First Movement screening- 'Breath Made Visible'

This week we had an extra session with Liz on the movement module, however this was because we had our first live screening of the course. This involves us watching a film about movement. When I arrived at the session I was unsure what to expect. I had began to think that it was likely to be a videoed movement performance, however the film resembled more of a documentary format. It was a film called 'Breath Made Visible', about a famous dance choreographer named Anna Halprin. Throughout the film there was narration done by Anna herself, narrating her life within the performance industry. When I got home I decided to research Anna Halprin further as we were unable to make notes in the darkness of the cinema room.
ANNA HALPRIN
Quote from annahalprin.org- 'Anna Halprin's diverse career has spanned the field of dance since the late 1930s, creating revolutionary directions for the art form and inspiring fellow choreographers to take modern dance to new dimensions.'
This quote labels Anna as an inspiration and throughout the film I felt that this was most definitely true of her.
One aspect of the film showed her performing a dance which outlines various areas of her life. There was also may other clips of her performing in dance numbers which she had choreographed. This is amazing to say that the film was aired on July 8th 2011 and she is now 93. I was amazed at how agile and alive she still was as she brought the stage to life through her movement. A clip of her dance 'Intensive Care: Reflections on Death and Dying' was shown at the end. This was my favourite of the performances shown, despite it being the most upsetting. It was inspired by her husband and the time she spent visiting him whilst he was in intensive care. Many of the mannerisms and movements she included were drawn from movements she had seen her husband do whilst he was ill. For me this dance was particularly emotive as you were able to see the feelings behind each movement, due to them being drawn from real experiences. I could almost feel her pain and I must admit I was nearly brought to tears. I think that if I were to have watched it in a different environment I may have. The dance took you on a journey, touching on the fear of death itself and what happens before that.
I have found that Anna Halprin appears courageous in the path she follows . Despite Being knocked back in the past she continued to delve into unknown territories within dance and for this I commend her. I enjoy her style her style as it differs from the conventional ballet moves for example. Like her, her movements are free and have meaning, something that I enjoy seeing within dance, especially being someone who is most fond of theatre as opposed to dance.   
This has just been a brief insight in to the life of Anna Halprin, but through researching her I can safely say that she is an interesting and inspirational woman and choreographer. I recommend watching 'Breath made Visible', if you are interested in dance which continues to break down boundaries and cause controversy within the dance world.

Working with off balance movement

This week in movement we began experimenting with off balance movement. As usual the session started with a full body warm up, to get our bodies warm and limber before the strenuous work began. This warm up involved shaking our entire body, stretching and then scrunching our faces up, before partaking in various floor exercises such as the metal stretch and the wood stretch, for example. Each week I memorise a different one of these warm up methods so that I can begin to explore them at home as well as in class.
The real focus of the lesson (off balance movement) then began. We were put in to pairs, with whom we would work through a range of movements. I was initially put with a girl much smaller than me, so I saw fit to swap with a pair who also had great height difference. I was working with my classmate Poppy, who is of similar height and weight to me. This meant that we could do the exercises well and confidently without fear of hurting the other person. The pictures below are to show you what sort of positions we did. We were certainly better at some than others!

This is one of the first exercise we did we evolved us leaning right back and slowly sitting on the floor

 

 This is us at the point where we were sat on the floor. We were wobbly at first but were able to perfect the exercise and perform is properly.

 We then went on to do the exercise with one hand. We alternated between the two, swapping as we stood up.

 This exercise involved one us letting ours backs lay against the floor. Our partner then used their core to pull us back up. It was important that they used their core in order to ensure the arm muscles were damaged.

 This exercise relied on us finding the perfect position in which we could sit comfortably as though on chair, using the other person as a support. This was one of the hardest exercises for me, as we were even slightly in the wrong position you began to feel the strain in your leg muscles. This exercise encouraged me to improve the strength in my legs. We then played a games where had to attempt to push our partner to the other side of the room. We alternated partners for this and I won one, got one draw and unfortunately lost the other one miserably. (good fun though!)

 This was the starting position for the next exercise... This picture shows me lifting Poppy.

 The preparation was for me to bend my legs and get to a sturdy position. Poppy then reached up on to her toes (facing the opposite way to me this time). I grabbed her arms and lent forward, pulling her off the ground and on to my back. It was essential for me to have a straight back in order for the exercise to work properly.

The picture below shows Poppy on my back (The resulting position of the exercise)

 In this next photo I am the one who is being lifted. The process for this lift is the same however I am seen facing the opposite way to Poppy. This was my favourite lift. I was very proud of myself for allowing Poppy to lift me like this, as I have always been nervous about being lifted off the ground. However Liz used my to demonstrate the lift to the class and her encourage boosted my confidence, so that I was able to get over my fear.

 In this lift one person transferred their weight over the body of the other, whilst they knelt in the position shown below. This exercise was simple yet effective.

 We were asked to stretch our arms out and ensure that our entire weight was being supported by the other person.

 We did this exercise backwards as well, as seen below..

 This was an exercise where we just sat on the back of our partner, allowing them to support our entire weight. This position proved to be particularly sturdy and both Poppy and I found this the easiest.

 The exercise below shows Poppy kneeling on my back. This position was rather wobbly in contrast to the one above.

 In the picture below I am leaning my body backwards over Poppy, who is curled up on her kneels close to the floor. We doing this exercise I could feel my stomach muscles stretching, which became a bit uncomfortable is you stayed in the position for to long.

 This was the last exercise we did as Liz said it was the most complex. This is an exercise I remember doing when I was younger and had known as the airplane position. This was by far the hardest of the exercises and required a great deal of leg strength. Unfortunately I found this exercise to daunting for me to be the one who was lifted, however I hope to revisit this in the future and improve upon it.

 These pictures show Poppy as she transfers her weight on to my legs. It was important that my feet were positioned correctly on her hip bones, otherwise the exercise failed.

This is my favourite of all the pictures as it captures us when we did this exercise the best. It was important throughout this session that we were able to put trust in our partners and their ability to support us. 
  I found that this was not only a good way to explore off balance movement but a way to become closer with my classmates, whom I am sure I will have to put my trust in throughout the course, when we do exercises such as these. This session was my favourite up to now, of my movement sessions as Northumbria. It was something I had never explore in that much depth before and certainly enjoyed pushing myself to allow a class mate to lift me up. This links to my personal learning plan in which I talked about wanted to challenge myself each lesson and I feel as though I certainly did this in this session. At the end of the session we did a warm down to ensure our muscles didn't cool down to quickly. I enjoy doing this as it allows me to relax after working hard in the session. I am glad that me and Poppy took time to get photos of the different exercises as they capture the moment perfectly. I will be able to look back at this in the future and draw on them if the opportunity arises. Liz recommended that we have a hot bath or shower and partly due to not having a bath as Uni and my forgetfulness I failed to do this.. Trust me I regretted it in the morning. I have definitely learnt from this. Overall the session was insightful and enjoyable, two things that I hope will become the norm within these sessions.

Personal Learning plan

So this week Liz asked us to develop a personal learning plan. We were given a few questions that we can use as inspiration as we set out are goals for throughout this course.The first is:-

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MOVEMENT?
I like movement. I danced for about 4 years before I came to university. I did tap, ballet, modern and freestyle. Freestyle was my favourite, as you were able to let your body loose and be more free with your movement than you could with the others. Dancing was my favourite thing to do for a while until i began singing lessons and taking part in my school musicals. This was when I discovered my love for musical theatre. I was excited about the movement classes as it will keep me flexible and hopefully make my body stronger throughout the module. I know that the course is not going to be dancing but the movements and exercises we will take part in will strengthen my muscles.

WHAT ARE MY PERCEPTIONS OF WHAT MOVEMENT WILL INVOLVE?
I have find that there is last dance based exercise so far in the module. When I think of movement I think of dance, but as the sessions advance I am beginning to realise there is more to the term movement that I had considered. So far we have experimented with expressive movement, movements that depend of others in order to function and many more. I am really enjoying getting to know my body. I have definitely realised that I not as strong as I realised! I hope to improve this throughout the course. Therefore my perceptions of what the module involve, is the exploration of our bodies abilities and the way in which they can move.

WHAT ARE MY STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?
Ok lets start with strengths... One of my strengths is that I always up for giving any a go and Im not a quitter. In the two lessons I have been in i have already had the courage to allow someone to lift me from the floor, something I have always been scared of. I am quite good at putting any embarassment behind me and getting on with the task put in front of me. I pride myself in how serious i can be when approaching these exercise, when others laugh and giggle when the tasks are put in front of them.
I think a weakness of mine is that when I am tired it takes a little longer for me to get going. I can be quite grumpy, but often movement can help to de-stress me for the rest of the day.
I am also bad at writing stuff like this and often put it off as long as possible. Here i am writing this a week late. I probably shouldn't admit that on here but its because its something I want to improve on as the course goes on.

WHAT DO I HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
I have already mentioned some of these things, like above when i mention doing my work and blog in plenty of time before each lesson. I want to continue pushing myself to socialise with the entire class and working with each of them in the movement exercises. I want to practice the exercises in class so that I can improve each week and strengthen my muscles and become more flexible. I also want to do as much as the suggested reading as I can.

WHAT STRATEGIES CAN I ADOPT TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS?
By setting these goals i feel that I am already on the path to completing them. I write such things in my weekly planner and tick them off when they are completed. This means that the unticked things stay there and push me to complete them. I intend to set aside time to practice the exercises and document them on here through photos and posts. Another way, although it sounds stupid, is to reward myself when i complete the goals. I will also gain reward from feeling my muscles strength and the potential improve that should occur in the lessons.

HOW DO YOU IMAGING THIS MODULE MIGHT TIE IN WITH YOUR LEARNING IN OTHER MODULES?
I think that this module will help particularly in my Physical Actor module. Working to improve the strength in my muscles will help me in the exercises i face in that module. I will also feel healthier as a whole, which will mean that I am able to concentrate better, something that will benefit me throughout all modules.
To conclude I intend to try improve my body and person as a whole so that I can be the best I can be and have a healthy body.

My first Movement class

 On Friday I had the first of my movement class's, on the performance course at Northumbria University. I didn't know what to expect when I turned up to the class, but I dressed in my gym clothes, taking on board what others on the course had said about what they had done in their class. We began the class with a warm up, to ensure our bodies were ready for what laid ahead. This warmup involved various yoga stances including the earth, fire and water movements. These worked to stretch out our body from head to foot. I intend to practice these so that when we return to them in each session, I keep improving. We then partook in several interesting exercises involving movement. For example, one of these exercises involved us creating a short sequence of movements which were symbolic of several aspects of our personality and/or activities we enjoyed doing. We then taught this sequence to another one of our classmates, creating a short performance which enabled the rest of the class to learn more about us. Liz, the module leader, asked us to consider what movements our bodies were used to doing, which for me often involves slumping about and sleeping. I included a flop on the floor to finish my sequence. 

We then spoke about creating this blog, which at first i was a bit apprehensive about. I have never done anything like this before and was nervous about getting it started. However I think that it is an innovative way of recording what I have done in each lesson and include pictures. I chose the picture below to symbolise the beginning of my movement exploration.

Overall I left the class tired, giddy and interested for what is to come within this module. It was nice to get back to doing exercise and get to know more about my body and my course mates.