Injuries are the bane of my existence recently. Due to illness I was forced to sit out of class and miss more of the going up exercises that I long for. However, this may have actually not been the worst thing to happen to me. During this module I have noticed that I have a tendency to rush into things head first and think about the consequences later but by watching the rest of the class, I was able to truly understand what our lecturer Kirsty Russell had been speaking to us about in classes. I really feel that by standing back and watching the improvisations from a bystanders point of view, I was able to fully understand how important the giving and taking of weight is when lifting people. I also noticed how peoples approach to lifts and my own was incorrect and could potentially be dangerous. What I noticed was many partners would quite literally throw themselves on to their partners without much preparation, I am also very guilty of this. This has made me think a lot more about how I am moving when in a Jam situation and how I really need to think about the negotiation between both the under and over dancers, it has also made me think a lot more about my support and preparation before attending to lifts as this would really increase my abilities and support the momentum that is needed within our jam sessions.
In the Jam this week we focused on the idea of working with our eyes closed and seeing how this changes our movement within contact. this idea was very difficult for me because I felt quite unbalanced when rising through my kinesphere and doing movement in standing by myself or with another body felt very disorientating. When we began opening our eyes movement seemed to be a lot smoother, however I felt like because of feedback I have gained about using my strength when lifting bodies in the space, I really aimed to avoid lifts which then effected the momentum and because I was really focusing on not lifting other members of the class, all I could then think about was different ways of moving through the space through lifts. Something that was constantly mentioned to us as a class was that we needed to move through the space and swap between being the under and over dancer. I tried to incorporate this idea into my jam and to an extent I think i managed to succeed, although it didnt fully try to be an over dancer, when with Laura Carey she pretty much took control of the improvisation at one point and we did manage to shift between the under and over dancer briefly until we went back to the habit of me being the under dancer.
What I have got from this week, although may not have been largely practical, but I was able to broaden my mindset within a jam situaiton and push myself beyond the boundaries of just being an under dancer which I think is very important within this module.