Writing from my practice...

This week I've spent some time reading over the proposal I submitted at the end of module two. Firstly, it's interesting to reflect on how, the closer I edged towards the deadline date, the more challenging it felt to tie things together, to have actually have something to submit that reflected my journey across that module in someway. Perhaps that sense of struggle is rooted in an understanding that actually, the learning doesn't come to end just because we have to meet a deadline!

Secondly, I've understood that writing from my practice is integral to my learning on this programme. I can have a tendency to loose my own voice behind the academic language I'm grappling with around my subject area. I'm approaching this term having heard this very clearly, and moving forward with an understanding that our own voices are absolutely at the core of our research, and that the literature around our subjects supports us to contextualize what we are exploring/investigating/discovering but not mask it. 

So, I've decided to blog more regularly around what my practice has been over the week;

What has my studio practice/work in the community/exploring landscape been for me this week? What have I noticed?

This week, it's been an absolute pleasure to get back into a studio and move in a space that feels vast in comparison to my living room! I found a simple pleasure in moving in synchronicity with my colleagues having shared repertoire we're preparing for teaching across the term ahead, but moreso than that, I noticed a real sense of expansion in my movement, a sense of breadth and reach that I hadn't felt whilst dancing in my spaces at home during lock down. 

I felt 'in my body', although on reflection I'm questioning what I mean by that. By contrast, is it possible to be 'out of my body'? It's difficult to describe in words, but I think it's rooted in a very natural urge to move for me; to dance, to make shapes and pass through them, to find rhythm, flow, stillness. This experience isn't necessarily inaccessible in a smaller space, but I was very aware that without limitation of furniture/carpet/a small room, I relished the opportunity to run, jump, twist, crumple, jolt, swing, and shake in my body in a way I just haven't in my spaces at home. 

I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience as we're easing back into our normal rhythms and patterns, or a completely different one to what I've described here? 

Comments

  1. Stella27 September 2020 at 04:28

    Hi Sophie - I have spent the early part of the week dancing outside (it was amazing) and like you it is striking how it changes how I felt about movement. It's like the body suddenly knows its free and movement expands and grows with the environment. I intend to grab every opportunity to explore the freedom of space while we can.

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    Replies
    1. Sophie Douglas28 September 2020 at 04:10

      Hi Stella, that sounds glorious! Absolutely, although your comment is also making me think about why we consider 'freedom' with such expansive movements, and can we still embody those feelings in smaller, more contained movements I wonder? Enjoying your blog!

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