What's your story?

Day 8
The last session was mostly review of old movement and material. However, we focused more on intention and adding a storyline on top of the dance. We did the combination/routine multiple times, to different pieces of music. And noticed how that affected the quality of the dance. Perhaps each of you noticed what type of music felt better in your body, or what you can relate to. I mentioned that having just one story or one feeling for the entirety of the dance was not enough. That each movement, each phrase, each step, needed to have its own feeling and its own character, almost, in the story. This is how dynamics in a dance can be achieved. Now that the movement, in the combination and in the exercises alike, were more familiar, everyone was really able to get deeper into the quality of the movement. Now everyone was dancing! Congratulations on sticking through the entire 8 weeks and for truly opening up in your dancing. It was such a pleasure to witness.
Unfortunately, we were not able to revisit the improv exercise we did the week prior. But there's always next time! We are currently working on the schedule for next year, and the next workshop. So please stay tuned for that. If people are interested in getting together to do some of the Hino connection exercises, I can also set up a special class for that as well. Hope the holidays have been wonderful so far. Talk soon...

getting to the good stuff

Day 7
Today we got a little deeper in movement we’ve already done before. We did the connection exercise while walking with a partner, and noticed how keeping things simple helped to stay connected – when the walker was able to maintain a single direction (forward forward instead of up and down or side to side) then the partner was able to follow more easily. We began lying on the floor in our X and initiating with our finger or toes to bring us into a gentle spiral of the spine. Then moved up to sitting for some stretches. We revisited our pliés and tendus, really trying to fill up all the music by coordinating the arrival of the arms and legs. It’s nice to see everyone’s progress in the workshop by repeating these earlier exercises. Definitely more confidence as everyone danced through the material more, now that the movements are more familiar. Across the floor, we practiced being clear with our direction, opening the heart center as you move forward. We reviewed the combination, and when running the dance, we listened to our fellow dancers on their timing so that we can stay together as a group. To open our awareness to listening to others, we did a short group improv in groups of 3. The premise of the improv being that everyone moves together on a pulse, changing positions in the room, while maintaining awareness of the others and their position in the room in relation to you own. We went a second round on the group improv and added that you can choose to follow the movements of someone in your view, or choose to be a leader during any time. This developed into some very interesting relationships among the dancers in the improv, as some fell into unison or a solo emerged. Amazing job, dancers, with the openness and willingness to jump right into improvisation. It was really beautiful. We’ll get to do a little more next time!

back at one

Day 6

So I’m realizing this week that we’ve covered lots of ground as it is, and repetition of some concepts and lots of review is what is needed most. So this session we started on the floor and went over some things that we did the previous week. We practiced our basic roll across the floor - always remember to keep the pelvis as low to the ground as possible. Also finding the spiral in the forearm is really key in positioning your palm on the floor to help push you up or across. Step out to step up, so that you’re not having to push straight up with the legs. The more we can utilize the horizontal movement of energy and weight, the easier we can approach the floor, the softer we can come in contact with the floor. The pathway to the floor is just one large undercurve, so the shallower the curve, the less force I have to control the fall to the floor. We revisited our plies, which we hadn’t done in a while. It was nice to see everyone filling up the music more, and coordinating the timing of the upper and lower halves of the body…meaning, the arms arrive, the same time the legs do. We worked on some basic chainee turns across the floor. And leading up to it we practiced a walking pattern with two pivots. Remember that a pivot step is basically the same as a half turn. And then on to the combo. We didn’t add any new material, and simply reviewed the new stuff from last week. Next week, I think we’ll continue on this path of remembering. Perhaps learning the left side but not adding any new choreography to the routine. Keep up the excellent work, dancers! I hope you’re having fun.