Modern, 4/9

Fun Day today.

We started off my reviewing the sun salutation and I added warrior one to the flow on both sides. I also really stressed that they should be doing something other than shortening their spines while waiting for class to begin. ie. sun salutations, lying down, hanging upside down, or some other kind of stretching or warming up.
We then did an add on phrase traveling randomly through out the space, looking for empty places. We walked, then two step one slide, then two step and slide to the R slide to the L, then we added a step assemple at the end. I encouraged them to travel through the space and to "get funky" and add their own style with arms and torso.

We then talked and explored a partners negative space. One makes a shape, the other makes a shape in their negative space. They take turns. After they got the hang of it and got all their giggles out, we talked about what changes they might make if they were to put this activity in a performance. They mentioned: being more graceful, making transitions, not being "pedestrian", different qualities, levels, emotion, facial expression. We also talked about abstraction of movement. They would locamote across the floor and then I would tell them to do the opposite. They would choose and aspect of what they were doing and then do the opposite of that. This was to show endless possibilities.

I then added a score and described the purpose of a score and the ability to improvise with a score. The score: 4 for nothing, partner one takes four counts to make a shape, partner 2 takes four counts to make a shape, partner one moves again for four counts to make another shape, then partner two dances to a new partner to then begin the whole phrase again only they start by taking four counts to make a shape. this allows the the person who travels to always change.
there were a few melt downs and I had them identify what was difficult and they came up with the solution. For example, both groups wanted everyone to travel counter clockwise.

Once they had the hang of it, I divided them in two groups. Each group performed and then we all talked about the experience as a performer and an audience member. they were all really excited because they felt like they were really able to dance to the music and felt liberated from complicated steps.
I congratulated them on being dancers and performers. They did a really great job!