At the start of this session we began with the underscore by Nancy Stark Smith. This again warmed me up physically and mentally ready for the last lesson of this module. We then did a partner exercise in which I was paired up with Indre. Kayla then asked us to keep in contact with our partners pelvis whilst they were improvising. This was a challenge as I did not know where Indre was going to move next or what direction she was going to go in. This meant I had to be fully concentrating on her movements to make sure my hand kept as close to her pelvis at all times. This was a new exercise that we had never done before in this module so it was difficult at first to get used to but as we continued to do this exercise it was more interesting to see how I had to move quickly in order to make sure I was in contact with her. Kayla then asked us to just hold the skull. I found this one harder as the head is a precious part of the body and I felt the responsibility to be as careful as possible. I felt this restricted Indre’s movement as she felt that too, so her movements were more simplistic and not travelling as much. We then went on to hold the skull and the pelvis at the same time -which meant both hands were in contact with her body. This was even harder to maintain as Indre picked up her pace and therefore it was harder to keep up. We then swapped roles. It was interesting to have someone constantly in contact with you whilst improvising. As I was improvising it came clear to me that I did not like this way of improvising as I felt like it restricted my movement and direction as I didn’t want to make it hard for Indre to always be in contact with me.
We then performed our own group scores again adding all the improvements we thought of last lesson and applied them. I believe it was the best we had ever performed the score and I think we pulled of the intention of the score which was to make it ‘visually interesting for the audience’. It was exciting to perform our score for the last time as it was the last time we would perform in this module.
We then got the chance to dance in ‘pop up scores’. Kayla made different piles of cards. The categories were how many minutes the score will be, how many dancers in the score, the disc and track number for the music and how the audience would view the score. I was involved in the first score that had five dancers and lasted four minutes. The audience viewed the score in the round, which meant that they circled the performance. I had never performed a score with the audience positioned in this way. It was interesting because you could never have your back to someone because you were always in someone’s view. I then watched a score which involved only three dancers and the audience were allowed to enter the space when they were dancing. This was the first time I have ever experienced being allowed in the space whilst watching a performance, it made me feel more involved in the performance and have a different perspective on the score.
Throughout this module, I feel like I have learnt a lot about my body and the way my body moves. I feel like I have progressed and started to learn to get rid of my habitual movements. Not only that but I feel like my confidence has improved through this module. I have learnt to be more confident in performing moves out of my habitual range in front of my peers. I feel like the fright of doing it ‘wrong’ has now gone out of my head, which therefore makes me have a better mindset on improvisation.