get low, low, low

Session 2, Day 2
We started off this session with a little discussion about the differences between what we’re focusing on in this class, in terms of alignment and placement, and perhaps what you may be learning elsewhere. Because, surely, there’s no one way of doing things! But it sounds like many of you are catching on that I’m all about keeping your weight back on your heels and opening up the back body. Great! Something else we added to this idea is reaching through your ring fingers to engage your traps or your back when carrying your arms (in second position for example). This should feel slightly different than reaching through your index fingers – which, for me, seems to engage my pecs and the front body. We continued with our usual warm-up, working from the floor to standing. And repeated our pliés and tendus exercises. We added a little “coda” to the tendus exercise we already knew, which consists of a lunge to second position, taking the torso to one side and then reversing the circular motion back to first. Across the floor we practiced getting low, low, low in some of our traveling steps. We even turned to face the mirror to observe our forms and to encourage the continuous charge forward in our steps. Take each step with conviction! It really makes a difference when dancing. When we move it reveals so much of ourselves, so dancing is half a practice of the body and half a practice of our being – hopefully, well-being. Meaning that whatever is going on inside - in the head or in the heart – always shows through in your movement. So if change is going to happen on the outside, it also has to happen on the inside. I’ve also mentioned in class, this idea of the smoke and mirrors when dancing. Performance can be very presentational. But like a magician, the work occurs in the places that aren’t always seen by the audience. For instance, in a tendu, we present the extending foot and show off our pointed toes. However, so much of the work happens in the standing leg and in the hamstring and heel of the gesturing leg…We ended the class by working on our combination that will carry on through the course of the workshop. More to come…