Semester 2 Working with exercise balls.

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  Image from:- http://myfitbasics.com/p/64/exercise-ball.

  SEMESTER TWO

  I arrived at the lesson today excited about what was to come as the other groups had told us we would be using exercise balls within our exploration of movement.We began with a warm up which involved bouncing up and down on the balls and using your feet to lift to lift yourself off the floor. We gradually began to push off with our feet harder and harder, experimenting with breath and speed along the way. The class was initially giggly as we found the balls were harder to control that we had anticipated. However as we became more confident and comfortable an appropriate concentration level was established. We then had a short section where we could bounce around on the ball freely, involving our arms and heads too. This exercise worked to loosen our entire body, and despite being rather tiring, it served well as a warm up for the rest of the lesson.
• Experimented with a range of movements with the balls. For example holding the ball at one side, then holding it up in the air, placing it on the fall and rolling on to it sideways, lifting yours legs off the floor. We did this on body sides of our body. I found the left side much harder to keep controlled, which made me nervous. I asked Liz for some more advice on the exact movements involved so that I could be sure that I was doing it correctly. I continued to practice and managed to improve the fluidity and control within the movement.
• We did another exercise with we stood facing forward, lifted the ball straight up in the air, bent down and placed the ball in front of us, before sliding forward over the ball using our arms to gain memento and pull us further forward. We then slid back over the ball and on to our feet, placing the ball in the air once more. I found this exercise challenging at first but as I did it more and more times I began to perfect the technique and the movement became smooth, allowing my nerves to pass.
• We then went on to use all the moves we had learnt within the class to create movement sequences in groups of five. I was excited to do this as I enjoying choreographing movements. We decided that we would begin sat down on the balls in a circle, using the jumps up and down on the balls to set the pace of the piece. We found that it was very important to choreograph the timings perfectly as we wanted to incorporate sections of unison and canon within the sequence. By choreographing the timings it meant that we were efficiently working as a movement ensemble and the piece was as refined and slick as possible.
• We then performed these in front of the rest of the class, finishing with a terrific final position, will the balls in the air, to signify the end of the piece.
• After each group had performed we had a discussion about what was particularly good within the work. The use of canon was very popular within the group pieces and something that we all agreed looked effective when perfected.
• Overall I really enjoyed this lesson, as it was full of energy and concentration and was something I had never experienced before. It showed me how you can use objects to generate moves that it may not be possible to accomplish with the human body alone. This is something I will keep in mind in relation to the final assessment.