Becky Skolnick

Modern Dance 1
Prof. Harvey-Salaam
Journal 10/15/19

Sub Lesson with Caroline

Class today focused a lot on fluidity of movement and exploration. We started the class
on our backs in an X position and explored the idea of moving into a fetal position while
maintaining strength in the abdominals; basically not flopping over. Eventually, we added in
some slight stretches in a reaching movement to the combination. Caroline talked about some of
the different types of modern dance and therefore, where the combinations we were doing,
originated from. Things like swinging and dropping focused modern versus more angular and
shape heavy, reminded me a lot of Laban effort shape descriptions I have done in acting classes
before. I know that Laban also originated in the dance world as well as the acting world, but until
now those terms had only really applied to my acting classes. Although I did struggle with Laban
especially because movement has been something I am very self-conscious about and insecure, it
did make a lot of sense when Caroline said that things were more direct or indirect to illustrate
different ways of moving.
We moved onto doing some footwork which culminated in working with contractions.
The contractions differed from what we have done in class as we coupled it with movement in
the legs and arms to twist into the contraction. It was interesting to play with the feeling of
moving energy in a controlled way to force a reaction. This was expanded upon when we
changed focus to our arms while staying in a lunge (it was murder on the legs). Having our eyes
and head follow the movement of our arms added more dimension to the combination and made
it feel like an intention rather than an action.
Balance and improvisational balance was one of the hardest things we worked on in
class. Although I actually can balance for a while on one leg passively having to balance and be
in constant motion was harder than expected but even more so because it was improv. I felt as if
I continued to do the same poses again and again and struggled to find creative ways to express
new shapes. I recognize that a lot of this comes with time and a lot of practice but getting out of
my own head was almost more challenging than the balancing.
Finally, we did do a combination across the floor where we went to the ground for the
first time. We worked on a simple roll where we transferred from one side to another rolling on
our sit bones. I found that the roll was fine for me on the right side but when I was trying to do it
on the left, things became weird and messed up. Caroline was wonderful about breaking down
combinations or moves that she could see us struggling with and correcting when necessary. She
went back to things we still weren’t getting for some reason and made sure we got it before we
moved on; not just the moves but the intention.