Day 10: Let's get this party started!

Today was the beginning of the first day of classes, and let me tell you- I am so excited for the remainder of my time here at ADF! 


I woke up at 7:00AM and had breakfast and then rushed to the bus in the circle at 7:45. We took a bus to Durham School of the Arts, which is about a five minute drive from Duke East Campus. We got there and headed to the gym for my first class, Modern Level 4 with Paul Matteson. 


We started the class off saying each other's names and repeating it over a few times. We then proceeded to warm up slowly by rolling across the floor, crawling, and then walking. We experimented with shifting our weight between our feet slowly so that we could feel where our weight was being distributed on the soles of the feet. Then after that we slowly progressed into a partnering phrase that we had learned in the preview class. I really felt a lot of work being done in the hamstrings and in my core. Then after that we moved into two phrases. The first phrase was in the center and it focused a lot on floor work, and distribution of weight and directional changes. We also did a bunch of inversions in this sequence. The second sequence went across the floor and was focused on traveling across the floor while "floating like a gazelle"...however you are supposed to portray that, I'm not sure. The last combination proved to be very difficult for me, but there's always tomorrow. And then the class ended. Luckily, I have my next class in the same room, so I stayed in the room writing some notes, when Paul walked over to talk to me. Yeah, I was confused at first also,  but he came up to me and told me that I did fantastic work in class. He asked me if I was accepted into the Mark Morris Repertory, and I told him that I wasn't and that I was accepted into Ming's Repertory and that I was taking that in its place. He told me that he saw me in Elisa's class and he was really impressed with my work. He told me he thought my dancing was "sharp" and then said that he was happy to have me in class. What a compliment! Especially on the first day! I really appreciated his compliment, it definitely contributed to a great start of my day, paired with an excellent class!


Then my next class began, African Technique! We started the class by talking about the things that we would be accomplishing in class. We met the musicians and talked about the culture of African Technique. Sherone started the class off with giving us a warm-up. We did simple stretching and did a few arm patterns to get us going. We talked a lot about moving the arms efficiently without doing so much work in the shoulders. Sherone talked about using the hands to guide your arm instead of using your shoulder to help with the movement of the arms. This was like a revelation to me, why have I not thought about this before. Just like initiation movement from the distal ends of the feet, why not using the hands to help initiate movement without messing up the shoulders or spine? We then learned a warm-up series phrase involving a lot of arm movements that were mostly pressing, scooping, and flinging movements. Then we had a partnering section where we found a partner and had an arm-flinging dance battle. My partner was Marjani Forte from Urban Bush Women. We had a lot of fun with it. I  love how small and intimate the class is, and having the large ensemble of drummers makes it even more fun. We then reworked the dance we learned from the preview class which was the dance originating from Guinea, I think it was "the Sunu"- I could be wrong though..it was fun, but a lot of people ( maybe even myself) who couldn't hear the rhythms from the ensemble. Sherone got us all to sit down right next to the drums so that we could feel the rhythms vibrating within our bodies- so that we could feel it. Part of the problem is that we were placed in a Gymnasium and many times, the sounds given off from the drums bounce off the walls in a weird dynamic and make it hard for people to identify the sound, unless you are right next to the center of the drums. Ebo, one of the drummers also explained to us how he felt about rhythms and how a rhythm should be portrayed as a relationship, and that we should be building relationships to the rhythms like they are people we care about. We worked on trying to feel the rhythms in our body and process them in a way so that we can show music with our body as the music's instrument! How cool, huh! Anyways, I am really excited for what this class has to offer, and I cannot wait to get more invested in the culture and technique of West African!


Then after a great two classes, I got on the bus and found my long lost bff, Vincent. We decided to have lunch together in the dining hall- which presented itself to be a pretty nice dining hall ( Not nearly as delicious as Skidmore's though haha). 


After lunch I headed over to Southgate and had a Repertory class with Ming Yang. He first showed us the Repertory that we would be learning. He created this piece of Repertory at a Conservatory in Taiwan and he focused on the idea of "mopping a floor" and how he could translate that movement into movements within the body. He gave us a short phrase to learn and had us do it a few times. Then he asked us to create a our own "mopping" phrase to express our ideas and thoughts about the type of movement. We then shared our phrases with everyone. Of course, I forgot my phrase halfway through and starting making something up- I couldn't get my brain on track- it was weird!


Then after we all showed each other our phrases, we spent the last 45 minutes learning some partnering work that was featured in the Repertory. We learned 4 different moves that accumulated from learning just one and eventually flowed together in a partnering sequence. We first learned a handstand that rolled over our partner's back until we landed into a ledge. After that our partner did a rotating stomach turn on our sacrum. Then after they got into a position, I would wrap my left arm around my partner's back while my partner hoisted me into the air so that I was turning with my partner and I was horizontal to my partner's body. And then after getting out of that change of facing, my partner did a cartwheel, holding onto my legs and putting his head in between my legs, while I grabbed his torso as we cartwheeled across. Yes, it was intense. But it was so awesome! And I learned so much about negotiating my weight, timing, spacing with my partner, Shamar. We also figured out how to make the transitions smooth and look effortless. It almost began to start feeling effortless after awhile! Anyways, I am really excited for what this class has to offer, at least with Ming's 3 weeks of teaching. Who knows what Mark Dendy is going to bring the second three weeks!


Anyways, now I have the rest of the night to hang out and watch Breaking Bad!