After warming up we discovered the head, tail connectivity phrase.

This photo shows the long line between the head and tail. Within this phrase there were many movements shaping the spine into different positions. Throughout the sequence we had to focus on lengthening from the tail to the head. When I firstly performed the movement my head to tail connection wasn’t strong therefore we got into pairs to help each other find the senses when your tail was being physically pushed. This really helped me because I felt where my movement should be initiating. When my partner was giving me a push through my tail to help to feel the connection it helped me to travel me through space showing me that moving from your tail gives your more speed and momentum in a dance phrase.

The second sequence was the ‘upper lower’ phrase (can also be named the Homologous connection). Within this phrase the focus was going up and coming down finding high and low space within the body. The upper and lower body connections make you think about your two halfs of your body working in opposition to one another, these were discovered when performing this phrase.

This phrase made me feel not only space within my body but also the space within the room. My body felt open and the use of breath aided me to feel my backspace. This enhanced my low and high parts of the sequence. I struggled to soften into the floor in this sequence because the transitions were really quick therefore I found myself just throwing myself at the ground. In order to help me soften into the ground I made sure I had active hands and feet and thought about the movement before diving into it. Using active hands and feet made me feel more dainty and delicate within my dancing and it definately reduced the amount of crashing and banging to the floor, i used strong pushes through my legs and active feet to help me feel my way up from the floor so i didn’t then need to use my hands to help me.

The third sequence we focused on was ‘the half body’ phrase.

This sequence is made to make us coordinate our bodies and most of the movement was performed on a high level with isolation movements of the arms and rib cage. All of the movement initiated from the top of the body and i felt myself getting taller throughout performing this phrase. The phrase included switching of directions and speeds to provide dynamics and travelling pathways.

The last phrase was my favorite and it was called ‘the cross lateral’ connectivity phrase.

I did some research on the cross lateral connection as i find it very interesting and found  quote which really summed it up for me… “The more closely we consider the elaborate interplay of brain and body, the more clearly one compelling theme emerges:  Movement is essential to learning.  Movement awakens and activates many of our mental capacities.” (ateachermom, 2013). Through performing this phrase I could really play with the use of dynamics because within the choreography there was many pauses, slow & suspended moments and fast and strong moments however these were not set so we could choose the dynamics we wanted.

Bibliography:

ateachermom (2013) The Connection Between The Brain And Body. [online] Available from http://www.ateachermom.com/2013/01/12/the-connection-between-brain-and-body/ [Accesed 11 May 2014]