Let’s get physical, physical!!

©Ana Sánchez Colberg, all rights, intellectual property of teaching method and lesson plan. No part can be used without permission of the author.

Last week we captured quite a lot of raw material (animations, multiple takes of dancing bodies, videos of the site) which I will edit to begin creating a multimedia presentation that will be shown to the public on September 5-6. I am working on this outside of the workshop time, and it takes time… So, this week we focused solely on creative dance material.

Session 1, Monday 15 July

Using the exercises that the participants have learned as the ‘warm-up’ I began constructing short dance sequences based on clustering individual exercises to create the building blocks towards a longer dance piece. As is common practice in choreographic processes, each section has a name (that only the group knows what it means) based on an image related to the movement task.

In this session we started to shape the section ‘stars’:

• opening and closing fingers of the hand to create stars (articulation of fingers and hands)

• these stars rise in the sky and fall (motion of the whole arm, lateral symmetry)

• stars shoot across the sky (cross lateral / motor coordination through asymmetrical bilateral movement patterns of the whole arm).

The word/image ‘star’ is now a sequence. The use of word/image aids with kinetic and sequence memory (for more on this see: http://www.citraining.com/Imagery-and-Conditioning-Practices-for-Dancers.html).

I am also opening their use of poetic, abstract language

Important take away: aspects of pedagogical and professional dance practice apply to this population.

Session 2, Wednesday 17 July

We rehearse the first sequence ‘Stars’, most have remembered it.

I offer them various soundtracks to listen to. The group selects the music they want to use to perform to, a flowy flute song. It is important to ensure that every stage of the process safeguards choice for individuals with PIMD, but how do we account for this? How do we know that this choice is understood? That it has had the impact aimed for? In the movement sessions part of the answer lies with scale of choice and allowing whatever time necessary for the choice to take place. What do we mean by small scale? As much as possible I am constantly asking them “what do you want to do?” “this”? “that”? “louder”, “faster”? “slower”? I could deliver the session without these and perhaps even reach the same ‘performance goals’. However, their use ensures that participants both as a group and as individuals are always being considered, they are constantly invited to be present in the process. Simple ways, however, as a facilitator you consciously must embed this in the session, to take the time to do this throughout the session. Learning to understand that there is choice and to be able to make a choice doesn’t happen by itself.

We listen carefully to establish musical cues to transition from one part of the sequence to the other. Some participants can also count 4 /4, the rhythm of the music, to guide them. We dance it to the soundtrack a few times, they all applaud their achievement when they could start and end with the exact length of the score! After a few repetitions of the whole sequence (now a full 2.38-minute sequence performed to music), a second choice is opened: do you want to continue or go on to the next? It's unanimous, they are ready to work on the next sequence!

Similar treatment is done this time to the word/image circle. This sequence begins with tasks exploring the boundaries of their personal space (their kinesphere), afterwards they link hands to make a group circle, the sequence now develops to explore ‘general space’ (extended kinesphere). For this section they choose a drumming song.

By the end of session 2 we have two sequences that together add up to 4 minutes of non-stop dancing!

Session 3, Friday July 19

The women participants had a special activity, only the men were present. We agreed that we will do some experiments and on Monday when everyone is together again, we will ‘fix it’. We started with a warmup going over ‘stars’ and ‘circles’. Afterwards we experimented with working with object (the next level of movement development, coordination and balance, taking care of the object and others).

The first object is a theraband (for collaborative warmup, pushing and pulling each others weight) and then a short stick, adapting aspects of LeCoq/ Meyerhold actor training using sticks to promote balance, coordination and rhythm.

• Manipulating the stick in one hand.

• Shifting to the other.

• Manipulating the stick with both hands.

• Drawing in the air with the stick (circles, loops).

• ‘Digging the ground’ with the stick.

• Short rhythmical sections, four hits on the ground – four counts silence, repeat.

• Working together to build a shape, for example four participants come together to make a square, then three to make a triangle.

The final experiment involved manipulating the body of another as an ‘object’, first a trust train, followed by a game of statues where one person is the artist, the other the stone. The task is completed by all alternating between moments of care and focus and moments of bouts of laughter and giggling. A beautiful way to end our second week!

I remind them that next week we are all film stars! We will start working 'hybrid' duets between the animated strip, the recorded movement capture and the participants. My aim is to see in what ways using large scale projections (short throw- no light beam in eyes) and screens can act as assistive technology in creative dance and movement sessions.