Malta- week eight

Monday

We have set our entire barre routines for our exam. I thought they were in December but it turns out to be after the holidays in January. It will mean that the material will be clean and in my body to get the best grade and really understand the mechanics behind it, but I will have been out of dance for two weeks. It doesn’t sound like a large time difference but technique wise it is. I am looking forward to being able to spend a week perfecting each aspect.

Pizza hut delivery for dinner tonight and I’m getting in the Halloween mood ready for tomorrow.

Tuesday- HALLOWEEN

In the SPIRIT of the holidays every class was filled with Halloween music to tendu, tilt or move across the floor as a lizard to. I enjoy Tuesdays as after ballet, Cunningham and body conditioning I am home with 8 hours to play with. This afternoon me and Lee are heading into Valletta meaning I get to put on my “real people clothes” of jeans and a cute top.

I am panicking less when a faster exercise is taught and am starting to engage and maintain the position of my arm whilst adjusting the torso in line with the leg. I have to brush up on my ballet facings, holding turnout in pirouettes and pushing the heel into the floor in plie.

I have been slacking on watching the ballet and Cunningham videos on YouTube everyday, so now with my YOUTUBE account I will create a playlist to encourage a video a day.

Valletta was beautiful, we caught the ferry over (which was cheaper than a bus) and spent some time looking in and around the shops. The narrow street are just what I imagined living abroad, with cobbled streets and fairylights hanging from every restaurant. I will definitely be spending more time in the capital.

Wednesday

Who would have thought an early finish, with one of my lectures ill I am back home with the afternoon spare. With Lee developing his music, I have a chance to use his software to create my music for the December performance and recap all the set material for ballet exams.

Contemporary this morning allowed me to take more risks with barrel turns and falling and balance, I am feeling more and more competent as a “contemporary trained dancer”.

Patterning followed on from last week, adding on and clarifying movement. I had a new partner due to mine being in Italy, and we worked so well together. It is lovely trying the same movement with two different bodies to lift and balance off.

I ended my academic day with a rehearsal for a Dance Theatre piece I am performing in about ‘body image'. It was fascinating to be on the other side of this project, days after I directed my dancers. The process is giving me more ideas and direction, telling me I need to make sure I include enough ‘theatre’ elements too.

Thursday

Its the end of a long day and my emotions have been up and down. I felt I worked so hard preparing for centre work in ballet today, only to be given more corrections and made to feel I am not trying enough. I know we all need to push with everything and live dance, but I learnt a phrase I couldn’t get AT ALL the class before, and was one of 3 who knew it. It made me feel deflated all day as I go home and do more research (I am playing catch up in my technique)- but as I’m writing this HEY I AM GOING TO BE PROUD OF MYSELF FOR MYSELF. I am a very grade-orientated person and getting over of that has been hard. I am learning more and more through my time at my Universities that a grade is one thing, the theory, the application and the creativity are all other branches.

Don’t get me wrong I want the best grades I can, but for my body. If I am graded on one performance I am not appreciating my personal journey and visa versa. I need to stand out more and make myself known and stop worrying about sounding stupid for asking a “grade three question” as I wasn’t there and need it now.

Everyone has moments they feel they are bad at what the do, take time to wallow on your self pity but always pick yourself up- however you do it.

Cunningham seems to be playing to my strengths, during a chance exercise I has to hold my tilt over someone leg for 2 minutes and was so proud at maintaining balance. Once this module is over and I am home I want to look into taking more Cunningham classes and becoming a teacher.

I have had moments of stress and relief today over the topic of log books. I had been writing down every detail of class up until 1.5 weeks ago where I fell out of habit. When reminded about them today, I panicked thinking I missed out on so much information to document. It turns out I can write my log towards the end of the process in reflection. Even though I can relax a bit I want to be back into good practice habits of recording my personal corrections for the day and seeing how I develop.

Friday

Once again my lecture was cancelled so my day finished earlier, 2pm.

Today was the first day of my First Aid course. It started strange, with pretty much everyone (including the lecturer) talking in Maltese. He did a blend of Maltse\English for the lecture, which was nice to be in cultured environment but everything was translated back to me. In a room full of science students, when introducing myself as “performing arts” I felt the look of ‘you’re a bit different'. Once demonstrating the recover position this dynamic shifted.

The class was at a slower pace then I imagined, but I’m not sure if that’s due to me having prior knowledge on the topics mentioned. I cannot wait to get my EU first aid certificate so I can teach independently abroad.

Courtesy of the University of Malta, I received a free ticket to a theatre performance tonight in Valletta. After getting to put my makeup on and feel like a human, I caught the ferry over. I arrived an hour before the performance so found a lovely cafe to sit and watch the world. My waiter, Leonardo, was so lovely always chatting and topping up my glass. He knew where I was born in England, which was so strange as I normally say ‘London’. The part that made my evening was when he tried to teach me “grazie” and I replied and spoke to him in Italian and he was confused. I’m getting more confident trying my speaking skills now that I’m ready to practise a third language soon.

The performance was not at all what I expected. There was no spoken word and it wasn’t quite dance theatre. They were 3 theatre students moving around set stimulus.

The set consisted of a mannequin torso and an Victorian style skirt with netting and fabric. The performers started by stretching through the fabric, almost as if it was giving birth. They went on to stand on the frames and move in circular motions around the structure. Many beautiful moments blossomed that could have been reiterated later. 3 apples then came down onto the set by stringnat varying times whilst it drew a performers attention and focus. The ABAC form returned when they went back to the structure, standing on it before playing with the mannequin parts. The dismantling of a ‘body’ made a strong symbolism for the audience to read, before it got placed back on the structure and the performance finished.

I find everything I watch stimulates a similar or contrasted idea for my performance. I loved watching my first show in Malta and was even better to be complimentary. I am becoming more critical of artwork and can now see what lecturers have been saying about pieces now that I am in another country and stepped back from the emotional response.

Saturday

Unfortunately today my rehearsal had to be cancelled due to one ill and one injured dancer. This was the moment I thought to focus on the music so something was accomplished towards it today. That didn’t work due to software issues, and I have never been so stressed over music. Having that moment allowed me to see how important the piece is and I hope to gain motivation from that sensation and not be held back by fear.

We headed into Valletta at about 9pm for the first USPA meet up. This was all performing arts people coming together for a belated Halloween party. It was lovely to see the Maltese 3rd years and guest dancers out and get to know them better. By the way Malta serves a quadruple shot when you ask for a double, so my drinking quickly came to an end point. The other Erasmus students and us then went to a few bars in Valletta skipping Paceville for the night. Valletta is nice for a quite drink in a bar but doesn’t seem to have any clubs or larger bars. I think Paceville is one of the only places to go.

Sunday

Sunday catch up day. I have been doing @ActionJacquelyn 7 day upside down challenge. This was started late as my emails weren't coming through but I am now on day 2. For me to go back and spend a day revisiting downward dog was so interesting as I always used it as a stretch and woke up today feeling sore in my upper arms from engaging them properly. No matter how advanced you may be it is always great to go back to basics. My handstands have greatly improved since last year but I am now ready to learn their fundamentals and have them nailed every time. PUSH YOURSELVES. IGNORE EVERYONE ELSE AND PUSH WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE. Happy weekend and bring on a relaxed yet innovating week.