REFLECTION JOURNAL #3: EFFORT (LMA)/DYNAMICS (LOD)

July 26, 2017

REFLECTION JOURNAL #3: EFFORT (LMA)/DYNAMICS (LOD)

7/25/17-Session 3

Theme:

EFFORT-LMA

DYAMICS (FORCE/GRAVITY)-LOD

Today's continuation of the Bartinieff based warm-up felt great! I enjoyed exploring additional methods for exploring the connectivity patterns and in terms of Effort, I would say it helped me release some built up tightness from the week. I also appreciated the use of partner assist in the rocks.

We first explored the effort work of Laban. I have had challenges differentiating BOUND FLOW from STRONG/HEAVY WEIGHT, however today I appreciated Fredericks use of the word precision, and there being only one way to do the movement. To me, this also lent itself to a direct focus. In addition, I feel the effort phrasing will be a tool I can utilize with students. I think this is something they can clearly articulate and hope to try this out more in depth.

I found the LOD exploration of DYNAMICS-FORCE/GRAVITY, to be somewhat more challenging because of the change in degrees, for example, Slight Increase, Marked Increase. I think finding the subtleties between the differences is more challenging yet interesting to investigate. I found that when working with my phrase in terms of response to gravity, the phrase had to look completely different in certain degrees of resistance to or response to. I find I have a hard time letting go and responding to gravity in general which is why techniques like Limon are a challenge yet extremely beneficial.

The Emotion work we played with brought up some reflections from prior lessons with students. One of the other participants brought up the idea of not using the face or hiding the face in this type of exploration. I have found in the past that my middle school students generally will put the emotion in their face vs their body and they would need more exploration of what the physical representation of the emotion could be and what type of body shapes seem to express these feelings. I also remembered an activity I did in my undergrad composition class that asked us to draw a design that we felt illustrated a specific emotion. I think this type of work is extremely valuable when working with all ages and is something that can be further developed in our pedagogy!