Dance Training Journal: 4/8/15

Dance Training Journal: 4/8/15

When I visualize the passage of time, I picture a line passing through my body, from head to toe, and then repeating itself. For me time is about passage of breath. The faster I breathe, the faster I move, the faster time is for me, and the slower it is for anyone not matching pace! The timing of our sun salutations was interesting, my two partners JD, and Tristian, rather lingered on the plank portion as a matter of pride. Whereas, I decided that since typically I move either explosively, or with great stillness, today I would practice moving at "normal human speed" I was told my pacing of the sun saltuation was "Brisk". 

In the stop and go portion, I instinctively focused on minor, more controlable movement paterns that were derivations of my Kendo footwork. In Kendo, footwork is barefooted, and is more of a glide on a hardwood floor, than a step, or a leap. Likewise, my dancing footwork is more focused on moving deliberately and accurately, with strong balance, over large flashy motions. (although i do do some of  those too) I found the advice to keep opposing weight opposite of the direction of travel to be quite interesting advice, and explored it a bit. It seemed like it did rather help me stop moving, quickly, and moreover helped limit my stamina consumption. :)

The stop and go game was fun. I noticed that since I had focused on efficient footwork, rather than flashy, that I lasted to the second-to-last round of my group, and that the footwork that elimiantaed me, was that I had allowed myself the extravagance of a motion that required two steps to finish. I also noticed that the person who won our group, had also intentionally focused on motions that she knew were 'safe'

The active/passive stillness was fun. I got good at holding my "active motion" and noted that while it was easy to hold in my arms, that I had to shift my weight to be able to do so in my legs while standing. Passive stillness was easier by far. going limp, and ragdolling to the ground was a lot of fun, and it lead me to do some pantomime acting.

Culminating experience. I took my words "stalking my prey", "immobile" and "explosive" a tad too literally for the music. Was kinda embarrassed. Next time I get thoughts/ideas that are incompatible with the actions around me, i'm gonna shave off the analogy till it fits a bit better.