Core training and dance

Wow

Wow

Wow



Today was a very physically active day...

We started the morning with fitness work and muscle conditioning, then worked on a lyrical routine. Doing the lyrical dance was fantastic for me. Lyrical, as opposed to other kinds of dance such as Jazz or Ballet, does not rely so much on counting and specific moves. It's more about the body moving through space and about the body embodying the emotion and moving with that. For me, it was very liberating. I don't have a lot of dance technique, so consequently, when I am trying to attempt the same moves as Suzie Q. Dancer next to me, I just look like crap. Not because I am crap, but just because I don't have the technique. Either way, the result is more cringing at myself in the mirror (and you may remember that there is already much cringing to begin with).

But with lyrical dance, I'm able to feel the moves more, and get inside my body as I'm moving. Boy does it make size irrelevant really quickly.

After a much more full day of classes, performance workshops, etc., we had a three hour class in core training at the end of the day (6PM to 9PM!!!). I came into the room already exhausted and not really wanting to be there.

This class was not what I expected. This isn't like Pilates core training or the like. It was much more basic than that. It's a technique that uses contact improvisation and mixes it with acting principles such as actions, communication, listening, etc. All I know is that I experienced my body in a way that I had never experienced it before....I was leaning on people, giving weight, being lifted (!!!!), and improvising physically. This technique is a lot about basic communication with the body and nothing else. Breathing as you lean on someone and they lean on you, pulling, pushing, lifting, and all sorts of craziness. I felt 40 pounds lighter when I was in the middle of this play.

But the amazing part wasn't about how I felt in my body. It was about allowing my full physical self to be present with a partner. It was intense. Touching, moving, asking, giving permission, playing, giving, taking....all laid out there in the physical body.

It was like looking at human relationships and boiling them down to their most basic non-verbal elements and living inside them.


It made me realize how much of myself I tend to hold back in any relationships with people. Especially with my weight issues, it makes me not want to burden others. This was mirrored in the work we did tonight. At one point, when I was supposed to give my weight to someone else, I was holding back because I didn't want to be too heavy for them. But that act of holding back actually made it harder for my partner to shift his weight and to move and communicate with me. He needed me to be fully there in order for us to dance together.

Boy ain't it funny how art mirrors life???