Reflecting on October

Since we started back at uni on the 1st October, time has gone so quickly!! This post is to reflect on my practice in Movement Studies 3 over my first month of my last year at Coventry University. 

I began by struggling to get back into moving.  On the first day back, we began by finding connections between the jaw, wrist, ankles and hands with the floor.  I put this down to not having moved in this way over the summer.  As soon as we began moving in a way that opened the spine, everything instantly became familiar again.  I spent my second year investigating finding open spaces in the body. 

I've been really enjoying the Experiential Anatomy classes this term.  I feel like everything we do in these sessions are carried through into all the other Movement Studies classes during the week.  In particular the concept of cellular breathing.  This idea of the entire body breathing and yielding into the floor is something I continue to experience in my moving ever since it was introduced to us. 

At the end of the month, we began looking at the Navel Radiation which I posted about a couple of weeks ago, this is continuing to have an effect on my moving.

The Navel Radiation

In an Experiential Anatomy class earlier this week, we were introduced to the Navel Radiation.  This emphasises the significance of the centre.  The navel is the organising point for a starfish.  It has no brain and no one part of the starfish is more important, each limb is equal.

(image from Google)

This make up of a starfish is the same as a human when they are 8 weeks in utero.  At this point in our development, our life source and nourishment comes from the umbilical cord attached to our navel.  Also as new born babies, none of our 6 limbs (2 arms, 2 legs, head and tail) are more important than another. 

As part of this session, we performed a partner graphic using this concept of navel radiation.  We had to lie on the floor (like a starfish) and our partners had to find our navel and trace along our limbs always maintaining a relationship to centre.  When my partner Alix found my navel, I was quite surprised at where it was, I had pictured it being much higher when I was imagining it.  When my limbs were being traced, I felt a sense on length.  Like they were very long and stretching far away from my navel.  I also found that the way I was breathing made me feel like I was floating in water; very gentle, calming and with an even pace to it.  When we began rolling and extending and contracting around the navel, it felt very natural to me.

Below is a sketch I made in my journal after the partner graphic.

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.

End of Term Two

Tomorrow, I finish my second term of my second year, which means I'm over half way through my time here at Coventry University.  For the past couple of weeks, I've been writing my Movement Studies essay on how my moving and witnessing has developed during my second year.  I thought this was be quite an easy thing to write about as it is about my personal experience but I'm finding it a bit more challenging.  My moving developed lots in my first year, and I know it will continue to develop in my final year but trying to put down on paper exactly how I've progrssed this year is difficult.  I feel like I've written how I've developed but trying to expand on this is proving tricky.  This does slightly make me worry about my Viva next term, where I have to talk for 5 minutes about this.  Hopefully, I'll be able to work hard and do well

Deadlines!

With modules coming to end, I have loads of different deadlines to meet.  Having three pieces of coursework all due in the same week is hard work.  Its difficult having to switch between Artists in Education and Community Settings,  Movement Studies and Dance Analysis.  It always comes as a shock when we have this much written work to do because most of our time is spent in practical sessions.

Having this blog is really helping with my Movement Studies essay.  I've found it a lot easier to blog this year which is great when it comes to reflecting on what I've done.  I would have never guessed I'd actually enjoy having a blog!  I will definitely keep posting in future.