Know Yourself

Yesterday was our first day back after a week's holiday for half term; furthermore it was the first of five days working with Scottish Dance Theatre. Although I have come across some of SDT's work in the past and I am aware of the basic history of the company, I have never seen them perform live or had the opportunity to work with them before. Therefore i was eager to be involved in the week's workshops.

We started with a technique class led by Toby Fitzgibbons' who joined SDT in summer 2004. Due to the week off it took a small while to get my body and head connected to the first task/exercise, however it didn't take long till I felt switched on, alive and happy to be back in the studio.

As a group we began talking about the smaller details of the some of the exercises we had been practicing, and particular movements within them. It was during this conversation between Toby and the class that I became aware that I am a culprit of sometimes performing a movement 'superficially' as Toby described it.

For example, at times I try to make an action 'look good' rather than really feeling the aim and intention of the action and perhaps I am not being true to my body or the movement.

Our second class was led by Ruth Janssen and James MacGillivray, both established members of the company. During this class I began to think deeper about committing to an exercise as opposed to concentrating on what it looked like in the mirror. When working on an exercise based on suspension I realised at times, once again, I was playing safe and not hitting the truthful moment of suspension before falling.

I now need to work on this whilst in the studio, but also to take this outside of dancing and ensure I am always true to myself and commit fully to everything I aim to do.