The Weblog of Catherine Bell: First and Second Day Back
Tuesday, Jan 7 2003, 12:38
First day back.......
(Actually I missed the first day back, because I was still in London on sunday doing a New Years intensive at The Place, Seemed like a great idea a month ago! No it was good, seriously....Monday I spent travelling for 7.5 hours, and I was not very happy upon my arrival in fffffreeeeezing Dundee! Travelling by train beats the coach but I was still so restless. I think it's to do with being a dancer and moving around a lot. I seem to fidget constantly, and it's sooooo boring!)
Second day back....
I had a fantastic sleep in my own little bed last night so was raring to go this morning (livelier than comatose anyway!). We have got a teacher called Angus Mc something for two weeks and guess what he's not Scottish, Angus! Anyway, we are releasing minds, bodys and probably souls for a few hours, and then the rest of the morn is contact improvisation, which for anyone who doesn't know is very basically learning when and how to take somebodys weight in different ways, and how to dance with and around them. I have always found it really hard just to let go of my inhibitions with more risky movement in dance so I am seriously excited about the next two weeks.
I think it is really important to create a calm, concentrated atmosphere before attempting this kind of work, and there aint nothing like a release class to do that! It's so funny how my attitude towards releasing technique has changed as my understanding deepened. With other imitative techniques I just do that, copy, and the need to justify it or make it relevant to me as a student was unnecessary. Maybe this sounds arrogant! I just mean when one is suddenly faced with a completely different concept about movement it is good to try to understand it, and let it find it's place in your body.
This afternoon we have been choreographing on some other students in the school. Our musician took some students away to make a band to accompany our pieces. We gave them a very brief (in our case!) idea of what we wanted and they composed. We worked in teams of three choreographing. This I found quite difficult.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is listen! Bite your tongue and just listen! In two hours we had a 2minute piece which we were happy with (kind of!) it was very tongue in cheek, I don't think I will be returning to it! Two many cooks, that's what my mum says, and it's true. I think this afternoon was good experience for all of us, but movement wise we are so, so different, it couldn't really work as a piece.
The rest of the week is going to be the same I think, If anything major happens I shall write! Am going to be more regular from now on with the old web-log, promise.
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