I met a few people upon arrival, Mirella and Lydia. We all met each other yesterday and had dinner at the Jean Atkins dining hall. It is MUCH prettier than Glen...and the food actually tastes decent. The campus is beautiful and very green! There are so many trees and fountains and patches of green, something I think we from Towson lack. Anyways, I tried to get to bed early last night, but of course I couldn't go to bed last night. So I watched the Office and One Tree Hill on my computer. Then I tossed and turned in my bed for a few hours and got a few hours of sleep. The mattress is VERY uncomfortable. My back was not too happy this morning.
I woke up had breakfast and was almost late to my first class! I rushed over to the Dance Center and had my first class of the morning, YOGA..which was very lovely and taught by Nicole Corea. She was good! She dived into a nice soothing yoga, nothing like Lifeline Power Yoga! Interestingly enough she has worked with Lila York, from Paul Taylor! I'm interested to see how she moves, hopefully she will teach more than yoga! We also listened to a great song at the end by Olafur Arnalds during our savasana.
Then we had a modern technique class by Katarzyna Skarpetowska. She had a great quality of movement and was my first introduction to the Lubovitch Technique. Her class was a lot of fun and I also gained a lot of knowlege about the grounding on the floor and the movement of breath that occurs in the pattern of the movement. The overall flow of the movement really began to change when we added the quality of shaping without stagnating.
Then followed lunch when I met some great individuals and talked to them about the types of dance technique and how you have to get some structure but in the end, it is really what you make of what you have to get you to the destination you belong in. Also, I talked to this one girl about the Pilates and Gyrokinesis Reformer machines and the different benefits of the mat and machine work. She recommended the mat classes and told me that I should try doing the mat before the machine because you won't appreciate the movement of the body as much. She also recommended Yamuna Body Rolling. I just found the website for the body conditioning. http://www.yamunabodyrolling.com/
Then I had the repertory class with Jenna Fakhoury. She taught us two different portions from two Lubovitch pieces. One was from the work, Legend for Ten. The work was very fluid and the quality of being like we were representing water. It was very difficult for me to get the quality of movement down, just because it requires much more sustainability as opposed to dynamic shifts. I never thought that I would have the quality of sharp dynamics better than my fluidity of movement. I suppose, since the department's program at Towson is so different from this technique that I have to begin to digest Lubovitch's intention. The second work was a solo. I can't remember what piece it was from, but it was my favorite of the two. It was described by Jenna to be a more, "dancey dance" or " a dancer's favorite type of movement." And she was definitely spot on in my opinion! The choreography was so fluid and had rapidly changing pathways. It was enjoyable to perform as well as watch. The more we got into it the more exciting it became for me and helped me explore different routes as well as details in the choreography.
Overall, I feel that it was a good first day. I felt very confident in my first two classes, not as confident in the Lubovitch technique, but comfortable overall. I feel like this intensive is special because there are only 40 dancers here paired with the entire Lubovitch company as well as Lubovitch himself! The divided class also helps when it comes to learning more technique and progressing faster in the class. I hope that as the week goes by I begin to dive into the details of Lubovitch's technique even more and begin to see his perspective on movement more thoroughly.
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