The End

We did so much this quarter. From dancing with energy centers, images, to Lar Lubovitch in circles and cycles. Pilates, yoga. Dancing on the beach in great outfits. He touched, lifted, listened and connected. We knew the counts and then we through them away. We danced linear choreography and circular choreography. We played red light/green light. We coordinated so that our heads lead and the rest of us followed with relaxed shoulders, ribs falling off the spine, legs dangling from the pelvis. And there were guests!

As a student, I know that somethings that I learned in college, I only came to appreciate years later. From teaching for so many years, I know it's impossible to please everyone all the time. So, I taught what I was inspired to teach and you learned what you were ready to learn. What will you take with you? What ideas resonated with you now? What ideas will you grow into...if you can know something like that? How have you grown as dancers, performers, artists?

Contact Improvisation

This week we explored contact improvisation. This video is by contact improvisation teacher Carl Frost who was at our last jam. He teaches contact improv all over the world and this video is from a work shop in France. It's always good to have a number of teachers and in this video Carl speaks a bit about the form and the way he teaches it.

What was your experience of Contact Improv this quarter? What would you say were your successes? Challenges?

Improv - Improvisation

I'm sorry I didn't respond to this sooner, but contact improvisation is shortened into improv. Improve, although a forward moving term, is not the way to spell it.

For those of you that are doing the contact improv (no e) extra credit, you can post your responses to this entry. The jams have been great here at the UW. There is one more on March 17 during finals week, before they start up again next quarter. The jam last evening was great!

Dancing from Energy Centers

This week we worked on moving from energy centers. We did an abbreviated version of this piece. This solo is a structured improvisation based on energy centers or chakra system. There are seven chakras in the body. In this dance, I knew what order I would explore the chakras and I had one gesture that corresponded to each chakra. I also had a small bit of choreography for each chakra, but I would say that 50% of this piece was improvised.


Can you tell when it is improvised and when it isn't? Does it change your experience of the dance knowing that it is partly improvised? What was your experience of going from improvisation to set choreography and back again?

We did a lot of spinal articulation. It can make you sore. Please take it easy this weekend if you're feeling discomfort. Let me know if any pain or soreness persists.
For our contact improvisation work on Monday, here is a video I sent out in an email awhile ago. This is 100% improvisation. Does it appear choreographed in any way? Does it change because it improvised?

Dancing from images

This week we danced from images. What was your experience of dancing from concrete ideas? Did it change the way your body did the movement? Did it change your dancing experience in any way?

List 10 Things

Hi Dancers,

I hope you've had a great weekend. Sorry for the late posting. You can have until Thursday to do this one. I'm in need of some inspiration and this should be fun. :-)

For each of these subjects, answer the following question: If you were a _________, what kind of _________would you be and briefly, why?

1) A toy
2) a natural phenomenon, like a tornado or a rainbow.
3) An emotion
4) a movement
5) A sensation
6) An article of clothing
7) A color
8) a food
9) a plant or tree
10) an animal

Have fun!

Louis

Lar Lubovitch

The week in review: This week we explored the work of Lar Lubovitch. On Monday, we started learning the opening circle to Concerto 622. On Wednesday, we had company member Brian McGinnis teach a master class. With Brian, we learned a piece from Mirimba, Lar's work to the music of Philip Glass. On Friday, we ran through Mirimba again and fleshed out the opening circle to Concerto 622 with the 400 level class joining us. The Lubovitch Company performs Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Before each performance, there is the pre-show lecture that you are required to attend. All these exposures provide alot of entry in the work of this choreographer.

With all of these entry points into this work, please write a coherent analysis with a beginning, middle and summary of your learning experience with the Lubovitch work. Here are a few suggestions to get you started. How would you describe Lar's choreography. How did Lar's work feel in your body? What did you learn from seeing the company perform? What did you learn from seeing professional dancers perform choreography that you yourself have learned? What did you learn in the pre-show lecture or from lectures in class that expanded your experience of the performance? What will you remember most about this learning experience?

*Reminder: this writing assignment is worth 10% of your grade.