I will start by saying that every start or "new" beginning takes time to get used to. It felt the same with 3rd year and with the way we got back into proper moving in classes.
The difference from 1st and 2nd year is that I felt more confident and ready to start my journey into dancing, and I felt like everything that I did in the first two years came back to me to help me develop my practice even further.
The differences in terms of classes were the Feldenkrais class and the way the Movement Studies 3 classes took place. Personally I don't know if it is a difference from the first two years or it's just me having a better understanding of the things we encounter daily such as: BMC, experiential anatomy, SRT, technique in general etc. I can clearly put the things on paper and define them now.
Feldenkrais for me is just a way to get "back to basics" and use the simplest of movements just to discover the easier way of doing a movement and I can say that the stuff we have learned in experiential anatomy (naval radiation pattern in particular, alongside the idea of cellular touch, sponges, and the characteristics of jellyfish, starfish, sea squirt... sealife in general) has really helped me think of it differently and apply other methods of visualising and focusing on different parts of my body. The idea of naval radiation pattern helped me with my movement fluidity and this idea of the core as being a source of energy and stability for the limbs of the body (arms, legs, head-skull, and coccyx-tail).
The naval radiation pattern (seen primarily in the new born babies and early development stages of the baby) has also helped me in other classes (yoga, SRT, improvisation, release) with mental support towards balance and stability. In close relation sits the mouthing pattern which has helped me use the skull differently before as I never thought of movement starting from the mouth and not top of the skull.
Hands on graphics have given me a way to relax my body and help me embody different ideas to further the skills into my moving. I have noticed I vary when it comes to quality of touch when I am the receiving person. I am saying this because I have noticed that sometimes I need a lot of pressure and grip to feel it work through the muscles, and sometimes I prefer cellular touch because I can focus more on the softness of the tissues and small movements. I have as well noticed that head/skull hands-on graphics are my favourite as they really help me in my focus on skull-tail connection and give me a better sense of where my body in space is when moving.
When it comes to the use of imagery from the examples of cells, jellyfish, starfish, sea squirt and fish, I found it a bit difficult to work with, as me sensing my own body move with that idea felt a bit strange and I couldn't properly connect to it. I feel this is because I have a strong idea and sense of my body and I try to focus to much on joints and length of limbs for example and I could better connect to the idea of a quality of material than the structure of a creature.
Feedback from Katye and Natalie was also taken in consideration as I have realised that both tutors noticed that I need more control in my arms and I should focus more on placing the arms in the space and not just bring them along with the movement. Alongside this I should bring more awareness to the feet and softness through the sole of the foot. This relates much to the connection with the floor and the pelvis-floor connection as well.
By all means, I believe that these 2 months have really helped me get back into practice and have pushed me into looking further in my practice and it made me realise that my practice should not be limited to the time spent in classes but that I can practice in my own time as well and try different things. I have also found that repetition (as done in Feldenkrais classes) and trying the same exercise over and over again can really help set the practice and things we learn in classes.
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