Dance Observation Paper

Over the past few months at Marymount, I have noticed my major flaw in dance is lack of awareness, both mentally and physically. In general, I need to break the habit of simply executing the “correct” movement. Instead, I need actively think about what am I am doing and why I am doing it. For this assignment, I was directed to watch Melissa. Watching her allowed me to find new ways to think about applying different movement concepts to my body. Although my current goals are related to my last ones, these new goals are much broader and encompass more ideas. My new goals for the rest of the semester are to enhance the articulation of my feet and be more present and energized in my dancing.
My first goal about articulating my feet is a continuation
My primary observation was that she doesn’t ever rush her movements. She uses the full counts of the phrase. I noticed this right away during plié. Instead of cutting the movement short and waiting for the music, she continuously moves with and through the music, which exemplified Professor Comendador’s comments about embodying the music. Professor Sutton said the energy flow of our movement should be circular. When I think about this while dancing, I notice that my movement does not become static. Moreover, if I concentrate on my breathing being in a circular pulse in time with the music I find that I feel lifted and tall. Also, my arms and legs are just an extension of my center. Therefore, if I focus more on how I feel in my core, it should translate to the rest of my body. I also noticed that Melissa doesn’t let her hands droop. She has energy all the way through her fingers. Professor Comendador talked about how to think of our limbs as cat whiskers. That we must be aware of how they are moving and what they feel like in order to execute our movements properly. That idea is especially relevant to my hands. I tend to be delicate with my wrists, which breaks the line of energy. However, I don’t want splay my fingers and hands and make them tense. I found that the best way for me to think about having energy all the way through my port de bra and hands is to think about a laser beam coming from my middle finger. I want to achieve this goal because it will help me be more confident in my overall