weight shift

The act of weight shift is an important skill to master when dancing.  Whether you dance tap or salsa, weight shift is a major skill that is important to understand.  In dance weight shift can accentuate the movement or may just be that you are shifting to perform another move.  In the following video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQbaXtHTufM, the choreographer chose a very energetic theme for his dancers. There are moments where the dancers run on stage, come to a stop but jump and as they are landing, thought you may not see it they are transferring their weight to a certain leg or side of their body to turn multiple times.  If the dancer was unable to control the shift of weight it will throw off the consistent flow of movement in their performance and well it would not look as pleasant as it does in the video.

Transferring weight also can mean that the performer is opposing energy from their opponent if partnering.  This is also important when dancers are partnering because one can get injured if the act is not performed properly.  I think that learning this skill in dance is crucial and is a great thing to master when performing.  Not only does it make the performance look good it says a lot of the dancers awareness of their body.

Body check

At this point into my second semester, I find that physically my body is at a better stage.  I feel that I am getting stronger as the days go by however I do think I can tone up a bit more and lose a few more pounds.  Mentally, I am on track.  Lately I've been pondering on some short term goals I have been working on but other than that all else is well.  I guess there are some things that we all want over night that obviously can't be done. 

So far all that I have done this semester has worked toward my technique and improvement.  I have been taking Pointe classes 2-3 times a week to strengthen my feet and I see and feel a difference.  I also have found that in ballet class I have improved in some areas however have fallen back in others.  Not sure why this is happening but I am continuously working on them.

Similar concept

In the past two weeks, we have gone over many varieties of techniques from different companies.  In the past two weeks we have been working on spiraling of the upper body and contractions.  The contractions are from Martha Graham technique and the spiraling of the torso is from Paul Taylor.  I realize that many of these different techniques can be applied to any type of movement.  I find it interesting when I use contractions in my own work.  I'm not sure what these two technical variations are similar to in any other dance but it can definitely be applied in any choreography and would be quite interesting.

I enjoy doing Taylor and Graham technique.  I feel that it challenges the modern genre of dance.