Jane Syder's Blog

How much movement orchestrated is intended? Another’s intention or your own?  How much do we rely on others? If we haven’t got time to think does the body take over and if so how does it select?  Do we just pick a movement at random and then draw upon known phrases from there? By doing this, it any spontaneous movement new or just reordered?  A hidden form  of plageurism?  Can we reinvent without preconception?  Can we create new languages and vocabulary set apart from convention? Where does your desire to innovate come from?

Dancing outside on the deck. Anna Halprin - city to Mount Tamalpais. My own experience living in New Zealand with the forest and beach bring you in touch with nature and exhilarate or calm. Anna Halprin based on Martha Graham’s technique connected her body with her changing surroundings and encouraged her dancers to observe and bring back the lived experience into the lived body to embody. Experimenting and exploring isolating parts of the body to discover alternative ways of moving opened opportunity for new work and inspired many to connect Art forms to dance.  Line of a paint brush stroke, soft refined pencil drawing, watercolours or oils.  The News of the day metaphorically interpreted through the body.  To replicate the movement of an animal with the body and draw it out or narrate it with thoughts sycronized or not. Transformational dance. Now looking into Bauhaus - pre-war.

Reading 'Dance and the Lived Experience' Sondra Horton Fraleigh - existential phenomenology 'A dancer visualizes herself as she appears to others there is a hidden condition of human movement, bounded by her limits of her will and daring’ p.35   ‘challenges, limits to be overcome in extending self-boundaries and self-knowledge’ p.36  ‘she lives her successes and failures in dance - aesthetically valuable in success, aesthetically disvaluable if she fails'. Is it any wonder we devalue ourselves as we age if we value ourselves extrinsically?   Beauty is skin deep or is it, in the dance world?  Should we put so much onus on what the 'other' thinks?  I suppose it's natural, it's part of the job. ?

Bad speller and pessimist. (please see previous blog)!!

Movement contradictions?    A fascination with playwrights needing to write about the absurd – why?   A rebellion against society and it's strict codes perhaps? Joe Orton for example, Oscar Wilde = polite insults, inwardly musing at society and all it’s conventions within the rules - then.  What a genius and so brave. Pinter at the ordinary lives of people taken to extremes and certainly full of contradictions. Artists their work exhibits moments of conflict, struggle and poverty. Art is an outlet or a hiding place. Dance choreographers/makers are doing the same but through their experiences of the body, pain, love, suffering, anger, etc etc or attempting to put their bodies into the place of other bodies, putting yourself into someone else's shoes, putting yourself into their situation and working out how it feels. But putting yourself in someone else's body is more than that, it is feeling how you think they may feel, finding connections with your own l...

How do you define improvisation? Are we born improvising? When do we find ourselves improvising in life? Does codified dance practise strip away qualities or create new ones? Often we hear the phrase Mind over Matter.  Are there examples of Matter over Mind?  If so, would you share them? How good are you when dancing in a nightclub? Do you ‘let go’ or are you aware of being watched and judged? Is this a comfortable environment? How comfortable are your younger dance students with dance involving contact? Does dance help overcome shyness or do we learn strategies to hide it? Can dance evolve without the need to compete or ‘out do’? Why may we strive to be ‘the best’? What would you judge ‘the best’ to be? Any thoughts? Thanks

Have you ever choreographed a piece under pressure and afterwards felt like someone had inhabited your body and taken over?  Have you stepped back and wondered where it all came from?  That the piece stirs deep emotions within you but you couldn’t write an accurate script to accompany it? Upon asking the dancers how performing the piece makes them feel they all connect the piece to their own story? What follows is a deeper understanding of who we all are. I love this part of my work. It would take years to build this kind of sharing and trust through verbal communication we would put up barriers.  Dance speaks volumes.

Martha Graham was an eloquent communicator in narrative and dance.  She brought unique artistry to her choreography and took risks in order to bring innovation to her work.  As a positivist she was always aware of dimensions and practicalities in the orchestration of movement and yet her work seemed to resonate from inner feelings and experience.  She lived her work.  When her choreography was based on her personal life and relationships this was so deeply felt, part of her that in the later years of her career as she lost the ability to perform she sank into depths of depression at the realisation of a two-fold loss. One of the loss of the special relationship with her body through dance as she aged and the other in the loss of a special moment and sharing of love in her life. Seeing another dancer perform her work magnified these deeply personal feelings of loss. As much of her work was based on a positivist approach in creating her own codified movement her work...

Rarely have I worked for anyone else and I have always learned a great deal from my learners.  At times I wonder who is educating who! With your own school you are reliant on the children coming back each week.  You have to work hard all the time to sustain their interest and continually adapt to each requirement.   You can’t treat everyone the same and you have to work with your learners and provide them with stimuli on their terms.  The sophistication of our next generation insists on controlling their own interests and are self-determining. This results in continual self-reflection and reflexive thought as teachers. And so while living in a bubble can be detrimental, innovation comes free from constraints and is possible only when in autonomous environments. Any thoughts?

Crisis moment - again!! Helen spoke to us about the need to step out of our own bubble and Adesola has encouraged us to look forwards, behind us and sideways and to not think we are always ‘right’. What has influenced us? We must exchange our ideas and learn from each other - to work collectively for the greater good and help each other to move forward. Reading other books such as ‘Decolonising Methodologies’ (has made me realise how little I knew about the indigenous peoples in New Zealand despite having lived there for six years.  The impact of our environment and the responsibility we have to humanity.  I hold tremendous respect for indigenous peoples and my children’s early years were well informed in the NZ education system.  We have much to learn. As teachers in the pursuit of perfection and excellence we seem to feel the need to ‘control’. Most movement is placed/controlled. Children with ADHD prescribed with drugs are on the rise in the UK, some would sa...