Almost there

Ok so all the programs are accounted for and entered into Catalyst, I also highlighted in green over the marks for their last program so you can quickly see who has been entered, maybe take another color highlighter with you to mark down late submissions with have to actually collect them.

Test are all accounted for and in grade book, I took them to hand out today but Shannon Gaffney was injured at the end of class and I did not have time in A so I decided to hold on to B as well.

E can give everything back I guess.

Ballet:
Plies like normal
Tendus : en croix 2x slow, 1x faster coupe soutenu, change sides, again change sides repeat all as degage
Ronde de Jambe: 4 out grande port de corp 8cts each direction, reverse legs and portde corp, releve 4cts other side.

We talked about enlarging kinesphere in port de corp and tried just port de corp again

Swings: 8 swings starting front, battement front fouette hold through 4, step through battement front fouette hold through eight, step through battement front fouette hold through four, step through little half turn pas de chat (prep for tour jete), bring the back foot in with a half turn, other side, other side, other side.

Jump Prep

Full tendu at center left and right, same as last week

Jumps across the floor, chasse, fouette, chasse, fouette, chasse pas de chat tour (tour jete prep) soutenu. (that is when shannon hurt her foot)

That is it.

Later

Monday, May 18, 2009

Today was fun!

We went across the floor as our animal selves, our statue selves, our action selves. We changed levels. We changed speeds. We turned. We jumped.

In groups, we made dances that included all these things and unison, non-unison, circles, lines and traveling.

They performed two groups at a time. At the last minute, I gave them obstacles like interrupt each other. Talk while dancing. Enter the space and exit.

They made great pieces and had fun.

Louis

Last thursday

Sorry I'm late in posting.
We worked on partnering and I encouraged them to incorporate partner work in their compositions.
We did the log roll where they surfed on top of each other.
Then we experienced releasing our weight into a partner while they were sturdy on all fours.
We then learned how to counter balance with a partner, lower one to the ground, have them spin on their backs and then counterbalance back up.
We also did suspended jumps with a partner lifting at the waist. Called it playing "bouncy ball" with their partner.
Finally we learned the side by side under-curve, suspend lift. (I'll show you if you don't know what I'm talking about).
I then gave them five minutes to make a phrase out of all the things we worked on and any other partnering they wanted to do. They had a lot of fun making a phrase and then we split into two groups and performed. They had some great observations both as participants and observers. So we should expect to see some partnering in their comp studies.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Today, we did a little Renaissance Dance. We did a minuet in three.

2 balancees in/out
in a circle
turn a partner right and left with hands on hips

repeat to left

in a square
balancee in/out 2x
tendu side, sou sou, soutonnu
to neighbor, to partner, to neighbor clap hands
tendu in direction and go

we did this the whole class
they were sweating
it was hard and confusing
but fun!

Ballet Lecture
Showed power point which basically just has the answers to the test written on it, I then showed my youtube play list http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=363358AE2A28DAEF
Basically highlighting the evolution from folk dance, to court dance to professional dance, looking at how the body, and specifically the highly skilled body, comes more and more to the forefront, often distancing the art from the audience. I finish with LaLaLa Human Steps to try to indicate that ballet doesn't just belong to the past, but is still used to make important statements today.

Ballet on Tuesday
Normal plies
Tendus and Degages were the same set up three in each direction plie on 4, en croix 2x's except the last seconde was use to go to the other side.
Introduced ronde de jambe just 4 in and 4 out very slow
Leg swings with couple and pas de bouree
Jump prep at the barre
Then my every kind of jump exercise:
2 feet to 2 feet
2 feet to 1 foot
1 foot to 1 foot
1 foot to the same foot
1 foot to 2 feet.

That is it, have fun. 4 weeks left bitches.

Comp Lecture

Hey just wanted to give a quick update on the lecture.

Basically we watched each piece

I asked them to write and describe what they saw without judgment

then write about what they didn't/like and what they thought didn't/work

We had a little discussion and people made suggestions.

I tried to focus it as a useful time to prep for the comp project.

Do you like clarity or chaos?

Do you want the dance to be exciting or meditative?

I was also trying them to write down tools they saw or heard other people talk about, that way when they were stuck with comp, they could return to this page of notes and get some ideas, so the person doing the comp critiques might want to remind them of this page of notes.

Also I don't think that they were able to take notes in Jamie's practicum so we might want to get them clear definitions and spellings.

I also told them to keep watching videos on youtube and think about description and evaluations then variation and appropriation....

kisses

Monday, May 4, 2009

Today, I did contact improv with the class. Actually, we did the finger tip exercise with eyes closed and then we did the rolling point of contact exercise on the forearm. They were into it the whole time. At the end, we stole partners away from one another. At the end, I demonstrated CI with a partner to give a larger idea. I then invited them to come to jam on Wednesday evening.

It was a great class.