Class description and Evaluations from Marco Torrice – fall 2015.
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Group B – September 2015
Class description
During the two weeks I carried on a work on two different interchangeable areas.
On one side there was a work on joints isolation and movements overlapping, which aimed to improve movement awareness and train more combinations of movement patterns and coordinations.
On the other, I proposed a movement practice, I’ve been developing since approximately six years, which is based on improvisation and aim to stimulate the awareness of the Present as a creative source, to enrich movement vocabulary through the recognition and the overcoming of personal habits.
These two lines of work were alternate day by day, in order to deal with similar matters and contrast, at the same time, habitual patterns of learning and dancing. The work on joint isolations had a clear objective, where the notion of “right and wrong”, as well as the ideas of repetition and training, were easily identifiable.
Within the movement practice I proposed, on the contrary, the notions of “right and wrong”, repetition and training, were not only ephemeral but sometime considered as something to avoid, in order to overcome an habitual pattern of learning, which focuses more on the result of an experience rather then the experience itself.
I believe that in order to improve and enrich our dancing, is important to train skills and abilities, as much as to recognize what we already have, to be able to play with tools we already know, and to understand our movement tendencies in order to use the full potential of them, more then being unconsciously used by these repetitive schemas.
I believe that personal movement tendencies, as much as any other technical tools, are indeed fundamental instruments that we get through personality, body structure, and previous studies.
If these tendency and tools are unconscious, they become an obstacle to our enrichment, right because, if we are not aware of them, we are not free to decide how and when to use them, or not. On the contrary, by getting in touch with personal qualities and instruments, not only we understand in which way we can use them in their full strength, but especially we can make the choice of not using them, to explore something else, and therefore enrich our dancing.
I believe that the “simple” work of bringing awareness on the way we move when we are free from any exterior tasks, the awareness on the patterns and coordination we use to do, the movement qualities we use to make, the level of energy and amount of muscles we use to engage, the parts of the body we use the most, the use of the space we privilege, the dynamics and rhythm we are more confident with, the aesthetic preferences we used to have, the technical tools we prefer, the relation we used to establish with who is watching, as well as with the people we are dancing with, the thoughts and/or judgment we used to make while dancing, the motor of creativity we use to play with, the way in which we use to make movements choices… I believe that to practice awareness of habits is a powerful instrument to strengthen our already existing skills and to discover a all universe of choices we never make, not because we are not able to, but just because we are unaware of them.
The group generally revealed a nice interest and sensibility to the work proposed. It was hard at the beginning to get the students out of the idea of correcting themselves and/or repeating something that was working the day before, without observing first what the Present was suggesting them. I felt that often their approach would obstruct them of deepening the awareness of their dance.
What can we correct if we are not aware of what’s going on? Where can we go if we don’t know where we are? Why learning new skills if we still don’t know how to use the one we have already learnt?
I was encouraging them to fully experience each little moment of their dancing, to be aware of every little movement, to observe as many repetitive characteristics of their dancing, to think that it is not only the movement itself in making a difference in our dancing but more the quality of awareness that we can carry on within the dancing.
It was a quite challenging and stimulating experience for both, me and the group, to let go of the idea of an aesthetic result.
Often the practice I proposed, together with the work on joint isolation, led the group into a very subtle dance, in order to deepen easily into awareness, more then pointing on “cool moves”.
I don’t think this is necessarily a “good result” but more a part of a process, which made me understand how hard it was for them to keep being Present in what they where doing and being playful with it.
I believe everyone got through an intense experience which enriched us as a student, teacher, dancer, artist and Being in the world.
Evaluations
Aisté
She had a nice approach to the work, as well a nice awareness of what’s going on inside and outside her.
I want to encourage her to pay more attention to her alignment, to direct energy out of her head and chest, and especially to work on her self confidence. I actually believe that all these things are strictly connected and her alignment is, in a way, a metaphor of her being in my class and vice versa.
She had the tendency of mixing often up a mechanic of a movement with a quality (ex: isolated movement mechanics=fragmented quality). I generally appreciate a lot more intuitive approach, especially on people who generally tend to be too much analytic. Nevertheless is our own work to subvert our movement tendencies in order to enrich the range of how we can move.
Felicia
She has a quite clear understanding of her body and her movement quality is often clear. I would encourage her to go for more sincopate dynamics and less comfortable quality or patterns of movements. Sometime is not about organizing our body in order to make the movement flow but more about deconstructing schemes and exploring disharmony, in order to enrich the range of how we can move.
Jasna
She is able to cultivate a constant curiosity, digging in the task proposed with a playful approach.
I want to encourage her to pay more attention to her alignment, to direct energy out of her head, eyes and finger.
She has the tendency of moving on the place, not going through the space or using much of out of balance. I would encourage her to pay more attention on the space occupied by her dancing.
Ildikó
I could definitely sense a clear process of change which involve her body, her technical skilled as well as her personality and approach to the class. I could perceive a growing maturity which impressed me more then how I believe she is aware of.
Her movement quality is generally well define and often her approach is methodic. These are all good qualities but I would still encourage her to take more risks, to not be afraid of benign “wrong”, because is often through mistake that we expand the range of what we can do.
The “strictness” in the way she often approach tasks is reflected by her alignment and vice-versa. I often perceived a certain rigidity on the level of the chest, shoulder, neck.
I will encourage her to pay attention of superfluous tension with her body as well as with in her mind.
Evelyn
I could perceive a nice personal change, as well as a change in the way she approaches the class. I had the impression she just started to understand how to play with her presence and that presence and physical work are equally important for a development of a dancer. On one side I perceive in her a strong groove that she still doesn’t allow herself to let go or play with it, on the other I would encourage her to push a bit on the exploration of different qualities and patterns of movement beside the one she already knows, to explore more odd qualities and rhythm.
Reka
Too much commitment slows down improvement. All the work on alignment, presence, isolation of joints is really visible on her, just like a model student.
I would encourage her to be less proper, to think that sometime is not about being right, to let go more of the idea of control and all the extra energy, especially on the level of the neck.
Judit/injured
Kata
She is a really open student and takes the tasks proposed with no much questions. All this allow her to have a nice light concentration and progress slowly and constantly.
She had the tendency to confuse mechanics of a movement with quality (ex: isolated movement mechanics=fragmented quality).
I would encourage her to focus more on details and explore a more analytic way of approaching dance rather than an intuitive one.
Ketlin
Open and receptive, I encourage her to work more on self trust, to invite to be watched and to expand her presence.
She worked really good but I believe she has a bigger potential.
Ana
I perceived a big change. She became more refine, both in the movement that in the approach to the class. Sometimes I was honestly impressed about her skills in some of the tasks proposed.
I encourage her to trust more her skills and push more the edge of her potential, exploring more uncontrolled dynamics.
Dora
She has the tendency of being really analytic, spending more time to think about the next movement then actually moving. I believe that this approach, beside being part of her personality, is as well a step of a learning process. A really important one!
Nevertheless is equally important to be aware of our own tendencies in order to overcome them and realize the great result of all the mental effort.
She definitely had the chance to experience her self what I’m writing about, having nice moments of a rich and articulated dancing.
Mary
Really intelligent mover, a quite presence that is able to work softly and constantly, with a good awareness of her self as much as of the other…keep on!
Group A – September 2015
Class description
During the two weeks I did a sort of introduction to what we can call Release Technique.
I wanted the students to start getting to know their own body structure and the potential of some physical principles. We worked on the idea of body weight and relations with the floor in order to support movements. How can I use gravity, weight, communication between the floor and body and vice versa and more generally, the anatomical structure of the body, to support end/or produce movements?
In order to achieve my goal I explicitly used different paths. Sometimes the class was more structured in a conventional way, some other, I was following my intuition and experiences, according to what I would believe was necessary at that moment, sometime we dived in really basic matters, giving a lot of importance to proprioception, some other I focused more on the aesthetic result, going for a more dynamic approach.
I found really fundamental to balance between the repetition of the same exercise and a more alternative and diverse approach, in order to help them going beyond habitual patterns of movements and learning, which were obstructing them to get new information, more the supporting then to go beyond what they already knew.
It was important as well to balance between the “dance work” as such and the work on subtle perceptions, in order to give them the chance to get a refined knowledge on one side, and not to lose the priority goal of “dancing” and improve their dancing, on the other.
I believe the class was generally well received. I sense that everyone, in his/her own way, got the chance to take something peculiar from my class, even though the big difference of level, culture, language and age.
Evaluations
János
Definitely talented dancer!
I wish he would understood better English or me being able to speak more Hungarian.
Communication was not always easy, nevertheless we managed to go beyond this difficulty and get something from each other.
He looked light, open, and self motivated. He had his own way to take information, and even if sometime was far from the proposition, he went through a consistent learning path during the two weeks.
I would encourage him not to get too easily satisfied with his improvement, to keep his level of attention stabile and to observe carefully the other classmates in order to learn from them as well.
Anett
I had the impression she was at first a bit confused, due to a language matter, as well as due to my approach to the class, which I guess was new for her.
This confusion made her timid, somehow insecure, and not really able to realized that she was actually taking informations in a really appropriate way.
All the work on body weight and mechanics of movements was there, on a certain extend, and she definitely worked in a good direction, perhaps one of the most receptive student of her class.
I would still encourage her to soften the center of her body, to allow projecting more her lines out of the periphery, and especially I would encourage her to let go a bit more of self judgment.
Sometime can be frustrating to not understand but it is definitely by encountering things that we don’t understand that we can improve ourself.
Hanga
She had a really nice, sensitive and mature approach to the class.
I could see her trusting the information that were given, and play with them, even before she fully understood them.
She had not much prejudge on what I was proposing and this allow her to take informations quite quickly. I appreciate how clearly her approach to movement was focused on the mechanic more then on an aesthetically level.
I would encourage her to keep thinking at Release more as an Opening in every directions, then just down to the floor.
Marina
A quite analytic mind and a developed proprioception of her body. Her movement quality is tactile and her awareness is balance between her self and the group.
I could perceive a clear understanding of the principle we worked on, but often her analytic approach brought her in to a pronounced sense of critic, which sometime obstruct her to experience movement as a flow of sensations that goes beyond the instructions that are given to the body.
I would encourage her to focus on habitual patter of learning, playing with the idea of letting go of a sense of control and/or being right or wrong.
Sometime is not about making the body execute something we understood with our mind but more about experiencing and exploring channel of perceptions, to go with them without knowing if the experience will produce a “right answer” or not, to the task proposed.
Petra
She is able to cultivate a light concentration, which allowed her to take a good dimension in the work I was proposing.
She looked quite at easy in exploring her body weight as a motor of movement.
Her presence started to come out in the last classes. I could see her body expanding a bit more out of the periphery and the eyes. Her facial expression was lightly joyful, and it felt quite corresponding to the way she was moving.
I would still encourage her to pay more attention on movement definition, without scarifies the use momentum.
Julija
She is a quite hard worker. Strong center and a pretty compact body. All of this, made of her a quite agile dancer, ready for dynamics, challenges and risks taking.
I would encourage her to pay more attention on separations, on the use of superfluous muscles, on the space between the joints, as well as the space between the end of a movement and the beginning of the next one.
By creating space, information can travel more easily from one part of the body to another and to the floor, and vice versa.
Shiraz
Really attentive and ambitious student.
I had the impression she was all the time really focused and engaged in the work proposed but I felt as well some superstructure of knowledge, which sometime obstruct her in approaching the class more freely.
I would encourage her to be more patient, because information need to be processed and not only understood, and because moreover, information are already processing in our body even before having understood them completely.
I could definitely observe in her dancing this process of processing informations, which was for me a quite clear sign of a good work, in a good direction.
Orsi
Really elegant presence and sensitive body.
I could see her taking the informations and patiently working with it, without stressing to much about the actual result.
She worked well on understanding how a movement can be produce or supported by the potential of physical and anatomical mechanics.
I would encourage her to keep thinking at Release more as an opening in every direction, not just down to the floor, and about balancing the focus between the perception of her body from inside, and the actual out look of it.
Van Tsze
Fast mind, silent and really sensitive, he has a natural body intelligence, which make him really agile and fast learning.
I encourage him to focus more on the unnecessary tension or unnecessary use of muscle, and on the connection between one movement and the next.
He is definitely an active worker and I would remind him to think that sometime is not about “doing something” but more about “not to do something”, which may obstruct the potential of anatomical and physical principles to support our dancing.
Jovana
Really sofisticated mind, which reflected as well her approach to the class.
She is a really rigorous and detailed dancer but sometime this approach, obstructed her to trust more the natural potential of the body structure.
In the last period I could observe an improvement in the way she used her body weight in order to move, as well as a more playful presence and use of the facial expression.
I would encourage her to focus more on how one movement goes in to next, to not consider movements as separates units, and to approach this focus more as a sensation to be awaken, then a task to be executed.