Avayava 2015, Contemporary Dance Workshop, Day3

Day 3: Let’s look at the workshop on day 3 before peeking into day 2, and hop the sequential order of days! Richard Causer: (10 am to 12 noon) Richard took his class to a more creative moment this morning. The routine for this morning pushed the students to use the letters in their names and create a routine or movement dance using a different body part for an alphabet. The class took some minutes to do so, some taking longer due to the length of the name. A practice, a couple of times and the class performed the routine in groups. Then Richard instructed the class to do it with a partner, where they were to synch their movement to one another. What came out was a harmonic, beautiful dance with lifts and cheers from the audience! Swapnil Dagliya: (12:30 pm to 2:00 pm) Swapnil’class warmed up the body of the dancers with their stretches and small movements.It included slow stretches, flat backs, releve` and plie`to the beats of a drumming music. The class gave out screams of laughter, excitement and disappointment when he made the class lay on the push up position just two inches from the ground. The routine he taught included reaching out your hands up in the air as if plucking something, turning around; the idea of a lyrical routine being to give more freedom to the dancers to improvise than strict-step following. The music is the key in such a routine. The class heartily enjoyed the session and it was a good mix of warm up, travelling across the floor and routines; the class was taken very attentively by the partcipants. Tomas Danielis (3:30 pm to 5:00 pm) Tomas on the third day took the class to new experience in contact improvisation. He showed how to roll the body on the floor without pushing yourself, let the flow move you gently; lying on the floor let your foot lead you body, your neck and then your arm. It was followed by a session on sliding to both your sides, sit up and then step out letting your foot give a swinging motion. Another routine he taught was walking in the natural posture of the human body but backwards and then alternating the steps twice backwards. It was such a hi-tech technique and surely not to be forgotten by the class soon! Hazel Angus (5:30 pm to 7:00 pm) Hazel made the class break into smiles with her introductory session of tap dancing. She introduced the class to the basics: heel, toe and ball. Then a combination of heel and toe to the right and then to the left. A whole tap dance song was played and the class was swaying to the pepped up beats. It so felt like a party class; and Hazel also asked the class to move thier hands with their feet which lifted the general mood of the class from esoteric workshops, hi-tech techniques to plain celebration. The third day of the workshops witneessed pure joy and celebration and brought loads of new techniques for the dancers to work and develop. Until next year, adios!