Sunday 7 October 2012

Cecilia Macfarlane - Give your heart to another person

On Friday, the IPP3 students had a workshop with Cecilia Macfarlane.  At the beginning of the class, Cecilia asked us to locate where our hearts were at that moment in time.  In other words, where was a light or a heat in our bodies.  I felt like I had a warm yellow sphere glowing on my forehead that was guiding me and leading the way.  After moving with this idea, we were asked to draw it and make a score.  We then had to exchange scores with a partner and choreograph a short phrase of movement in response to our partner's score.  Both me and my partner Emma had spheres as our heart and this shape was clear in both our choreographies but in very different ways.  I interpreted Emma's large red sphere in the centre of her body as a shape that grew in size and controlled my torso.  Emma interpreted my warm glow as something very gentle and comforting.  While watching her perform, I really enjoyed the peaceful quality she brought to the movement.  After watching our partner perform, we could return to our own personal scores and add anything that we liked when witnessing our partner move.

At the end of the session, Cecilia asked us some questions about the scores and one that particularily stuck out to me was, "How would this session fit into a wider context (community)?".   Everyone seemed to agree that it would be unsuitable to use on anyone younger than third year undergraduate students but I disagree.  The idea of making a score and sharing it with a partner would be interesting to do with younger people, even children.  Obviously a much more simple version would be needed but I am interested to see how it would work.  Instead of giving someone your heart, it could be something less personal. 

Below is my score...

Moving again

I expected my body to take some time to adjust to moving again after having 4 months off over the summer but from the 1st class last Monday I was fine.  I am surprised how my body has automatically switched back to moving this way.

Our first session back was with Katye on the first day.  At the beginning it felt hard to connect with the task we were given but when we moved onto an excerise involving rolling down and hanging, I felt like my body was much more responsive.  This is probably because last year I work a lot with the idea of finding space and opening up which is something this task was quite similar to. 

The beginning of the end.....

I've just completed my first week of my last year here at Coventry University.  It's exciting but also terrifying!!  Although I knew the workload would dramatically increase this year; it has still been quite a shock.  These next 9 months are going to be very full on but it is important to also enjoy myself because it'll be over before I know it.