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Congratulations all on a fantastic quarter!
We began the quarter in stillness with meditation and moved into progressively larger and more expansive movement, all the while staying connected to our inner experience. For this final blog entry, I ask that you reflect on the journey of the course and share what moments or learnings that have inspired or changed you.
We began by meditating on our senses and embodying relationships through touch, sight, listening and being present with one another. We move authentically in the present tense ;-) and then evolved from single celled organisms to our falling walking erect selves. We connected to our endpoints and fundamental movements. Doug MacKenzie came and guided us in Body Mind Centering. F.M. Alexander taught us to lead with our heads and to let the rest of us follow in order to use the body efficiently. Stephanie Skura showed us how Joan Skinner took Alexander's work into dance technique by creating images with strings and body graphics with touch. Contact Improvisation brought us together to deeply explore listening through touch. Joan Laage with Butoh brought us back to moving from within by connecting to images like cocoons and broken glass. The 5 Rhythms connects our inner creative movement source to the rhythms of flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness.
In addition, each of you explored even more deeply into topics of your own choosing: Butoh, Applied Anatomy and Ecstatic Dance. Everyone, spent hours in contact improvisation.
That's a lot of work!
We sometimes forget that our education is for ourselves even though we are working to fulfill requirements for our professors. With that idea in mind, I'd love to hear a few words about your own personal gain through your own efforts. What is your harvest?
Thanks for being a part of my masters coursework. It has been a gift and pleasure for me to have the opportunity to teach this course. As a group, you have been beautifully present, invested and self-directed and truly courageous. I wish you all health, happiness and peace on your journies and hope that you continue to benefit from the wealth of listening, connecting and moving from within.
Congratulation on all your wonderful work!
I will take a lot away from the class. I definitely enjoyed authentic movement and it is definitely something I will use as a stress reliever. It definitely allows me to listen to my body and be in tune with my feelings and thoughts. I enjoyed the work on endpoints as well. I never thought of them as outlet for movement and I definitely will now. I definitely loved the work we did with the Skinner technique. I don't know if I will continue with classes because they can be a little expensive but I will definitely take away some of the images we created such as the skull strings and body graphics- working the arms, knees, ribs, etc. I definitely enjoyed all that. I enjoyed the Butoh class and it definitely gave me a new outlook and respect for that dance form. I throughly enjoyed my project on 5 Rhythms and Ecstatic Dance. It will definitely be something I hope to continue in the future as it is a good stress reliever and it also allows me to connect to myself and express my emotions. The community in seattle is amazing and welcoming. I enjoyed being in this class. I have definitely learned a lot :)
ReplyDeleteJuhi
Since beginning my dance education at UW, my definition and idea of dance has expanded immensely. After being raised in a dance studio that only offered jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical and hip hop, it has been so refreshing to learn there is more to dance that just that and this class was no exception.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite technique that I learned was authentic movement, but I also enjoyed exploring the other topics. I think I liked authentic movement the most because it allowed me to reflect and also take time out of my day to just listen to my body. I really enjoyed Doug as a guest teacher and felt that the class went by so fast because of how powerful and moving it was. I also enjoyed learning more about butoh. After seeing several pieces performed, but never really grasping the reasoning behind it, I loved having Joan's master class. Through the exercises, I was better able to understand what made butoh so beautiful. It was also great to watch Joan perform after taking class with her because I was able to connect the feelings I had while in the class to how she performed.
Thank you for a great quarter and helping to expand and enhance my dance education!
Now is the season to know
ReplyDeleteThat everything you do
Is sacred.
-Hafiz
As a community, the many experiences we have shared over the course of
the past ten weeks leave me knowing viscerally, that movement is sacred.
This course offered me the opportunity to both witness and engage in
sacred practices that transcend time, culture, demographics and space. I
am honored. I am in gratitude. I got to experience my body, my self, my
soma in novel ways. I loved the challenge, the intrigue, the depth that
the methods we practiced urged us to go. From meditation, to our
Evolutionary story, to Authentic Movement, to Skinner, to Contact, to
Ecstatic Dance, to 5 Rhythms and the Chakras I have been moved by the
many forms of movement. Movement inspired me to think critically about
how I engage with space, with my relations and myself. I tapped into my
strengths and my vulnerabilities. Every session I experienced a sense of
arrival, one full of joy, wonder, conflict, love, questions and sparking
my curiosity of what it is to be human, alive and present in this
beautiful world we get to be a part of.
Together in space we came together to create. In committing to the
possibilities presented to us we manifested experiences that liberated us
from common social constructions. We experienced the edge, the “space
between breaths,” inviting us to creatively play with the moment,
testing our limits, ultimately enriching our perspectives and
contributions to what is humanely possible…This season, this time, and
this life; everything feels of utmost importance, full of vital energy,
and purpose.
For my project, I explored a text by Andrea Olsen, Body and Earth. I used
this text to facilitate an understanding of my anatomy through holistic
readings and exercises. This text offered me more than I could have ever
imagined. Not only did I come out with a greater depth of knowledge as to
the systems within my body, I left with a bridge between stewardship of
the body, of the self and of the natural world. As an environmental and
arts educator, this has been a link I have been seeking to cultivate for
the past two years. In my own way I have hoped to facilitate this type of
understanding for my students, though now with this rich text as a
resource, it is more concrete for me, allowing me to make the connection
between Body and Earth more alive for my students. From Olsen, I have
been led to other forms of progressive thinking and associated pedagogy;
I am so excited to gift this to students that I reach.
“When we are in the heart of our work, we are in the heart of our
power. One informs and inspires the other.” -Terry Tempest Williams,
Finding Beauty in a Broken World
I am inspired by our collective work. I have reaped so many benefits from
our many sessions. As Susan Aposhyan says on pg 177, “Expanding our
repertoire always opens us up to greater aliveness!” This course
expanded my body-mind repertoire: new ways of holding my body,
experiencing place and connecting with people; fundamental to my
continued development. Thank you all so much for your energy, trust,
willingness and love, together we made this quarter what it was. It has
been a transformative experience for me, one that will live on wherever I
go!
Lindsey
Blogger is acting quite bizarrely.
ReplyDeleteAs I reflect on this quarter, I really appreciated our evolution through the various topics we have touched on. I believe the sequence allowed me to built a great foundation that I was able to build upon later. Besides building on top of this foundation, I was able to revisit these layers, and utilize the skills I had incurred during previous classes. The ability to draw upon these existing skills allowed me to achieve a deeper understanding of topics at an expansive rate.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed how much of a better listener I am to my body. This deep connection to listening to what my body wants has put an entirely new spin on the phrase, “Do what you want to.” I feel that this has made me more physically sensitive to how I feel about a particular situation. Its not about what I think I should do, its about what I feel I should do. I have noticed that I’m embarking on many more random, spontaneous outings than I previously used to. Being true to these sensations I’m feeling have led me to living in a deeper pool of happiness. My happiness is reaching deeper levels now. I really enjoy this emphasis on physical sensations omitting my mental thoughts. I really do feel like I have become closer to mind-body integration.
Though opening the outlet to listening to my body has increased dramatically, it is not to say that mental thoughts are all bad. The use of imagery in my dancing has helped with the improvement of my technique and satisfaction during dancing. I have experienced the satisfaction of finding a time warp during suspension. It was crazy at first to feel this moment in the air, void of intrusive thoughts, and feeling like I was truly suspended, time slowed down! Craziness! Wow, I can’t even describe how good this felt. Another very magical moment, occurred when I was doing ‘pk’ turns. I wanted to bring these floaty, gentle, smooth quality to my ‘pk’s, so I imagined that I was a flower flowing across a current of air. I also saw flowers flying out of me. I was totally lost in the moment, a fabulous mental escape. It is so interesting how one can mentally be somewhere else in a sense, but still be involved in executing a combination.
I have also tried to use some Skinner during dancing to assist in my alignment. It has helped me when I’m able to keep these techniques in mind. I felt like the body hanging from the skull was the most useful at the bar during ballet class.
Overall, this quarter has been very satisfying and this satisfaction will get applied to future areas of my life. Thank you, Louis for holding a wonderful class as usual.
Well, I always liked the meditation. It was very relaxinf for me and a gret way to begin the class. I did have a breakthrough with authentic movement. The day when you spoke about beaches and to think of a memory involving the beach, one came to mind of my mother and a got a little sad and did not really want to move. But you reminded me why I was there and told me that I should do it and I did. It felt good ... thank you! I enjoyed the evolution and endpoint classes alot. Body mind centering was difficult for me because of working with a new teacher. Alexander was my favorite! I learned a lot of very useful information that I have been able to apply to my life and that will stick with me forever. I am also taking the class this summer. I think that skinner releasing technique would be really good for me to look depper into. Contact improv ... well ... I definaltely made progress, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. As for Butoh, not my thing. Ecstatic dance would also be another great addition for my life and a wonderful stress realeaser! I also would love to study the chakras more.
ReplyDeleteThanks Louis, for all you taught me. You don't know how much you have touched and changed my life. Thanks for alwyas being there for me when I needed advice and helping to guide me though this course and allowing me to do it at my pace. You are a great teacher and a wonderufl person. I am so glad to have known you. Please keep in touch. :)
**Kali
Oh my goodness, how can I even begin writing this? I’m already nostalgic enough graduating, and now I have to say goodbye to our lovely class and Louis!! :(
ReplyDeleteI really like what you said about doing schoolwork to get assignments done versus learning, and I feel like this quarter has been wonderful in allowing me to really just try to learn and get the absolute most out of my final quarter of college. I truly feel that I have invested myself as fully as I possibly could and have reaped the benefits in being introduced to so many new and wonderful dance forms and ideas!
Some of my favorite moments have been:
A solo in Authentic Movement at the beginning of the quarter in which I felt no time pass and you commented on how well I did – I really wish that I could have seen myself dance this solo since I was so focused on the moment that I couldn’t remember what I had done afterwards. Authentic movement was wonderful and still one of my favorite topics this quarter. The idea of sharing yourself with someone and then reversing roles and fully giving someone else your attention is absolutely beautiful and truly giving. You give in each half of the relationship and equally receive back.
The next huge one for me was my second night of contact improv. That was kind of what made improv for me. Though I absolutely loved the concept and ideas of contact (I’m super duper into touch and dancing which incorporates that), it was that second Wednesday that really put me in a new kind of understanding level with improv. It was such a whirlwind because of all the varied partners that my head still spins a little just trying to remember everything. At the same time, I can still remember significant moments with partners almost as if they had just happened. Contact seems like such a beautiful way to impact someone’s life, because that person you met just once and dance with for a few minutes might remember and reminisce fondling an insignificant touch or transfer of weight at some random moment of the day. That’s what I think is really cool about contact.
Skinner, Applied Anatomy, Skinner, Alexander, Doug’s class (so awesome!), I can’t even begin to write about everything. It’s been such a great quarter and I literally would come into class sometimes just thrilled to see what we were about to explore that day. I can’t say thank you enough, Louis, for this class and for being the loving teacher and friend of mine since I began dance classes last year. It’s been great being able to spend more time with you and learn about all of the cool things that you’ve been doing in your work at UW! I’m so glad we got to be a part of this and I so appreciate your dedication to our class and focus on everyone’s feelings and growth.
I truly appreciated the experience I was able to have in this class. I am grateful for the range of skills we worked on and the different techniques and perspectives that we got to embark on over the quarter. What I found most interesting about the course, was the common denominator of the body. Because of the focus on self and on the body I was able to connect to everything. Despite the variety of techniques, each one resonated back within my body and caused growth and greater understanding.
ReplyDeleteBeginning the course with meditation, I was able to unblock my the pathways through my body. Habitual use and movement solidified my bodily attention to a limited sphere. Starting with authentic movement, I learned to respond to my body and listen to its instincts and wants. The evolutionary story alerted me to bodily development and the specificity of its development. From here I was able to build to more specific listening with mind body centering, and focus on specific systems and organs with Doug's visit. Within my own project, applied anatomy, I explored different systems and different relations that continued this development of my internal understanding. The work with moving through endpoints really connected to both Alexander Technique and Skinner Release Technique. I found that Skinner Release Technique resonated not only with my body but with my conceptualizations of movement. Contact improv pushed my out of my comfort zone, yet helped me integrate movement, release my hold from gravity and be open to respond to outside stimuli. Butoh was an exciting journey into even further embodiment of outer stimulation in the embodiment of images. The course progressed from being focused on the internal self to releasing the ego with butoh. This range of experience allowed me to work through a lot of my habitual movements and loosen my body to new influences and reactions as well as to provide new influences.
Overall, I feel that my self-awareness has become much more attuned but also that I am able to relate to the world around me with a new focus as well. This integration reminds me of a phrase I came across in my study with Andrea Olsen's texts, from Body and Earth, “The body is home.” I feel that much of our collective movement in life comes from a conditioned place, a place that is made by years of technique, rushing, walking, sleeping, eating, relating in certain ways. For me, this caused a disconnect from my body, an uncomfortable home. This class has allowed me the opportunity to visit those conditionings and have the opportunity to rework them. I've been able to begin creating movement expression that feels more true to my body and that comes from an inner source, which is what “moving from within” implies. I've never had the opportunity to focus on this connection so intensely and with so many different points of access. What I will harvest most from this class is the connection I have forged with my body, one that makes me feel much more at home within it.
Thank you for the opportunity for so much applicable learning.
-Allexa Laycock
This has been an awesome quarter. That is all Im going to say. So Im just going to go on a rant of my favorite things from this quarter. My favorite things about this class . . . I would say . . . 1. meditating and doing body scans every class. Totally cool. It's always awesome to start your day relaxed. 2. I loved the contact improv in the class and I thought that the contact jams were really fun (well the one we had at the uw at least). I was having a really stressed day and it really relaxed me. I thought that was super cool. 3. Skull strings! It made me move so differently! 4. I had a fun time mimicing Maria's walk for the day we did the walking project! 5. Our water world and evolution body stories were mind blowing! I liked thinking about cells and then as we transitioned into homosapiens on our feet! (OMG my thighs and calves hurt!) 6. Authentic movement! Omg. Being able to move the way I want. Really cool! 7. The people who made it fun! 8. I think Im going to stop now and just say how awesome this quarter have been. I really had a fun time with everyone. It was cool really getting to know everyone and that is all I'm going to say. Im going to miss seeing everyone's faces bright and early every tuesday and thursday! But its summer so please everyone . . . go get tan! haha:)
ReplyDeletecougar!
I feel as though this quarter has taken us on a journey through our outer-selves into our deepest of feelings and back out again. All this through movement. I have had an extremely enjoyable time learning about somatics through this process. Somatics have proven to be a fantastic complementary way of looking at movement for me. I can use each lesson we learn to my advantage and inspire my movement and passion for dancing. When we began I remember feeling so peaceful, connecting to my inner emotions and focusing on myself then broadening that focus onto those around us. I also found that when we pushed forward and experienced our organs and developmental pathways I became stuck at certain points, while flowing smoothly through others. It was really interesting to discover the areas in my body where I have certain blockages, and then trying to work through those. As we began to move more fully with class, I experienced the Alexandar and Skinner techniques. These helped not just my psyche, but really impacted the way I think about moving and of course changed the way I move throughout the day. The way I sit while driving has changed, not to mention the way I am dancing. The more full bodies movement pushed forward into true movement such as Butoh and the 5 rhythms movement series. These forms of dance were unique in their own way, however through each I found an experience that was both exhilarating and grounding. Butoh allowed me to experience unusual movements through my body and 5 rhythms movement took me on a fantastic journey through my body, ending in peace and satisfaction. This is the exact process I feel the class has taken me on. The 5 rhythms movement series is very representative of everything, from my life to this class. Everything we have done has built up to this point, and I have found an agreeable ending to the quarter. Thank you for leading me on this journey, I appreciate the lessons I have learned.
ReplyDeleteWhere to begin! There have been so many components to this class which have opened me up to new ideas and experiences. Like one of our earlier exercises I have felt myself evolve, from a single cell drifting with the current to a sea squirt sucking it all in, to someone who has started to find tools for my own movement. Most dance classes I have taken prior to this class have focused mainly on technique, getting the steps right, holding your arms this way, all external guidance. Now for many styles of dance I do think this important, you have to do justice to the steps and spirit of that particular dance, but this class taught me that that spirit also comes from tapping into our insides. It also reaffirmed to me that dance ultimately is about that inner movement, if you don’t feel it no one else will.
ReplyDeleteNot everything in this class was easy, probably the hardest initially was the contact dance. There was a point where I really wanted nothing to do with it ever again, but I gave it one more chance and I am glad. I learned from this how important it was for me to listen to myself and respect my own boundaries even when pushing them just a bit put of their comfort zone. Now I am actually quite enjoying contact improv. and might actually attend some jams around town.
Doing my project was also really interesting, I did a lot of research and find the whole history of Butoh quite amazing. I also quite enjoyed the two workshops we had in class as well as the one I attended outside. I was quite flattered when at my first workshop she asked if I had training in butoh as she said I did a great job expressing my emotions and the visualizations with the dance, I told her I thought this dance class was likely to blame as it had let me tap into these things. Though there are many things we touched on I will probably not explore again anytime soon, contact and butoh are two I can see myself doing again in the near future. But no matter what I do or don’t there will be parts of all we learned in my toolbox available for all my future dancing.
Also, I really appreciate what a safe environment this was to explore these inner terrains, I couldn’t have hoped for a better group of classmates. Everyone has their own style of moving and it was just as much a learning experience to be an observer as a participant. Thank you all! & especially I want to thank Louis for teaching this class and putting together some amazing reading and great guest teachers. I wish you the very best on your next stage of life!
Thank you sooooo much Louis for an amazing class. You truly are an amazing teacher and have taught me so much about dancing and movement. I was the type of dancer who tried "too hard" in dance classes and always thought that the best dancer was the one who could do the most amount of turns, or the highest leaps. After dancing in college, I changed me views on how I could improve my dancing and that skills in dancing don't always make the best dancers. Yes, performance and the quality of performance and expression are also very important, but improvisation and exploring through improv can help dancers become stronger. Doing movements that use to seem weird to me helped me break out of my shell and see that expressions do not always have to be pretty and technical. I loved Butoh after the master class because it truly made me see that expressing ourselves through dance can happen in so many different forms and ways.
ReplyDeleteAs a passionate dancer, I now realize that having a broad range of knowledge about dance styles, experimenting with improv, exploring how my body moves in ways unlike other people's, and making each movement a complete mosaic of art. My improvements have shown throughout college, this year and particularly this quarter. After learning Skinner release and Alexander technique, my arms improved drastically in ballet and modern class. My teachers kept commenting me on the breath in my shoulders and arms through movement that they had told me to work before. I plan to continue to grow after college through my creative endeavors and improve on all types of dance styles while enjoying myself as I do so. Dance is my true passion, and I now I feel like I can truly express what I'm feeling and how much I love dancing through movement unlike I ever could before.
Katie
Most of this class was totally and completely enjoyable. I want to state my frustration about something first, and then move into what I really enjoyed, and then, where I go from here. Using the blog was really difficult. I felt that Sunday night at midnight deadlines priviledged unnecessarily folks who had a computer and the internet in their home. This led me to some late entries, and I'm pretty sure other folks encountered problems with this. I wish also, that at the beginning of the quarter there had been a more consistent time that the blog entries would be set up, say, shortly after each class. I became of blog follower, hoping that I would, via email, be notified of each new adminstrator post. This never came to fruition: I always had to go to the page to see the new entries. The reading for this class was managable. I'm not sure how consistent I was with it, nor how much other folks were. I understand that it was probably hard for Louis to hold us accountable to doing them. I also was uncertain if each blog entry required reference to the readings: what about this one? what about last weeks?
ReplyDeleteAside from these important logistical concerns, I feel like I benefited a great deal from this process. Twice a week, I was able to consistently devote time, that I wouldn't have necessarily taken otherwise, to my body. I always found myself benefiting from the way these morning passed. I wished there had been more/different music, to address each of the different styles we were exploring. I think that a lot of what I learned was about making a consistent practice of moving in my body, and recognizing my different needs. I learned about how to listen to my body, and allow it to guide me where I need to go. I learned about how to heal myself, in the context of connecting thought and body. My butoh project allowed me to take what we were working on in class and bring it into my space in the world. I feel a sense of responsibilty for using this material in the future, and I feel skilled enough to do so. I really connected with this material, and found it to be liberating and joyful. In the future, I plan to take the confidence I built from this class into the other work I will do. I imagine that most of my life, I will be involved in community based dance practices. I enjoy moving with folks who share, also, concerns about our world and ourselves, with me. Moving in community is very important to creating beauty in my life and mind. I appreciate other folks who are willing to engage physically together, and willing to explore different ways that can look. I want to continue to work with these practices, especially butoh, contact improvisation, and authentic movement. Ok, thank you for your work Louis.
alice