Dance Training Journal 5: 1/30/15, 1/31/15

Dance Training Journal: 

1/30/15, 

The first thing i did was sweep the floor. I noted how amazing the floor felt, and how much I loved it as a surface. I am the kind of guy that is very tactile, so having a good floor and learning more about it is a big deal for me. Our next major exercise was a "motion idea training, that involved pciking an idea, interacting with partners and then doing the opposite of the idea, and then magnifying the resulting action. During this I started doing a "play acting" activity with one of my dance partners,. We threw lots of punches, kicks and martial arts flourishes at each other, and would "fall" back from the resulting blows. Was a lot of fun, and an exercise with playing with a partner and spacing. Newt we did a "personal reality training session. In terms of meditative practice this one was a big eye-closer, reality opener fro me. In this meditation, I realized that I rely more on my sense of touch, and balance for motion than I do tin my sense of sight. Realizing this allows me to trust in those more, and let's me move past a reliance on vision. Our third exercise was a musical improv session. In this, each person played an instrument, or played off of one. The goal was also to act "natural" as opposed to having been contrived actions for fighting/dancing motions. I noticed that this opened my use of hips more, and that I also brought more reaction from my face allowing for greater emotional correlation in my dancing. When I assisted in the musical part, my steady constant, simple beat and whistling comb was very helpful for my partner to dance to. 

After that we had a "free improv" session. What a blast! the goal here was to enter, and exit the floor, and to improv on it while playing off our partners, and having moments of stillness. i had lots of fun out there, and was able to do all the above. In one of my favorite moments i chased a partner, who quickly sped up, then escaped the floor to my mock rage.

1/31/15

Had a blast at the snow ball on campus. Aside from the fact that a semi-formal school dance would seem to be a natural place to practice improv technique I have been doing just that since well before I started this course. Did some "crowd dashing" weaving and bobbing through the crowd without bumping into folk. Another fun thing i did, was a limbo line. What I did however that was "new" territory to me in terms of technique was to use my scarf as a "line" between one of my dance partners and I for us to pull each other in, and spin off of. Was very fun. Another thing i did, was when dancing with the ladies, I would make silly expressions like stick out my tongue, or duck down and gaze at them at the end of a spin. I also variated where i ran my hands during a spin, such as along the arms, shoulders or waist to add extra elements of chaste sensuality to their experience. All in all, it was a very good dance, and i learned some new tricks.