Hey Dancers,
On Monday of last week, we did a ballet fast. The entire class had no steps, only music and an order. On Wednesday, we alternated between very simple exercises and improvisation. What did you learn from these approaches? What did you like? What was most challenging?
Louis
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22 comments:
Well this weeks classes were a good stretch for me. I have this weird thing about expectations and structures, and not having that really was a bit unnerving for me Monday.
Wednesday was the perfect balance for me. By doing structured exercises it reminded me of things I wanted to or needed to work on, where as Monday I was given almost nothing and because of it just reverted to what I remembered as opposed to things I didn't feel like I really had a grasp on.
I don't know if it was the excitement in the air, but Wednesday felt a lot better when it came to letting go and moving out and into ballet.
Do I hate improv? No. Do I dislike it? Not really. It definitely just takes me some time to get adjusted to, and especially to branch out with.
I really enjoyed it. Its fun to let your body do whatever it wants to. It was challenging, because often I would just not have any ideas on what to do next. But it was a good realization that I do just feel really comfortable following other people and I should make more of a conscious effort to learn the combinations well enough so that I don't have to glance at what others are doing. I think if I had it all in my head already it would be much easier to pull it out when I am improving.
I LOVE not having a structured ballet class! It totally frees me to move for the sake of its enjoyment and pleasurable feeling to me. I'm not trapped into working my body to recreate an exercise that has no meaning to me. It's extremely liberating.
The class on Wednesday was nice because I felt like I paid attention to the combinations more because I had a break from the normal ballet once in a while, so I was more focused and "downloaded" better when you taught us a choreographed movement (or atleast I felt that way).
What I learned from the experiences is that ballet doesn't have to be painful and boring to me, the dancer all the time, that I can do the exercises with the intent to learn more movements for my ballet movement vocabulary so that when I improvise I have ballet movments to use to express myself. It's encouraging and helps me enjoy the class because I feel like I can't apply my learning to what I really love (modern).
The most challenging thing for me was switching out of ballet into modern when we were freed to improvise. I liked doing improvisational ballet so much I didn't really feel like leaving it, so I did all my improvisations in ballet form (which wasn't always what you asked us to do). I guess I need to learn how to incorporate the two dance forms together so that when I use them they flow naturally for me and I don't have to tell myself to switch between them. :)
I am so sad that I missed Wednesday class, I got stuck taking an earlier train because the late ones where sold out. I really enjoyed improvising. I have this tendency to kind of dance a lot. This summer the guys I lived with said I had a dance for every location and emotion. SO improvising isn't new to me, but doing it in a ballet structure was very helpful. It was nice to dance around like I wanted but with being told on what to work on. Also having the lights off was nice because then I really made sure to focus on myself and not others. I think one of the best things to watch though was Oscar jumping around.
I preferred Wednesday's class over Monday's. It was just enough structure to not make me feel lost, but gave me the opportunity to begin to think for myself on the dance floor. Also, the simple exercises allowed me to concentrate on my technique and form, and not worry so much about what combination we were supposed to do. The music was also wonderful both days and allowed me to fully release into a dance state of mind. I actually forgot about the outside world for a little while, and pushed myself to truly concentrate only on the moment of ballet class.
- SOPHIE
I really enjoyed the ballet fast!!! It was a nice change of pace, I think I appreciated it much more because it was presented at the end of the quarter instead of the beginning.
On monday, it was a challenge to make up my own moves, I felt like most of "my" combos... for the most part, were just a blend of previous ballet combos, though there were a few, very few moments where a segment of a sequence was entirely my own mix. It was nice to reverse our thinking and use our minds in a more creative sense.
On wednesday, I ABSOLUTELY HAD SOOOO MUCH FUN!!! I wasn't sure if I just got used to the whole creative thingy, if it was the partial improv or what but I actually felt like I was dancing and moving to the beat and the feeling of the music. And having Ariana there.... REALLY helped me dance to the feel/emotion of the music. I did notice that I still had trouble being creative at times ( i think my improv got stuck in the box of ballet... instead of improving movement and really letting go), but I did feel like I really got to let go and simply move most of the time, feel the flow, and most importantly ... be free. :)
To be honest, I really enjoyed dancing on Wednesday. I even wanted to tell you so after class. I often feel a little bit nervous when I need to dance whatever you say. The nice part of free dancing is that it gives us less stress about making mistakes for steps and more focus on whatever we want to improve. However, on Monday everything was depending on us, no restriction. It was a little bit difficult for me to think about the next steps. Thus, Wednesday's lesson was perfect. You gave us some instructions but less restriction. I think that this kind of lesson is good for beginners like me. Thank you for teaching me how fun ballet is! You broke my hard shell...
I loved last week's theme of ballet fast. I think it was a nice time for me to relax and review what we've done through the quarter. The toughest part of the class was the improvisation. If it was modern, I think it would've been a little bit easier because modern does not contain strict rules nor position. On the other hand, ballet is such a strict dance requiring certain position and rules, that I had limited amount of movements to improv. It was definitely a challenge for me, but I really enjoyed the fast where I could come up with a routine of my own and practice what I needed to fix. I've noticed that I need to be more creative and think out side of my box during the improvisation. I also liked the light being turned off and the wonderful music. I really enjoyed the class.
Well, it seems like I might be in the minority here, but I didn't enjoy Monday's class as much as regular class. I think my biggest objection was that I didn't feel like I was learning anything. When I want to improv ballet, I do (no really - in my bedroom, in the kitchen, any other time I feel like it). I can do that anywhere, but, in class, I'm hoping to have an experience that is beyond my own ability to supply.
I guess it's like the difference between taking a ballroom class and going to a club. At a club, I do what I want based on what I already know. In class, I learn more and perfect the things I've learned.
Today's class(Monday after break) was much better for me than the complete Ballet fast. It was a nice blend of the freedom of improv within a structure that allowed for concentration on improvement.
Truly, I take ballet simply because I like ballet. It's not so I can look better in or be more flexible for some other type of dance. I enjoy it just the way it is.
I have to say my answer is a bit like Malin's and Jared's. Maybe I am strange, but I relax a lot more when I feel there is structure. I actually do like doing improv, but somehow on Monday I felt awkward. On one hand I felt confined by the ballet movements dictated and on the other couldn't think of any graceful way to string the lot of them together, especially with out being really repetetive. Today's class (Wed. after break) was a better combination of improv. and structure as I wasn't floundering for so long!
I loved it! It was a bit hard to do in front of the rest of the class but sometimes I will find myself dancing at home and making up combinations. So it was interesting to have a real audience to improve for.
It was really cool to know that I now have a memory file full of downloaded combinations to choose from and mix and match... my wardrobe of ballet moves if you will :).
I also appreciate the combinations that all my dance teachers have created in the past and realize what it takes for them to prepare a lesson for their students.
Last week I did enjoy the improvisation peice of the classes. Although I started feeling very self concious about what I was producing. I didn't really want the other members of the class to see what I was coming up with. It did help for me to close my eyes though and pretend nobody was there, but this proved to be difficult when I wasn't near a bar for my balance started to fail me. All in all it was nice to creativly put together the steps that we had been practicing all quarter and make it our own.
I enjoyed the first day of the ballet improv. Especially since my leg is hurt I was able to participate in more of the class since I could take it slow and do only moves I felt comfortable doing. Unfortunately I probably did too much anyway. :( My favorite part was really being able to see what everybody else does when they are just making it up as they go along. I think it is kind of a nice glimpse into the way different people's brains work. I also notice I can get more creative when I am dancing by myself in my living room than when there are other people around who might see... I bet a lot of other people are like that too, it was interesting to try to extrapolate what everybody would be dancing like if they didn't think anybody was watching.
Nicole Boutillier:
I am really sad that I was sick last week and missed these classes, but I would have to agree that I don't like improving ballet in a structured class setting. I, like Jared, improve Ballet at home all the time, but in class, I like to work on technique. I really love improving modern, but its a much more relaxed style. Ballet is so technical, and there is a right and a wrong, it's just very different from other forms of dance like tap and modern where improv is more natural to me.And I struggled with the improv that you had us do on monday. I just stuck to what I knew. It's a box that I haven't really every stepped out of before.
I had trouble with the class on Monday because there were pretty much no boundaries. Ballet seems so much like a dance form that comes with orders, this is what you need to do to learn this or look like that. So it was disorienting to just be on my own trying to decide what to do.
I really liked the Wednesday class though. It was a good mix of independence with enough structure that I felt like I was doing something productive, but still had a lot of control over what I was doing. I like that in class we get told specific things to do and work on, so that outside of class I can do my fun made up dances or practice what we did in class.
It was a good stretch though, making us decide what we would do. It definitely adds a challenge and makes, at least me, feel more accountable for what I have learned in the class so far.
I really liked being able to just focus on a specific movements that we were personally challeged by. In doing that, I was able to see which movements I needed to put more time and effort into. However, I didn't know what to do at first. It felt really strange not having structure in the sense that there was something specific we were supposed to be doing. It was also a little unnerving having to "perform" our own combinations for 1/2 the class because most of the time I was just making it up as I went. I did enjoy it though and thought it was an effective way to work on specific movements that we were each specifically challenged by.
In the beginning of the quarter i felt that there was a lot of confusion about what the combos were and it has hard to focus on working. With the attitude of improv that no longer mattered and it was much easier to focus. It was also fun because making up your own combos builds confidence in my ability. Another help was that once we were all focused on our own movement we noticed each other less and I felt more free.
I think the ballet fast was a great way to review what we have learned. You learn so much more when you take initiative and try to remember things yourself than when you just do what you are told to do. So it did stretch my thinking, but I'm not saying it was easy. I could not help noticing that my ballet background is not strong enough to make up combinations as I go and keep the movements looking clean at the same time.
Improvisation got much harder when we moved away from the bar. We had so much freedom but that just made me notice my limitations as a ballet dancer. I wanted to move more and do more things but I found it hard to come up with ideas of how to connect one movement to another in a logical way.
It was harder to enjoy dancing than it is in a normal class, because I was just making up combinations and thinking about how they look. I didn't have as much capacity left for thinking about how the movements feel. Then again, when I used my freedom to repeat some things as many times as I wanted, I learned a lot. That was the case especially at the bar when I didn't have to think about so many things at a time.
Last week's classes were ah-may-zing! I liked that we were able to access all those files that we "downloaded" and create something of our own. Also, it was affirming to know that I really had learned so many ballet movements over the quarter that I could put my own combinations together.
Monday's class was relaxing and loose. Wednesday's class was the perfect combination of great music, energy and joy. So fun!
Katrina Hamilton:
I had to miss Monday because I was sick, which is too bad because I'd be interested to know how I would respond to that kind of structure (or I guess non-structure). I was there on Wednesday, and really enjoyed it. I reminded me of that day when you weren't sure of the battement combo you had made, so you just gave us a few 8s and told us to battement in different directions.
On the one hand this is good for me, because it allows me to really focus on what I need to work the most. For example, I only recently realized how much I move my hips when I tendu back, so when it came time to improv some tendus, I spent most of it going to the back. On the other hand, when it came to techniques I'm less self aware in, I felt like it was easy for me to slide towards doing what I liked the most or what was easiest.
What was really hard was the zigzag across the floor. Jumps and turns are really complicated, and for me they still require a pretty intense amount of focus to do correctly (or even close to correctly). So when I was trying to think up one to do on the spot, one of two things happened: either I tried to do something cool and completely failed because I didn't prepare myself properly for it or didn't follow through or something, or I went into automatic mode and just did whatever seemed "natural." The problem with natural for me is that it tends to be something that's easy, something that I get in combinations a lot.
I think at this level I can't truly improvise complicated turns or jumps, I have to plan at least a tiny bit, and it's almost impossible for me to plan 4 or 5 jumps and turns in a few seconds and remember them all. So I guess my bottom line is that I could probably improvise tendus and battements until my legs fall off, but I can only improvise jumps and turns one at a time (like when we have a combination and the last thing on it is just "a big jump or your choosing").
In the past, if someone would have explained this idea to me, I would have hated it. Improvisation has never really been my thing, and particularly with ballet technique classes I tend to feel inadequate and that I really need the teacher there to tell me what to do all the time. Over the past couple of months though I've been trying really hard to open my mind up to all of the experiences that come my way and change my attitude/preconceived notions about dance as a whole. It's actually been really working out for me and I feel like I've made a lot of progress, at least on the inside if it hasn't been showing on the outside. I guess the summation of this is that I really liked doing the ballet fast. I thought that you were totally right in saying that you had already given us the knowledge and groundwork that we needed in order for the classes to be successful. We've gone over exercises enough for me to know which aspects of particular movements I really want to focus on improving, and since we were making up our own combinations, my mind was free to focus on what I wanted to be working on instead of stressing over whether I was sequencing right or not. I think that the simplicity helped with that a lot.
I do tend to prefer the structure of a normal ballet class. If all of our classes had been like Monday and Wednesday I would have been pretty unhappy. But it was good for me to have just a little bit of a break in order to be able to realize that I really can dance on my own.
I loved it.
Improvision, improvision, and improvision.
I have always been a fan of being "creative" such as fashion design, composing classical music and so forth. The same pattern occurs among these creative exploration, I prefer a standard rules, and then improvise upon these rules.
It was also exciting to get into the flow of the dance and just "dance" without rules. In a way, it is being a social anarchy without the political stuff.
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