Studio Practise 18/11/14

Today my spine felt cold, which I find effects my mobility; therefore I decided to use this as my main point of focus in the warm up of today's class with Andrea.

The new movement phrase we were taught today felt very beautiful and fluent to move through. Me and Abbie worked together in rehearsing it and found that we moved in similar ways, so that when we performed the phrase in unison, it has a lovely collective feeling with fluency and clarity.

The travelling phrases that we perform each week again felt very natural now in my muscle memory, however my feedback was very similar to the previous week of that I need to prepare less when beginning the phrases. I know that I do this a lot and it is something I am trying hard to leave behind me. New feedback for this week however was that I need more clarity in my arms during the travelling phrases to allow full extension and to show the journey that they take in each position of the phrase. 

Movement session with guest teacher: Joe Moran

It was a lovely experience to have a studio practise session with the choreographer/performer Joe Moran.

During his session, we discovered that like Fitzgerald and Stapleton, he too is inspired by the principles of Deborah Hay. He repeated the quotes of: "What if where I am is what I need?", however, when he explained it in his specific way of interpretation, I too interpreted the meaning of this quote in a completely different way, which made me question my own practise within the choreography 'The Work The Work Reworked'. When our choreographers explained these principles to us, I thought of what if where I am is what I need as though it refers to the environment: 'where'. However, when Joe Moran discussed his relationship to the principle, I re-considered my original analogy and thought about it in the context of what if where 'I' am is what I need, therefore thinking of it referring to my body, rather than the environment of which my body is in. This for me was mind blowing and complete changed the journey of which I was on, and how I related to the score. 

I found an interview on the internet between a Dance UK intern and Joe Moran, which I found very enlightening and useful when considering him as a maker of dance and a performer:

 http://www.danceuk.org/uk-choreographer-directory/featured-choreographers/joe-moran/