Malta- week ten

Monday

I feel I have done so much today yet come home to loads more. Welcome to the week. Today was the first time we ran the barre exam straight with no stops and the tempo went up by half, my gosh it was quick. I got through it and remembered most of my corrections that my homework was paying off, her it went so quick I felt I hadn’t worked anything. We then moved onto the centre exercises. My FAVOURITE part was people were telling me to go in front of them to copy on an exercise I could NOT get last week. I spent my Sunday evening writing it down in my terminology and praising myself with positivity and it seems to be working. Now I feel I have the class, I am interested in pushing as far as I can and now getting out of the comfort of single pirouettes. However, there is the worry that I will hate these sequences by exam time making the work go backwards in my body.

Cunningham flew by, yet I knew my energy wasn’t what it was last week. In my defence, we had two guests watching us yet this should have made me shine more.

We were then greater by our guest lecturer for movement analysis who did not speak English. The lecture was delivered in Spanish with a translator which was an amazing unique experience. I started class trying to decipher what I could of Spanish before it became like a lullaby. Carmen, the lecturer, introduced us to her way of annotating mise en scene which made so much sense. I will out this in use to see the overall performance on one page of my dance theatre piece. I am hoping this will give my project a new overview and direction.

From here I went straight into the first rehearsal for the other dance theatre performance I am part of. It was quick going and gave me another idea of the path people are taking in the level of dance to text material. My day was then finished by participating in a workshop for research I am unaware of yet. I am part of a control group to test the theory without the knowledge. All I know in this was that my ballet pirouettes need SERIOUS attention.

Tuesday

Ballet done and my list of specific corrections to each exercise is now being formulated. I am so proud that I am now in a position of being more confident that my corrections can be practise based and not generalised through lack of routines in my body. I have been paying close attention to arm and leg relationships and am finding now if I copy the arms my legs roughly know where to go- THIS IS A MASSIVE STEP FORWARD. I am finding more grace and am starting to feel like a real ballerina and cannot wait to get into the centre. Today’s focus was ensuring I am keeping turn out when I allonge (extend). This isn’t always perfect but will be my aim for each set task in the next fortnight.

Cunningham was very enjoyable today. We got to play more with chance, even though I don’t we the exercises being as interesting to watch in this situation I love having the chance to explore them through more space. From the difference between the two classes I have noticed when I am confident and or focusing on the internal feeling of my body I don’t listen to the music and trust my timing (works for Cunningham, yet for ballet throws me) and when I am learning or playing a role the music sways my timing to suit it.

Carmen took the one-off afternoon class where we took her annotations and uses it as a choreographic aid. The movement became very abstract and when out into pairs could create a story. I feel it is something I may use for dance theatre merely to create less “dance” and allow for more speech.

Oh my god has Malta been rainy this week, I am so glad in invested in new boots and an umbrella. A massive storm is said to come this Thursday which may mean missing a class as I am further out than other students and without another way to commute in.

Wednesday

If tired was the right word I would use it for today. You know when you feel you’re of in your body- that was me today. Contemporary I did every move but didn’t have my energy, my fearlessness to go for it that was said to make me the dancer I am. I appreciate more the edge that being out there gives to me, but its noticed when you are going through movement correctly without an additional quality. This “fearlessness” I feel will take great strides in my ballet now I am at a comfortable place with the terminology. I must learn how to harness this energy without going too far ahead in the music or with the rest of the group. I love being a quick-moving dancer but its flaws are finding slowing down extremely challenging. I spent 4 hours last night revisiting corrections and tips and am hoping to get this time almost every day outside of class. I admit I fell out of my stretching routine but it’s back and I can feel it already in class.

We had our last session with Carmen today, which was similar to yesterday’s. We worked with a haiku to create the movement phrase and used each letter as a situation for a task. A for example could be a turn. I found the idea interesting and defiantly a tool I would use however I found the tasks for the letters to be limiting to drawing them yet changing the body part.

Today felt like a Monday with Dance Theatre being held this afternoon. I have rewritten the structure of the piece and the emotion I wish it to follow, which has led me to cutting out some material and creating new tasks but I am now ECSTATIC to rehearse this Saturday and get the emotions and intentions into my dancers and hope it is how in envision it in my mind.

Thursday

I tried to get in today, honestly I did. I left the flat and was stood in the middle of a storm shower. Cold, wet and knackered I headed home where I passed out asleep. I find it very hard to take time off and even harder to actually relax. To choose to stay at home I am understanding the importance of my body and keeping it healthy. I need today to be a human and spend the evening reintroducing dance by going over exercises and qualities. I am still learning to perfect the balance of push and relax and listen to my body.

Friday

My day today honestly flew by, and I felt more myself. I left and the heavens opened again, I was cold but knew in my soul I couldn’t miss two days. When I got to the uni (20min walk away from the studios) a kind local shared her umbrella with me to take me part the day. I learn the extent of knowledge the Maltese have on dance by seeing firsthand how noons knows there is a dance course (no matter how new it is). She was a doctor and was telling me about her working hours, where you sign a waiver commuting yourself to work 24 hours for one day a week on top of “regular shifts”. I was absolutely horrified, how can you look after a patient if your beyond exhausted?

Once at the studio I arrived to find everyone sitting outside. The lock system had failed in the storm the night prior and we were now locked out. When our lecturer came, her access also did not allow her in and she went to get help. 30 minutes later, we were IN.

The ballet class, as a result, was a lot shorter but was really focused on stretching. I needed this today and my body has pushed through its tenseness and is back to an adequate flexibility.

Improvisation forced us to open up to our inner demons with the focus on peace and chaos. I am a dancer who naturally uses mg past to push emotions through in pieces I am part of, but have never used a memory continuously for such a duration. We did a range of tasks focusing on finding yourself and our ‘authentic’ movement and maintaining it when clashing with another body in space. I know I need to be MORE assertive and content in how my body moves. I wouldn’t say I have ‘my style yet' but am working in fusion forms.

The class developed into creating movement on our ‘peace’ or ‘chaos’ association and revealing it through dance to the class. Later we did the same in trios of clashing intention and support. The class was amazing but emotionally draining. It brought my physically to tears and back to the start of dance for me.

Saturday

Maintaining positivity with this piece is hard. When I am there in rehearsal I wouldn’t s being anywhere else, but getting us all there is proving VERY difficult. With 2\3 of my dancers we had an AMAZING session. We opened our souls, we cried and we created.

I am learning more and more from this process about myself with a range of personalities and sting where my patience will get me to. The more I talk with my dancers about the piece the cleaner it seems to be, and nothing feels better than when I explain an idea and I see ten smile. Then I know I am making the piece relevant to them and including new ideas to make a unique performance.

It is beginning to get very dark quick, and I have climatised quick (now finding it cold as 13°). I need to get up earlier and sit out in the sun, even if its doing work, to grab the last of the sunshine. It was beautiful today and I was in rehearsal for all the sun hours I was awake for.

I was the best girlfriend and stayed up til Lee came in from his late shirt, and was an even better student spending my time engrossed in dance.

Sunday

With the longest lie in I’ve ad since being here- 11am- the sun is shining and we are ready to take on the day. Within the last week, I have been co fronted with so much I could use for my blogs its amazing. I’m o glad I started documenting everything as I have so much to reflect on, both practically and emotionally, and doing this gives me time in the day to see where my priorities lay.