Daily Routines - 28/2/2014

Today's class included lots of imitation, improvisation and creation of choreography. Our theme for the class was daily routines; starting in the early morning and ending till evening and night. First we created our own choreography and then we added to that variation of speed, for example, to that. Then we created with pairs a choreography together and then we presented it twice. First one was the original and the second one was, where we changed the directions for the choreography (other was doing it like in the first presentation, but the other one was doing it for some other direction).

This part was really hard for me, even though I could present the choreography in the original direction. I was mixing the directions all the time and it was little bit confusing all the time. It was even harder, because we had to present the choreography at the same time and not in the canon. All in all, I think that this exercise was extremely good and it really challenge us to think again the choreography in the other perspective. 

I also liked the class, because it wrapped around one theme. First we improvised and finally, at the end of the class, we had a ready choreography, what we could present to the others. This was a exercise, which I definitely would like to use in my dance lessons at schools in the future. If the students are not that used to improvise and imitate and it feels very hard to them, this exercise helps them to do something concrete and build the improvising for the theme. And theme can be anything (vacation, trip, work, school day, visiting friend's place etc.) This exercise has so many dimensions and you can use it many times, just changing some little parts and challenging the students to the next level every time. 

Stepping out the comfort zone - 25/2/2014

http://www.fmh.utl.pt/serenatas/page/10/

Today's class we went to the main building of the FMH. Our purpose of the day was to stay in the smaller groups and imitate and improvise in different places in the building. We started in a bigger group and followed one man a long time. When he noticed us, he was very amused, but continued his way to somewhere. After that we went together to the faculty's cafeteria and others started to improvise. Me and my one other classmate decided to find some other place, because in the cafeteria was too much people for us to start improvise. It was good decision, because it was more comfortable start to begin somewhere elsewhere.

Absolutely the best situation was, when we saw a group of little children sitting and waiting in the corridor. We started to throw a imaginary ball to each other and we invited children to the "game" also. They understand very soon what was happening and came along to throw the ball with us. Many of the children could throw the ball back to us, but some of them kept the ball of themselves. They were very interested and I could see that they enjoyed the imagination play, what we played with them.

All in all people took very well, when we imitate them or improvised in the building. They were amused, but many of them was also very surprised and maybe also little bit distracted. Some of them came along to throw the imagined ball but some of them didn't want to give up, when we imitate them. For example we started to follow one boy and his movements. He opened us the door and we followed his example. He was surprised that we didn't go inside and we just kept continued imitating him. Finally he pushed us inside and he was really winner of the game. Also really nice situation was when we interact with gardener. We started to take photos of him and he really started to pose in different positions, even thought he was at the same time speaking with someone in the phone.

I really, really enjoyed the class what we had today. I achieved my goal and I really started to interact, improvise and imitate more freely and with no doubts. Today I really got out of my comfort box and I'm really happy of that.

Out of the dancing halls - 24/2/2014

First time we got the chance to improvise somewhere else than in dancing halls and I was so excited. I have never done this kinds of things before, but I have always wanted to try. So we went to cultural centre of Belém and we presented different kinds of improvisation exercises in different places in the building. We had lots of opportunities to do what we liked to do and I really liked that, because I haven't done this kinds of things before and it was really good, that you could work in your comfort zone first.

I was surprised how well I manage to improvise during the class in Belém. It didn't feel awkward or embarrassing and I think that I did my best. Still, there were two things that I would like to have done differently. First I should have take more contact to my class mates and create with them improvisation "story". Second, I would like to have imitate other persons much more (for example tourists, staff) and be more activate in those kinds of situations. But I noticed that I wasn't ready for that and it felt really difficult to me, so maybe it was better that I didn't step out of my comfort zone yet. But I really like to tried it next time, when I'm probably more ready for that.

http://bushwickdaily.com/tag/events/page/2/

Follow and remember - 21/2/2014

The heading tells well, how I experienced this class. We did very interesting exercise, where we first created choreography, which have to include free movement - turning - balance - falling down. I liked  a lot of this kinds of exercises, because you can very easily create small choreography and maybe you can also do a longer choreography by adding different people's choreographies together. Because in the future I will be teacher of physical education, I always try to find some good exercises to use during the sport classes. And I really like this one.

The exercise continued, that in small groups we presented our dance series to the others three or four times. Others followed our dance and after we finished the teacher came to give us more specific instructions, which one others didn't hear. The instructions were for example, to imagine that you are presenting your little choreography in different ground (soft, hard, swamp, hot) or that you have to use different dynamics, speed or movements. Then we presented the choreography again and others tried to figured out what things changed and what was different. This exercise really challenge you to focus very well of course doing your own part (presenting the dance serie), but also focusing the little details and differences what others were presenting. I think that this exercise would be very suitable for the dancing classes in the schools.

http://aapf.org/2013/01/focus/#prettyPhoto/0/

Verbal and nonverbal communication - 18/2/2014

http://elasticclass.com/the-significance-of-
nonverbal-communication/

During the class we got to know better, how verbal and nonverbal communication affects in the situations, when people communicate with each others. I realized that verbal communication is more effective, because you can use both your voice and expressions to make it clear what you want to communicate to the other persons. But all in all, nonverbal communication is something we believe more. If persons expressions and verbal messages are in conflict, people often believe the language of body and expressions. They can be seen more trustable, because the body language rarely lies.

Both exercises which we did in the class lasted a long time, so it really challenge me to try and focus on very carefully. In our group we had three persons, so it was little bit different than communication with only one person. You had to take account both persons equally and not to leave one outside of the group. But with three persons we really could communicate and ”talk” differents things with or without words. It was interesting to experience how we could create a story during the exercises, especially when we couldn’t speak. Gestures, expressions and body language

were things with help of which we could communicate very fluently and we could understand each others very well. When we did the exercise with music and without talking, the music affected a lot, especially how we take our roles and how we felt during the exercise.

http://sugardaddie.com/blog/reading-
body-language-to-meet-people/

I liked a lot of the class, because it really remind me of being in Portugal as an exchange student. Even though I’m able to understand a little bit portuguese, my commucation and understanding depends a lot of the people’s expressions and body language. During the different practical dance classes, I have noticed that even though I don’t understand always the instructions, I can very well still understand the main idea of the exercise when I’m following teacher’s or my classmates’ expressions and way of doing things. So this class was really good also for me to realize this aspect.

Exploring movements- 17/2/2014

Fourth class of the OD2 entered more deeply to the imitation and of course, improvisation.
We did a very interesting walking exercise, which have many different dimensions. First we explore more closely our own way of walking around and then we moved to examine how other classmates walked and which kinds of things was part of their personal way of moving one place to another.

Let's walk
http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

Every person has it own ways of moving around and walking is a good example of movement, which is determined persons backgrounds, for example structure of the body, sport backgrounds and possible injuries. Mainly you can think that every person walks with the same way, but as we today discover, during the class, our walk consists very many things and every person's walk have it own characteristics. When we imitated our classmates walk, we really had to find those bigger or smaller details and see what kinds of parts the movement consists. It was very interesting and I noticed that I easily pick a person to imitate, when she or he had a very clear and personal way of walking. This is mainly, because it is more easy to follow someones movements, when the details of walk are more visible and you don't have to pay attention to the small and more hard-to-find details.

Our another exercise was both imitating and improvising. We formed a triangle and every time someone us lead the group for a while improvising different kinds of movements. I was excited of my own turn of lead the group with my own movements, because I haven't done lots of improvisation exercise. Luckily it went well and it the real situation I could create lots of movements from the first thought. I liked really much to imitate others movements and I noticed that you can really enhance your skills of imitating during these kinds of exercises. We did little bit same kind of exercise in the second class of OD2 and it was much harder to imitate others in the second class than it was now. I was very surprised.

The best thing during this exercise was to see, how different moments different people can create. There was no same kind of movement during the exercise, which lasted about half an hour. I learned a lot and at the same time my own storage of the movements increased. because I could see how the others used their body to move place to another. I also enjoyed movements which had lots of contrast from each others (bigger-smaller, fast-slow etc.). In addition it was great to see, how the whole group could work so well together
, almost at the same time, even though someone was creating movements, which anyone didn't know before.

All in all, this lesson of the OD2 was very educational, because I learned a lot of things of myself, others, imitating, improvising and dancing.

Diving in to the improvisation - 12/1/2014

I enjoyed very much of first class of ODII. We did a long improvisation exercise, which really challenge us to create movements from the first thought. We didn’t have time to think and plan what we are going to do, so it was great introduction for the improvisation. The exercise’s main idea was to follow the person´s movements, when she entered in the dancehall. I entered first, so I was able to see the hole process of the exercise.

There is no limits
(http://www.playenable.com/blog/street-dance-london-classes)

For the first, the beginning of the exercise was hard to me. I didn't understand first, what was going on, but very soon I realized that the teacher would imitate my movements. The music was very inspiring and I took lots f the elements from the music. I immediately started to dance and I tried to use lots of different levels (up, middle and low). The time of the improvising was long, so I was many times trying to leave from the door to invite others to come in. It felt at some point, during the exercise, that I just repeated same movements after another and it was very hard to break this circle. Even though it was hard, at the same time I liked to challenge myself and cross the line of the comfort zone.

As interesting it was to improvise by myself, as interesting it was to see, how the others reacted in the same exercise. All of us had very different ways to move in the same exercise: others took it more easily and moved more peacuful than others. Others stretched more than others and others repeated same movement more longer than others. It was also intriguing to see, how you could deduce, which kinds of dance backgrounds was the person from and what kinds of dance styles she has danced before. 

All in all, first class of the ODII was very gripping and I can’t wait what kinds of classes we will have in the future.