A Singularly Awesome Day; Also, Have Some Improv
Today, a small group of us got to do an exclusive trapeze performance for a group of people who are way under-served in our community. It was fantastic to be able to take our show to them — they had a great time, and so did we.
Back at home, I managed to get some laundry done, then trundled off to the studio for Denis’ trapeze class and our mutual flexibility/mobility (which I definitely needed; in retrospect, I should definitely have brought the foam roller last week!) and acro-balancing 2 classes.
Suspend usually has good music playing, and I am unable to resist the urge to dance, so eventually I relocated myself to our dance corner. The dance floor is slightly sprung, but it’s still better than the concrete corner where I had initially been trying to convince myself that even itty, bitty jumps were a bad idea.
The meditation/yoga hammocks were still hanging down, and while mucking about on the dance floor, I happened upon the idea of leaping from one open space to another, skimming between visible and invisible zones.
I wound up playing around with the idea and eventually wound up recording a few minutes of the little improv that came out of it.
To be sure, there are definitely some complete WTF moments — like, at one point I wind up on the ground and decide that I should fold myself in half.
What am I thinking in that moment?
Who knows?
I sure as heck couldn’t tell you. At one point, you can clearly tell by the look on my face that I’ve realized I’m doing something that doesn’t really make any sense, and that I have no idea what I should do to fix it.
There are also some moments I really like; ideas that I plan to work on — a bunch of nifty développes, some interesting turns that kind of fold in on themselves; a sequence of pas de chats, another of glissades.
I wasn’t paying any real attention to technique (in case you’re curious, this is more or less what I look like when I go out clubbing, heh); instead, I was making up little rules in my head and seeing what happened when I attempted to follow them — but I think with some attention to technique, something could be made of them. I think next time I’m going to try alternating between the two methods of travel; in this space, that could be pretty interesting visually.
I didn’t notice until I had watched this a couple times that there’s also kind of a motif that occurs near both the beginning and the end (totally not planned; the end of the video is the point at which I realized I had like 2 minutes before my class started). There’s also a brief conversation with Aerial M, asked if I wanted the hammocks put up (when I said I was using them, she actually said, “Cool!” but you can’t really hear that bit).
There are also several moments in which I want to strangle myself for doing the weird things that I so frequently do with my arms, though in a way seeing them in video is helpful, because I don’t usually realize that I’m doing them (the downside of hypermobility: sometimes, you really have no idea where your body parts are).
Watching video of myself dancing, I’m always like, “Wait, why are you dropping your arms there? Why did you just — no! PUT THEM BACK, THEY SHOULD GO AROUND THE OTHER WAY, YOU MORON, DON’T—” and then I realize that yelling at a video of yourself is even dumber, somehow, than yelling at the TV.
Anyway, here, have this little video of me playing around in warm-ups and leg-warmers as a sort of aperitif, and I’ll work on making a better recording of Albrecht’s variation. I think we’re going to try to get the new balancé video done this Friday or next Wednesday, schedules (and weather; we’re crazy, so we’re planning on recording it outdoors!) being what they are.
Edit: PS, I know that a bunch of times, it sounds like I’m hitting the floor really, really hard — that’s an artifact of the way my phone records sound and possibly of the floor itself.
PPS: I have absolutely no idea which song is playing.
Posted on 2016/07/27, in balllet, improv, modern, video and tagged but it's not really ballet, but that one moment, omgwtfbbq, random improv, some cool turns though, what is up with my pinkies. Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.
Improvisation is where we try out things to see what happens, I think. (At least, that’s what improvisation means to me.) So, I try not to worry too much about awkward arms, funny hip movements or moments when I look like I am stumbling over my own feet. (Yes, I cringe, when I watch myself, but that seems to be part of the process) I think we learn a lot when we improvise. That said, I really like your video.
Thanks and thanks! ^—^ I’m glad to hear your thoughts on improvisation — so often, I feel like I must somehow be doing it wrong 😀 Also, I’m glad you like the video — I was surprised by how much I liked it when I watched it, but I still feel surprisingly shy posting unrehearsed material.
I’ll have to write about that sometime — I’m still parsing my feelings about it. I’m a pretty fearless performer, but a little chicken about video!
Aaaaaah I love this! You’re so graceful! I can’t really see the weird arms, I think I lack the experience. All I can see is dancing. 🙂 Thank you for uploading!
Thanks (and you’re welcome)! I admit, I’m probably more obsessively concerned about my arms than is entirely necessary 🙂
The RDJs looked great. Also, your demi pointe is strong.
Thanks! Lately, I tend to default to doing a ton of RDJs whenever I improvise (which is better than what I used to do, which was basically pique turns and struggle), so it’s good to hear that they’re looking well 😀
I’ve been feeling them lately too, as a way to kill my turns girl habit.