(Not So) Thoroughly Modern Monday
Modern class this morning was interesting.
I was a complete space cadet, having failed to take both allergy meds and Adderall, and having also slept for a loooong time.
Nonetheless, I did a reasonable job getting combinations into my body and responding to corrections.
At least, I did up until Part B of the left side of the final combination when somehow, inexplicably, it dawned on me that I was on the wrong leg. I felt a little exclamation point appear above my head, then threw in a little changement to switch legs, and just went on. After, Modern T was like: “Asher! On the left side, use the left leg!”
We all got a laugh out of that. I sorted out on the repeat.
I missed my choreography session with B because Denis needed to go to the doctor, so I did M. BeastMode’s Monday night class.
I should seriously do this class more often. It was really good — especially the big dance-y parts at the end.
Having begun my journey back into dance as a Ballet Squid, I now find that my arms generally know what to do with themselves. This is a fine thing. It allows me to think about other details, like rocking the épaulement.
I generally bag no trouble remembering combinations tonight, though I didn’t nail the final one 100% on the left (for one, though, it was because I added something that wasn’t really there).
There was also one enormous and effortless saut-de-chat, which was awesome. SdC and grand jeté have been my nemeses this year: I’ve been working through that gap between how high they were and how high they could be and trying to get out of my own way, but it hasn’t really come together until tonight.
Anyway, it was a good class and a good night and I’m glad that I went.
Tomorrow will be cleaning and mixed apparatus day.
If things keep going this will, l’m going to write a letter requesting that we change the name of this month from “May” to “Can.”
Posted on 2016/05/02, in balllet, class notes, modern and tagged the merry merry month of "can". Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
danseur ignoble 
Best last line! Go Asher go!
Modern monday: for a change, less new choreography and more technique, especially triplets in second (backward and forward), travelling triplets in open 4th, triplet turns. Plus floorwork and the Fischer release sequence I was moaning about in comments passim.
I’m making a particular effort to tighten up some of the phrases I’m hazy about, especially on the floor – there’s stuff in there I haven’t really understood yet and I’m determined to break them down in detail. This means consuming more teacher time, although that wasn’t so much of a problem as only the four people who *always* turn up, turned up.
Also, I’ve been told that three students want to rejoin Wednesday class and the Boss doesn’t want more than 10 of us (last Wednesday’s was 12 students). Very true, but also a polite suggestion to get more time in beginner, I think. That said, plans for performance just got a lot more specific. I’m in it, it’s got a date, a time, and a place, and I know which sequences I’m doing.
Triplets in second, backwards! That is one hell of a weird motor pattern for the human body — like, I think Modern makes us do less Crazy Stuff We Almost Never Do In The Wild than ballet (indeed, some modern techniques are predicated upon using the motor patterns that are “natural” for humans, though my feelings about that idea are complicated), but triplets-in-second-backwards is, I think, the kind of movement largely reserved (in non-dance contexts) for staggering under the weight of something heavy and bulky.
Somehow, I tend not to think about this end of things when I’m dancing, or even when I’m writing about dance, but reading about dance, sometimes something just tickles my brain like that.
Anyway, hooray for technique focused class! I’ve noticed that most of the modern classes I’ve had use a top-down approach, starting from choreography and refining technique from there — my high school modern teacher taught that way, and Modern T frequently does, though not always. Aerial A is something of an exception, though it may be because the class we teach together combines modern and ballet elements and is designed for aerialists without prior dance training.
I hear you about teacher time — I’m glad that my schedule pretty much forced me to do Modern T’s Monday Class, because it’s such an awkward time slot for most people that it’s usually just two of us (the biggest class so far was four, I think), and we can really drill down on technique.
In my experience, there’s a lot to be said for spending more time in beginner classes, even when you’ve got the basics nailed down. You get a chance to really refine things that way (up to a point, anyway — an true beginner class in a non-syllabus program can, in fact, become really repetitious after a while…).
Exciting news about the performance! I am always mystified by adults who study concert dance but who don’t want to perform (kids are different; a lot of kids go to dance classes for reasons that have little to do with dance-qua-dance: parents think it’s good for them; friends go; siblings go and it doesn’t occur to them not to…).
Not that there’s anything wrong with it; it’s just an alien idea (curiously, it’s the one that has made me understand how some people feel about the idea of gay stuff: not so much “Ew!” as “Does not compute.”).
Anyway, it’s always cool to see other adult dance students charging forward into the world of performance!