BESTE DEMIR
WORKPLAN | 2018 September
My workplan is for one semester. I want to learn Haungarian, I am also planning to learn Hungarian culture and history (by going to museums, reading an talking to people), I want to be able to express myself better to my friends, teachers and the audience which I plan to achieve in the first period. I wish to improve my technique, learn different kind of techniques, strengthen my back, abdomen and my arms. I want to be able to do the moves that requires strength. I want to watch as much as piece/shows/performances that I can and enlarge my perspective and creativity. With the help of the classes I want to learn faster and improve my phsycal sufficiency.
SUMMARY | 2018 December
This semester got harder and more intense day by day. At first I was trying to get used to everything that’s going on in and around the school. My body needed time to process all the information that teachers and I are giving nonstop. After a while of confusion I was able to realise many things easier and in a better way. My individual work times got much more efficient and satisfying. I found a way to plan my individiual work which I was having difficulties with.
In the beginning of the semester I could learn a little bit Hungarian. After a while it became harder to find time and energy for that. I was’t succesful and I am not happy about that. I am not satisfied about my learning Hungarian culture and history either. I became better expressing myself in English but I need to improve more.
CONTEMPORARY
In this semester we had many different teachers. This helped me to have an overwiev of many techniques. With the help of having many techniques I feel my body have expanded and was able to learn easier.
I improved one of the headstands but I still have one headstand and one handstand to go.
I worked out almost everyday to strengthen my arms, back, legs, ankles and my core.
FOOD
In the beginning I was taking care of what I eat and cook. When it’s close to the end of the semester I started to pay less attention. I should reduce sugar and carbonhydrate.
HEALTH
I got ill all the time and missed school (especially the second period).
I had constantly knee pain and should have taken more care of it (even though sometimes I have no idea how to)
BALLET
It was very nice to have different teachers and techniques in every 2 weeks. Because the two teachers (and Attila) was giving mostly the same information and feedback but in a different way. This was very nice to experience and helped me to remember many corrections easily. My pirouettes got better. Practising almost everyday helped my body to improve quickly. I have never have ballet classes this often. In classes I found myself reminding the important points of every movemement. Afterwards my ballet classes became harder but more efficient. I have problems in including my core to the positions and movements, which causes lack of balance, leaning back, lack of speed (mostly in pirouettes), etc… I need to take care of my arms and upper body.
FOLK
In the beginning it was very hard. I wasn’t understanding the teacher and it was my first time learning this dance. After a while, when we started to have classes with group B&C it became easier. Now I am very happy with this class because I am learning not only hard and quick steps but also understanding the musics and to have FUN. I’m grateful to Batyu.
IMPROVISATION
This semester I paid more attention to techniqal development than improvisational development. Even though we didin’t have many improvisation classes I should have practised more by myself.
SEEING PERFORMANCES
I have to see more performances!! Not enough!!
TEACHERS' EVALUATIONS | 2018 December
Szegedy-Maszák Zsuzsa:
Great class, everyone seems curious and open. Great exchanges of ideas during class, good class discussions, signs of critical thinking on the part of the students. Very happy with the group.
Great class participation, asks questions during and sometimes after class. She is obviously very receptive to new ideas about art.
Angelus Iván:
General notes to the group:
In this semester I had the chance to meet all of you in the three main territories of our school: 1. sharing new information, 2. developing your creativity, 3. developing your social skills. I feel myself and you successful in point one and two, and I have hard time at point 3. with all of you. This is because of the social environment surrounding us. Solving this difficulty is the task itself. The level of cooperation and sincereness is that makes difference in the common success.
My short evaluations will be strict and related to your development related to school requirements:
I will tick Excellent box at who are developing well, basically in harmony with school guidelines, hopefully will reach their goal to become a professional contemporary dancer.
I will sign Satisfactory/Good at those who could make (much) more in their own sake.
I will sign Failed at those who do not live with their possibilities and should change their attitude in order to become more successful or to those who are on the right way to find their own direction that may be out of the school's profile. It can be considered a success too. Failed may mean you have to work on your trajectory out of school or it may mean to stay in school but work on a higher level.
Personal notes:
Dear Beste! I see you on the beginning of your trajectory here. I appreciate your strong motivation, and hope you will get healthier, get more self-confident and much more simple and much more hardworking. You do have a theatrical talent – I think – add a lot of physical experience, get rid of unnecessary daily concerns, sleep more may be, and I do hope you can get closer to your own way. Relax, find partners and even friends. Go to theatre, movie, concert every night, read books,… absorb culture systematically.
Kováts Tibor:
Jó képességeid vannak a baletthez, de nem próbálsz mindent kihozni magadból! Jobban kellene rögzítened az instrukciókat. Az egyik legnagyobb hibád, hogy vállból hátra húzod magad, és ezért nem állsz a lábadon, nem vagy tengelyben, sem talpon, sem fél talpon! Ebből kifolyólag a forgásaid sem korrektek, eldőlsz stb.. A gyakorlatok sorrendjét, próbáld meg jobban rögzíteni, hogy arra tudj összpontosítani, amit kérek. Szerintem sokkal többre lennél képes, ha jobban érdekelne, hogy te legyél a legjobb. Minden adottságod- képességed meg van hozzá! Hajrá! Köszönöm a munkádat!
Várnagy Kristóf:
General notes to the group:
It is my general note, not only to group A-B, or C but for the whole of the students, that it is a heartwarming how you grew into a good and functioning community. It is great to see you supporting each other.
Personal notes:
You are using what you have very cleverly. Strong center of gravity, sharp movements. However, I believe there is much more you can learn about your movements and body. So as strange as it sounds, as a tool of discovery, I would ask you to use your imagination and work as if you would have a different body. Especially, I would invite you to work on your length.
Urvi Vora:
General notes to the group:
After my brief, intensive interaction with everyone, I have very much enjoyed reading the diverse essays from all of you – very different approaches, levels and processes. My feedback is focussed on your essay and I hope it helps you think of how to push it forward from here as there is always much more to do.
Good luck with all your future plans and upcoming work in the school! It was wonderful to see all your thoughts turn into something on paper!
Personal notes:
The paper is clear and well-structured. I particularly enjoyed reading the examples given to illustrate ideas and how all concepts were given certain limitations without being reductive. As we discussed in class, a major philosophical concern is understanding the nature of things (metaphysics) and here you have proposed various ways of understanding improvisation and harmony in the backdrop of music and dance.
I found your examples intriguing and was wondering whether on watching these dances again you might come to different conclusions. On one hand, hip hop dancers believe they improvise even when they are harmonious and Pina Bausch’s choreographies are not changed on stage even though they are not with the music – so, could you perhaps find a way to talk about this contradiction and the ways in which music is used there?
I urge you to go further into the final concept of ‘multiplicity and disparity’ which is perhaps the closest to the metaphysical nature of harmony and improvisation – in what ways do they come together?
Lastly, if we understand the discipline of philosophy to be one that makes arguments based on various factors such as validity, soundness, truth etc., one should avoid making broad generalisations and using ‘we’ for all statements. You should be clear about which statements are opinions and which are universal truths (if any) and choose to put I or we dependant on that so that we can head towards a stronger thesis and paper which contributes to a larger frame of knowledge.
Bakó Tamás:
You are an active worker in the classes engaged with curiosity and ambition.
You got a good understanding of the body in general. There is knowledge and history. And there is physicality and availability but some fidgeting and perplexity too. Take time with understanding. Observe first and do later. Find more stability and tranquil in the organization of movements and posture. Make more lengthening and opening in the limbs, hands. Give more support and awareness towards structure and alignment to harness efficiency fulfillment and freedom.
Establish a solid understructure and confidence in order to optimize your anatomical ground. Keep up the good work!
MENTOR'S SUMMARY | 2018 December
WORKPLAN | 2019 January
FOLK
Understand the music, don’t copy
Analyse the movements faster
BALLET
I feel I am starting to understand the structure of pirouettes. Try to be more conscious and aware and not turn by coincidence. Think all the time the principles of the turn and the mistakes I do.
Take care that I am not pulling myself back from the shoulders and not ruining my axis
Try to relax my upper body
Remember half point all the time
Think about going up in the movements requires balancing
CONTEMPORARY
move more, get crazy
think about length
think about Kristof’s feedback
recongise the style of the teacher and mine, play with the differences
don’t let the mind take over. Be free both mindwise and bodywise
Remind yourself the fun you have
IMPROVISATION
understand how to do movement researches
go deeper and deeper into the improvisation materials
stop being afraid
move MORE and MORE but know when to stop/slow down
HEALTH
eat vegetables and food with vitamins
go to bed early. Sleep at least 8 hours
go to massages and spas to relax the muscles
find time to stretch after classes
Take care of yourself
GENERAL
don’t be late!
increase my stamina
plan individual work time better and spend the time more efficient. Write individual work diaries, consult if you need
learn Hungarian
beat the fear of standing on the hand and the arm
read books
continue my learning of music
I realised how helpful it is to start a class with well warmed up body. Spend even more time to warm up, go even earlier to studio in the morning
stretch after every class
write down the classes
rest on the weekends but also have fun
solve the problem of not being able to wake up
go to performances
learn more about art
!!!take the old energy of mine back!!!
SUMMARY | 2019 June
Finishing the most interesting year of my life. I not only started university but also started a whole new life. I became a different person. First of all I started to listen myself, what is going on in my body, how do I feel, what do I need, etc. When I was spending time in the school and dealing with dance more and more I started to question my understanding of “contemporary dance”. My thoughts changed and are still changing. If I think my first year generally in the school; I started with great excitement to the year, after a while the excitement faded away and changed into confusion, being frightened and sometimes loss of energy. When it is close to the end I became aware of my life and embraced my mistakes in a more logical way and learned from them. With this awarness my perspective to the classes has changed, helped me to become more efficient.
In Dance
I still have habbits that I couldn’t change in improvisation, performances and technique classes. When I have a task in the class I was trying to fulfill them 100 percent. After a while I started to question: what if I don’t try to do 100 percent, but let myself inerprete. The balance between the task and my body is still a question for me. In the second semester I spent more time with improvisation as I wrote to my workplan. I am happy that it is not a part that I avoid anymore. I experienced how my body marinates the information and comes with development the other day. This semester I worked to strengthen my core but somehow I still have trouble in feeling and using it. I am mostly out of balance and I need to learn how to feel it in order to survive. In ballet I was working on not turning by coincidence but knowing how to do it. Now I am not turning by coincidence but sometimes I can’t turn at all! I am happy that I almost overcame the fear of being upside down in the handstands. In the beginning of the year I didn’t have any creativity to do a project. I thought I need more time and information but for the whole year I didn’t have any inspiration to create a project. And when I had an idea I couldn’t transform it into a project situation. I have a closed presence problem which I realised very late. I need to focus on that next year.
Performances
What I felt as the most helping experience was the Selfportraits24 in Trafo. It was a challenging and frightening performance. Even though being in that situation is mentally hard, it was good to go to that scary edge, not knowing what I will do on the stage, being risky and trusting yourself. I raised the question of “who I am in dance” and many others (see; my dance notebook). In general all the pieces I performed was based on individual choreographies. It was a hard process because I had very different expectations from performances. But at the same time they complemented each other and now there is a field that I have already dived in.
General
In some cases I couldn’t organise myself and I was late for arranging things. I couldn’t improve my Hungarian language enough. Sometimes I was finding myself in the class playing with my fingers, losing concentration, I was suddenly deep in my thoughts. I didn’t have a mentor and maybe it was a mistake that I didn’t ask for it in the second semester.
I learned how to write down the classes to my notebook. Especially in the second semester I watched many performances and now I have a better opinion about dance in Hungary and Europe. I was much more healthy this semester and took care of what I am eating. I believe I spent enough time for stretching after classes. The first semester I was having trouble in having an iw plan. Starting from the first day in the second semester I found a way to plan my iw.
TEACHERS' EVALUATIONS | 2019 June
Thimai Nguyen
General notes to the group:
WHILE DANCING
1-Don’t forget to include the head and the sternum in your dancing.
2-Use the momentum of each part of the body to go from one movement to the other.
3-NO NOISE on the floor: The body should melt while going to the floor, and when you run
the weight should be in the front of the foot.
4-Hands, arms long, alive always, reaching out.
5-Legs, ankles and pelvis release fully. FOR REAL!
6-Take care of every transition in what ever you do.
7-TAKE YOUR TIME- ENJOY- PLAY!! Challenge the public and yourself, tease or choose an
angle to approach the public but it should not be mental. You have to jump in the swimming
pool and warm up the water yourself.
8- STOP THINKING. FEEL.
9- Be connected with the other dancer in the room, use and play with there body rhythm, an
intelligent dancer is someone that feels and sees everything. Let go your instinct.
10-RUNING: Never on your heels, the body should be in a diagonal, and the leg behind HAS
TO BE far away and long. NO SHORT LEGS.
Personal notes:
Sweet presence and nice dancing.
You need to go deeper in every direction, trust yourself and really drop your head, really give
your weight, really release your knees, ankles and pelvis. Not less.
Please in every position you take, arms and legs should touch the other wall.
Take care of the transition between movements.
Isabel Duarte
General notes to the group:
Group A & B were very receptive to everything I bring to class and every task I proposed for them to do. everybody dedicated and worked hard for the workshop. wonderful to see such enthusiasm.
Personale notes:
Great progresses since septmber…. congratulations
Várnagy Kristóf
General notes to the group:
Dear ppl,
This term, due to holidays, and other scheduling reasons I have had considerably less time with you than during the first semester, so I have less material to work with. However, I wish to reflect on your progress from the first term to the second.
Also, I would like to be transparent about my grading system, and hereby give you an explanation, what means what. So as your teacher I have to grade your work on the following scale: Fail, Satisfactory, Excellent
-fail: you can fail by not attending enough classes, or by not achieving adequate progress
-satisfactory: you are being present, however not sufficiently consistent in your work, or not fully embodying yet the concept of the class
-excellent: you can score excellent if your process is clearly seen in your work
Personale notes:
My feedback haven`t really changed from the first term. I am really satisfied by your hard work, however I wish you to be more curious, and I am still encouraging you to go on a selfdiscovery. There is a lot in you to be explored.
Kováts Tibor
General notes to the group:
Mindenkinek nagyon köszönöm a munkáját! Köszönöm a sok fontos és hasznos feed back-et, amit írtatok nekem! Igyekszem ezekre figyelni és beépíteni a mindennapokba és biztos vagyok benne, hogy jobb tanárrá válok ez által! Azoknak, akik maradnak az iskolában, további jó tanulást a következő tanévre! Azoknak, akik befejezik a tanulmányaikat, nagyon sok sikert és kitartást kívánok, alkotóművész és előadóművész pályájukhoz.Mindenkinek nagyon köszönöm a munkáját! Köszönöm a sok fontos és hasznos feed back-et, amit írtatok nekem! Igyekszem ezekre figyelni és beépíteni a mindennapokba és biztos vagyok benne, hogy jobb tanárrá válok ez által! Azoknak, akik maradnak az iskolában, további jó tanulást a következő tanévre! Azoknak, akik befejezik a tanulmányaikat, nagyon sok sikert és kitartást kívánok, alkotóművész és előadóművész pályájukhoz.
Personale notes:
A Baletthez türelem és kitartás kell! Ha felmerül, egy probléma higgadtan újra meg újra át kell gondolni, hogy mi lehet a baj. Az egyik fő problémád, hogy nem tudod stabilizálni a derekadat, és hogy a vállad hátrébb van, mint a csípőd, ezért ledőlsz a balanszokból és ebből kifolyólag nem sikeresek a tour-ok sem. Ezt csak egyetlen módon tudod kijavítani, ha figyelsz erre és sokszor ellenőrzöd, hogy pontos-e a tartásod. Ezt a hibát nehéz kijavítani idő kell hozzá és gyakorlás. A türelemről nem is beszélve! Az órán nem érzem nálad a türelmet és a koncentrációt eléggé ahhoz, hogy átlendülj ezeken a nehézségeken. Nagyon Köszönöm a munkád!
Angelus Iván
I must understand if it was your maximum, but you must understand: that is not enough to become a beginner professional dancer in two years. You don't seem to concentrate on the physical reality including yourself as a dancer, as you invest much less than necessary time, precision, practice, strength, physical and mental energy and playfulness, interest and love, or if yes: you invest it to non-efficient directions. I hope next year will help you to overcome these obstacles or help to give up the "professional dancer" dream.