realising my back could take more weight than i thought. As i am normally quite flexible I also realised how not stretching and exercising can limit your body as to what it can do, particularly with floor work.
Body memory for me is the process in which your body is able to recollect a motivating force which then prompts an unpremeditated motion, feeling, movement ect. It would be easy to say that, it is solely reliant upon your body, and your brain has nothing to do with it, but I feel the body would not work in isolation. It could be classed as a subconscious act, rather than an involuntary act.
For example, if you touch a scorching pot, your automatic reaction is to take your hand off. This is because that message has been sent to your Central Nervous System, and instead of thinking ‘oh this is hot, what should I do? Oh I might take my hand off it or I could leave my hand on and see what happens.’ Your body has remembered how it felt the last time you put your hand on a scorching pot, and that if you don’t take your hand off this pot you will get burnt. So without conscious thought you remove your hand from the pot.
This is the same in this genre of theatre. Your body subconsciously remembers how it felt the last time you did a specific act, so is able to recall it with minimal effort.
When asked at the start of the session to lye on the floor, my body was able to feel, which parts of me should and should not be touching the floor, and able to feel that connection with the floor and to know I was lying in the right position. My brain confirmed my positioning as right.
It wasn’t until last weeks session that I thought to myself that it is very easy to stand up and not have to think about what allows my body to be able to stand there. Gravity is an act of nature that we as human beings take for granted. And the spinal column is an invaluable tool in our bodies that also, we take for granted. It isn’t until you actually perform a task like moving across a space, not being able to walk and putting your weight on different points in your body, that you realise how sacred these two things are. The task made me think that my spine allows me to do so much with my body that I didn’t actually realise, and would love to see into the future and see what else my body is actually capable of doing when I can finally remove that mental barrier of thinking I am not able to do something. Also you realise that gravity does not do you any favours if you try and go against it. Newton had his Laws of motion and gravity, and believes that “For every action, there is and equal and opposite reaction.” (Newton’s Law III) I think this coincides with balance. For example, when placing your weight on your head; doing a headstand, your spine is aligned to balance out your weight proportionately to keep you upright, respecting Newton’s third Law. A slight movement will cause a loss of balance and spinal alignment which means that gravity will act against you and bring you to the floor.
I think, that a lot of different things go into movements without you even thinking, like science and psychology, which is so interesting when you actually take the time to think fully about why you actually do something.
1, The term ‘Body Memory’ is literally the body and muscles recalling past experiences. ‘This perhaps contradicts the connotations of memory solely being a process that takes place in the brain.
Body Memory is an important factor in this genre. This is due to the fact the performer does not see themself whilst taking part in the exercises. Instead they will be given aural feedback then make any necessary physical adjustments. The remembering of these adjustments and positions is done through ‘body feel’ and the recalling of that ‘body feel’.
This memory process also takes place outside the genre, the adage, ‘You never forget how to ride a bike’ - this is because your body remembers how it should be positioned to gain balance and what actions it should take in order to work the mechanisms.
In the Jasmin Vardimon video, she explains how the performers have had substantial time away from the performance and yet they go straight into a run without any re-rehearsals. This is because the process cannot be over-intellectualised. That is to say the performer does not rely on their psychological memory. The genre dictates that body movement is caused through impulse, to intellectualise that impulse and related movement would remove any sense of the organic. Instead, information is left existing within our muscles.
I found that finding ‘neutrality’ in the second session was a quicker exercise than in the first and that I was relying less on Paul & Royona’s instruction and more on where i felt certain parts of my body needed to be in order to move through the exercise.
2. The floor exercise was initially a challenge for me. I found that I just wanted to complete the journey across the floor as quickly as possible. This of course meant I was not getting the most out of the exercise. Fortunately, during the second attempt, I was more at ease with myself was able to explore my spine and movement on the floor.
There seemed to be a strong connection between the spine and the floor. This is most likely due to the fact that the body was parallel with the floor, so gravity was acting in a different w ay upon the spine as opposed to when we stand perpendicular to the floor.
The floor exercise seemed to encourage almost a sense of ‘play’ between the performer and gravity. With certain physical explorations the body seemed to try and push the boundaries of gravity. An example of this was when I had one leg lifting up to the ceiling with my hips pushing through to increase the stretch. Then in antithesis to that, there were moments when the body seemed to work with gravity to roll, balance or travel across the floor. These ‘gravity games’ seemed to make the exercise visually interesting with people exploring there bodies in dynamic and interesting games. Whether they were consciously aware of the ‘play’ or not.
Body Memory to me is as simple as tying a shoe lace or riding a bike something we all learn to do at a young age but never forget. For the first few times of tying your laces you'd have to think and recall how you were taught to do it but when you tie them now you just do it your fingers know where to be placed on the laces and where they need to move but your brain isn't aware that you're even tying a lace as your body is so used to applying the routine it just does it effortlessly. Body memory can be applied to most everyday things but in this genre of work it is needed to gain quicker reactions, thinking about doing something rather than doing it could cost you a few vital seconds in say a lift of another person. Its also makes things look more natural and less pushed. When we were told to get into the fetal possition it felt more natural to do this week as we had done it the week before so our bodies had remembered how it felt to be laying in that way so it was easier and quicker to get to that point.
The floor exercise was a good way to explore our bodies movement further at first its hard to not to think about your movement as a whole and what your doing next but as soon as you consentrate on what parts of your body are connected with the floor and how long you can hold a move with out gravity taking its toll or how far you can take that move before you fall over in a certain hold. Once you start thinking in this way you gain more control as you know your limits I started to feel more aware of what parts of me were touching the floor and what parts needed to touch it next for me to keep that control. I think I could have slowed this exercise down a bit as I fell I went to fast so although I felt in control and aware of what was in contact with what I perhaps could have gained even more control over my moments and a greater understanding of my moves.
1. The term ‘body memory’ in this genre of work refers to the muscles in the body recalling movements or actions done in the past. In physical theatre the ‘body memory’ is far more important than the psychological memory used in other forms of theatre, for example when learning and remembering lines. This is because the formation of the movements is built on impulse and it is this impulse that should carry them through rather than using the brain to think what move comes next. As Gavin has highlighted – ‘you never forget how to ride a bike’, this is also true of physicalities in everyday life that we take for granted – getting out of bed, walking, driving a car – we all know where out feet have to go, but it is done without thought as these actions, and how our muscles work to create them, are etched in our body memory.
In the second session I found that the warm up exercise of getting from lying down into neutral standing was an easier process. When we were told to do the process quickly and flowingly later in the session, without instruction throughout, I realised after doing it that I hadn’t actually thought about what I was doing, or where each part of my body was going to move next, it came from my body memory, each muscle had learnt and remembered what to do to get from A to B.
2. During the floor exercise I felt that the relationship of the spine with the floor altered greatly from when we have previously been standing. The first time we did the floor exercise I found myself thinking far too much about what I was doing, and how it looked – again with the idea of aesthetics coming into play. The second time we did it however, when there were times I thought I’d run out of ideas, I paused for a moment and then my body just carried on, without over analysing what I was doing in my head.
Previously, although I had felt grounded, I had not felt a particular relationship with the floor, however with this exercise it was as if the floor (and the space) became a feature in itself. I almost felt like I was the tool or paintbrush creating art, and together with the floor and the space we generated a performance.
The fact that we were parallel to the ground in this exercise meant that we could have more of our body in contact with the floor and I became far more aware of each point of contact. I really pushed myself in this exercise and found that at times I was attempting to defy gravity by holding a position upside down or on one arm etc. This also increased my awareness of my muscles working to keep me there and move me through the exercise.
1) Body memory occurs when a movement can be achieved through action without thought. This is important in physical theatre, although the movement isn’t strictly choreographed performers rely on each other’s movements and pace. Therefore a level of memory comes from the body remembering the line of movements rather than the mind trying to co-ordinate the legs and the arms in time with each other. Not only does this method allow the movement to flow it comes across as more natural to an audience as well as the performer.
As soon as the session began my body got into the position that Paul adjusted me to the first lecture whilst lying on the floor. My shoulder relaxed and my spine sunk into the floor and this prepared my body and mind that I would soon be experiencing physical work. Also I noticed that when asked to get into a neutral stance I didn’t have to think about how to do this as each part of my body remembered how it felt as the transitions took place from the floor to the finishing position.
2) Although I wanted to believe I pushed myself to take more risks I also wanted to feel comfortable and natural in how I was moving. I would move into different positions without thinking and then wonder if I was doing enough with my body – whether I should try harder to connect with the floor. It was strange for me to switch between the two and although I tried the second time to not worry about what I was doing I could sense myself doing the same moves as the first time round. For me it will be a challenge to introduce more risks naturally without thinking about it. It was fascinating to see how I could move across the floor and how my spine was linked to every transition. Although I was worrying I did enjoy the experience and took my time with this exercise
I did notice that my weight would make my transitions faster or slower. For example when I lifted a leg it would take a while to ground myself in this new position and then when I moved my leg towards the floor it landed heavily. Over time and with practice my transitions will hopefully become smoother and less ‘elephant’ like.
Looking forward to challenging myself this Friday
Sarah
1 ‘Body Memory’ is when your body itself remembers position and movements without your brain having to think to put them right, also I think it relates to the body remembering the weight, for example the arm, can take when a lot of pressure is put on it, and when we develop more it will also relate to knowing how to catch people the correct way. I was able to remember my new neutral position after using the techniques from session one. By rolling down and back up into neutral my body was able to recall the way the movements went together to form my stance.
2. The body exercise was very difficult I found, in many different ways. Physically it was demanding and made me realise how much our body relies on other parts to work correctly. For example to hold my body up I needed all the muscles in my back to hold my legs above my head when I lent backwards on my shoulders. Gravity made it difficult to more complex movements because of the weight of my body on my limbs. It was especially difficult when I tried to hold my body up on one arm and leg all my body weight was on my side and my back muscles were straining and so I began to shake with the weight.
This week was very hard for me as I didn’t enjoy the exercises at all which is something I personally need to work on.
1) The term ‘body memory’ means to me something when your brain is not controlling your body and you are not thinking about your movement but your body does all the thinking, I realised what the term ‘body memory’ was when we did the warm up at the beginning of the lecture, where we were told to lie on the floor on our back with knees up in the air and I thought that my back was firmly on the floor but it wasn’t till after we did the stretches exercise and told to re lie on the floor in the same position as we did at the begging of the lesson that I noticed my back was this time a lot more secure and was completely on the floor. I didn’t realise that this was my body memory not my brain doing the controlling till we were told to think about which one it was and I realised that because I was so focussed in my breathing patterns and doing all the stretches that I wasn’t thinking at all were my body was going to move next I just did it.
I also felt that because I was not thinking about my movement, this week I finally found my neutral its taken a lot of time but I think the reason why I have found it so difficult in the past is because I’ve been brought up with dancing my whole life I was always told that my neutral was very upright and tort and so I guess I found it difficult to get out of that habit.
2) For me I really enjoyed the floor exercise, I liked the fact that every movement I was doing had to be connected to the floor and mad me figure out that my spine could do movements I never realised I could do. I found the first time a lot easier than my second as I couldn’t help but let my brain take over and I found myself thinking about doing movements that I didn’t do the first time and I also rushed it because I couldn’t think of what to do, where as when I first did it I just threw myself into it moving without thinking and took my time.
I enjoyed exploring what parts of my body could take my weight , for example I lifted my whole body and managed to balance on one arm and one leg I never would have guessed my arm could take the majority of my body weight and it made me realise I’m a lot more stronger than I thought I was.
Comments from Zara:
Hi to all!
I believe Body memory to be an action where the body recalls a movement that the body has once done before; without the connection to the brain.
Last session I felt that I did not get the chance to use 'body memory' as when was told to use body memory, the directions of what to do was given ie, go into a fetal position and so on. Therefore I felt that my body never really got a proper chance to recall the moves it did the week before and felt I was not truthfully challenged as I heard the instructions of what to do aurally in spoken word.
I have learnt that I am visual learner where I learn things best visually looking at it or doing! Because of this I feel confident in my own body that it would be able to use body memory correctly in the future.
In terms of the floor exercise I am not quite sure what I think.
This exercise taught my body to think rather than my mind.
Whilst traveling from one side of the room to the other, the task made you feel exposed. In a way where every move and detail was clear to its audience. Because the whole traveling had to flow, be sustained and controlled, I found this difficult. My mind really wanted to go that extra mile, explore fully and wanted to do more than I found my body actually capable of doing.
I found that I am not as physically fit than I thought I was, as moves which required to be sustained and held out to its fullest, I found I struggled with. With this in mind of my brain telling me to do more, bigger, difficult things. My body was just saying no.. not yet.. your not ready.. It will come in time!
It sounds funny how I may be creating a dialogue by my body and my brain but that’s what it sincerely felt it was saying to me.
I didn't particularly like the exercise or found it enjoyable, but I did throw myself into it a 100% and felt I couldn't of done it better!
I do see the reason and purpose of doing the exercise and found it inspiring and useful.
Thanks
Zara
With regards to Fridays Session I found it paticularly challenging as in everyday life I would try my hardest to avoid leaving myself as exposed as I felt during the process and performance session.
With regards to 'body memory' I find it hard to comment as I missed the first session (which I now realise put me at a huge disadvantage in the second session).
I would say the most enjoyable part of the session however was watching my classmates perform the floor excersize. It was extremly interesting to see their movements evolve between the first and second attempt, and, as their confidence grew thet were prepared to take more risks, which in turn made for more interesting movements.
However as I said before in doing the excersize myself I felt extremely exposed and insecure. I belive that this feeling will pass with time and I wont let myself fall at the first hurdle. Conradulations to Ryona and Paul for a great session.
These seems to be a significant drop in the number of responses from last week, which is a shame. This space is not only beneficial as a reflective tool but the more you use it the better you will be at critically analysing your own journeys through semester 2 - when the work will be assessed. In other words, this whole semester you can have a go at getting this element of the module right and to a high standard before you get graded for the work.
Those of you who have replied this week, thank you. Your insight and growth is already apparent, as is your ability to critique and ask questions of yourselves and also us and what we are imparting.
This is a crucial element of learning in the physical theatre genre.
Please keep your thoughts alive on this blog.
Royona
1. For me, body memory is something that your body remembers without having to actually think about it too much. I beleive I was able to access my body memory with the neutral stance, with getting into feetal position all the way through to being in the neutral stance. I did this without having to actually think about it too much, i let my body do the thinking rather than my head.
2. The floor excerise I surprisingly really enjoyed as it made my body get into positions I didnt know it could. When the spine was one the floor, it made my realise how important gravity can be in this practice.
1. For me, ‘body memory’ in this genre of working could be seen as a process of separating body from mind. It means also collecting and learning impulses by body and using or repeating them later without brain’s interference. The so called impulses are poses, movements, steps (e.g. neutral stance).
Unfortunately I was not able to test my body memory because of the week 1’s absence but somehow the neutral stance seemed very familiar to me (from Devising 1) and I think that my body could quite quickly adjust to the right position.
2. The floor exercise helped me to understand the function of physical exploring of the space. My spine was the main link with the floor together with different, smaller links which were my limbs. After some time of the exercise I started to feel single, specific parts of my spine connecting me with the floor. From that moment the feeling of being joined to the surface by my whole spine vanished, I was linked by particular, single and little body parts.
The task brought the unexpected but pleasant play with gravity. Fighting with it or facing it I felt mostly while positioning my limbs high up over my head or trying to roll back very slowly. I realized that lying on the floor and connecting my spine with the surface gave me the impression of safety and ‘agreement’ with gravity, even if my limbs were situated in unusual poses.
I really liked the idea of repeating the exercise which enabled us to redo some of our stances, feel or forget about gravity, explore space better, try to investigate our body and physicality more or analyze the question of body-mind relationship or just switch it off, trusting body memory, accessing it.
The accompaniment of music was really interesting accent for my physicality. It helped me to experiment with my boundaries and made me feel better, more confident in exploring space and testing body.
Body memory for me means that the body naturally goes into a position or moves in an involuntary way without you having to think about where to move to/or what position to get into next. I know for me in this week’s session warm up, it was like as soon as I was lying on the floor once I felt like I was relaxed my body wanted to go into the foetal, and it was like my muscles were sort of moving into that, and then from that it was like my body was telling me that it was time to get into neutral from that and I found that weird, it was like because my body had gone through this for the past week or two, it had got into that repetition and almost like it had formed into a routine and so that was weird for me because I wasn’t thinking mentally to move but my body was automatically doing it. And also I can notice a big change now when we lie on the floor and I make contact to the floor with my body, I’ve found my body has loosened up and like all my spine is fully in contact with the floor, my shoulders have become more relaxed now, and just in general my muscles feel a lot more relaxed, ready, and more susceptible for each session.
I came into last weeks session with loads of energy and enthusiasm following on from the week before and once the session began I sort of felt like I’d taken one step forward and three steps back in sense, the chair exercise really was something I didn’t really feel comfortable with at first but once I sort of let my body do the thinking and talking, its almost like I tried to block out what my head was saying, but I think just doing that exercise for me was quite something because I was establishing a relationship with an object for the first time, because I’d established one with the floor and with people, but an object which I would have to control and move with and around and that was something I can’t wait to do again because I was moving my body in ways I didn’t really think were possible and I was experimenting different things and therefore developing a trust within myself to be in control of my body and what it was doing and also to make sure it wasn’t restricting my partner’s movements . And then we had to do the exercise with developing the relationship with our body to the floor and I was quite excited about doing it at first because I thought it was a great way to start to develop my point of contact with the floor, and also to just experiment with different things that I perhaps wouldn’t just to see if they work out and if not trying something different. However once the exercise began I suddnely became aware of everyone around me and for the first time in this experience I felt like I’d just a brick wall, and almost a blip…for me it was like I channeled into the real world and became aware of all my insecurities again and it was quite frustrating for me because there were various different shapes, positions I really wanted to explore but once I got my point of contact with the floor I felt like I just sort of played safe in a way, and was more conscious about how I looked. I was disappointed with myself because i thought I’d got over those sort of things way back in week one, but i think that was just a case of mind over matter and I think I’ve overcome that once more.
But then when we had a second go of it, i thought to myself I really need to give this a try and blank everything out that was going over in my head, and found that I was more relaxed and at ease and then really got into the exercise, and found that the way I was moving on and across the floor was in a much more controlled mannner and rather than trying to scurry across to the other side I was taking my time and moving when I felt I wanted to and for me that was just really surreal, it was like I was in-tune with the floor and my body all at the same time, everything just seemed effortless but yet still had intention and purpose if that makes sense.
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