Graham dance technique 24/09/11 number 1

After watching the video I can see my weaknesses. At 1 minute 7 seconds I fiddled with my top and obviously this isn't professional. I need to make sure I professionally remain as a dancer. I need to make sure I stay focused and keep in time with the rest of the class. I also need to ensure my arms stay in the position given and not to make them floppy. They look weak and need to be more engaged. I need to keep them strong. My skills of alignment are quite strong through this exercise, I had good core control. 5 minutes and 38 seconds we started the seated contractions.7 minutes 19 seconds we were working on muscle tightening; and make sure we knew why we were doing the task. So we had to make sure we knew about the muscle awareness and the fluent and flexibility of our spine. One of Graham's ideas was that your spine could tell a story, you could be so expressive with your spine. My contractions compared to the rest of the class are not as obvious. I need to show the sudden force of the muscle contract as if I'm getting punched in the gut and being forced into a new position inhaling all the oxygen. I then need to show the release and as if I am blowing out all the air. These contractions need to be more noticeable. I also need to make sure that i point my toes when flicking my legs out in one of the exercises. For example 7 minutes 50 seconds in i noticed that i had weak ankles. This is an improvement I need to make. I need to be aware of the stages I need to remember when pinging my feet. so flat foot to the balls of your feet then to your toes and reversed when bringing them back into feet being in parallel then to first position. I had an injury this lesson and so I had a weak left leg. Meaning during the exercise I was weaker on one side of my body and I couldn't perform to the best of my ability. For example 8 minutes 46 seconds it started to hurt me to place my heel flat on the floor and so the exercise looked slacked and non energetic. However I can also see my strengths. When standing up my alignment and posture is very straight and I look quite like a dancer. Overall I just need to make my movements sharper and stronger. I need to have more locked  moves in the exercises such as my arms, ankles and my back when contracting or I'm in a flat back position.

Contractions

Contraction is one of martha Graham's key elements in her technique of modern dance. She created this idea to show her feelings. The feeling in this contraction movement is to show grief in the body. When using contraction in modern dance is so that the audience understand what is happening and the feelings and emotions the person is going through. You could also relate this movement to contractions when having a baby. When having a contraction in dance or during pregnancy you lean forward and make it look like your being pulled by your gut. So in a performance it could represent pain. You inhale a breath and take all the strain suddenly and then exhale and release representing the contracted muscles back to their normal form.

Martha Graham

Merce Cunningham's dance class