anatomyluanthings-blog

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 11 – FLOW

On this week, we will continue talking about effort, nut with a different category: Flow! The flow is how the energy happens into the body. It can be freely, with the uncontrolled movements (hard to stop), or bound under control (easy to stop). The flow can happens on two different ways: explosive, continuous, with no stop and keeping the same intensity, or successively, stopping and starting, creating some sort of pulse.

Analysis of the video: chose the video “c” to make de the analysis. This video starts with a free flow, with the dancer doing quick movements with the arms, similar to waves. For the most part the video, he keeps the same free flow, with the energy going from the feet to the arms and then going back. However, there is some moments the flow change, getting more bound, like in the moment that he sustains his leg in 90 degrees. The movements are in general soft, as if he was floating through the stage.

About my video: I chose a video of me doing some aerial dance, at the Aerial Dance module, because I am missing this classes a lot and because a think the flow on this video is similar to the video of the “Dying Swan”, but with completely different movements. On my video, I can see that the flow is very free, because it is very hard to control when you go fast in the cocoon. Spite of the speed of the spinning, the movements are slow, to do the transitions between positions. The legs are stretch and strong, to make the movement clean, so the weight is high. However, to do the transitions I needed to soft my body, to let the movement cleaner.

That is all for today, thank you!

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 10 – EFFORT

Hi guys! Here we are, at the week 10! Today is time to see some videos considering these two efforts: Weight and Time. Therefore, here we go:

Weight: In the video, I could saw the dancer Marie Percy transitioning between the extremes of the Effort element “weight”. It is easy to see the arms very strong at some moments, with high tension, as if it were very hard to stretch them. In other moments, she just let the arms float, as if they were flaying. It is interesting when she does the same movement, but with different weights. At beginning, she stretches the arms with no tension but at the middle, she does the same thing but with the arms very heavy (to another diagonal).

Time: Quick Crew is fantastic! It is impressive how quick they can do them movements. The result of using a very fast time is a fragmented choreography, as if we were seeing a lot of pictures in fast motion. At some points, however, they also use the slowly, to extended the movement and break that explosive rhythm. It is also interesting how that fast time creates so many staccato movements, which the dancers apply to the different members of their bodies (like arms, legs, hands and even head).

Weight and Time: In the Akram Khan video, it is easy to notice that the choreographer had chosen to use a heavy and fast intention at this piece of work. The dancer’s arms are tensioned and in a quick time at most part of the video. The fusion of these two intensions (heavy and fast) had resulted in a very strong pulse, that is connected to the drum beat of the song. However, if we pay attention we can find some moments when the time goes slow, just to prepare the body to get fast again. This transition gave me a sensation of a hearth beating (contracting slowly to expend fast and strongly).

About my video: It is nice to dance thinking on the efforts, because it guides mine improvisation and, at the end, makes it more attractive to watch. At this video, I tried to dance mixing my two favourites dace styles: Jazz and Hip hop. The result was movements with a very extend time at some points. The Lyrical jazz has some very soft arms, and, as you can see, I mixed this with the slow time. However, the hip hop has an explosive energy, with a fast time and staccato movements, so the result are some quick steps (that came from house dance) and arms and chest very contracted. I think I am a metric mover, because, as you can see at the video, I always return to pirouettes (even thought I have that problem with my metatarsals, and it’s very hard to stay on my middle points) or to some arms that are traditional of lyrical Jazz. However, I am sure that the work with those efforts can help me to diversify my dance.

That’s all for today! Bye!

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 9 (part 2): ALPHABET

The last part of this post is the alphabet of Trisha Brown. Basically, this choreographer putted all the letters of the alphabet inside of a cube, so we can fix movements for each letter and create sentences. I tried to spell my name (L-U-A-N) a couple of times, and the result was this choreography:

My friends, that is all for this week, I hope you have enjoyed. Remember: stay at home, ok? See you next week! Bye!

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 9: EXPERIENCING THE SPACE (PART 2)

Hi everyone!

Here we are, at the week 9. Isn’t it awesome?

During this week, we moved on our study about the space with the Labans Movement Analysis. Lets recap some things: Do you remember about the planes of movement, right? We have the Sagittal plane, the horizontal plane and the Frontal plane. So, the week 9 topic is related with those planes.

We analysed at this week the 3 dimensional cross, which means the ways we can move at those planes. We have the up and down (for the sagittal plane), the right and left (for the horizontal plane) and the front and back (for the frontal plane). I have to assume that was a little bit confuse about the planes at the week 8, because I couldn’t see the difference between the horizontal and the frontal plane, but now, after read about the dimensional cross, I have a better view about the two planes. Actually, I understood after experiencing about the dimensional cross improvising little bit, as can see in this video:

I tried to think in the planes of movement while I was dancing, but also have tried to pay attention on the Diagonal Scale. For this, we can imagine our Kinesphere as a cube, where the three planes are connected. When we dance inside of the cube, we mix the dimensional cross to create different movements, but what if we think in the diagonal of this cube? Lets try to do this:

- If I go down in the sagittal plane, left in horizontal plane and front in the frontal plane, I reach the corner that is in the front, left and down of the cube.

- If I do the opposite way, going up in the sagittal plane, right in the horizontal plane, and back in the frontal plane, I will reach the coner that is in the right high back of the cube.

Move from a corner to another gave me new possibilities of movement, as you can see in the video. I also tried to use some jazz dance base, because the jazz dance is all about reach the corner of the cube. I will try to think on the diagonal cross in the next time that I dance jazz.

The next part of this post is an analysis of a picture that the teacher sent to us. We should describe the picture like an radio speaker, to someone that can’t see the picture, but need to understand what it shows. This is very hard to do, but I tried to use the dimensional cross, to describe it:

“There is two dancers in the stage, a man and a woman. The man is wearing a black knitwear with the arms naked, and the woman is wearing a similar one but red, with pink point shoes. The male dancer is standing on the back, with both legs open, but the left leg is bend to the left side, so his weight is on this leg. . His right arm is stretch to the high, with his hand holding the left hand of the woman, and his left back arm is going to the left, but his left elbow is bended with his forearm going down. The woman is standing on the point shoes with open legs, right in front of the man, with crossed legs (the left is going back and right in font) and the chest turned to forward. Her left arm is stretch to the high, with the hand holding the males right hand, and her right arm is stretch for the right down diagonal. Her face is turned to the front, but she is looking down.”

What do you say? Do you think I am good radio speaker?

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 8 – EXPERIENCING SPACE

Hi everyone, guess who is back… Yeah! Me, Luan, the Brazilian! We are now in the second part of the semester with a new anatomy teacher, so I am officially returning to my weakly blog. The University is closed, due to the Covid-19 situation, so I have been taking classes at home (you probably will see a lot of videos of me dancing in my room, for now own). So, let’s go for the week 8!

At this week, we returned to the study of the planes of movements, which you can also see in the first week post. However, this time, we read a little bit about the LMA (Laban Movement Analysis) to think in how we use the space while we dance. According to Laban, the combination of the three planes of movement (horizontal, frontal and sagittal) results in something that he named as KINESPHERE. The kinesphere is the individual space around the dancer, what means that every move that we are able to do while we are dancing happens inside of the kinesphere.

We read the text Preston Dunlop Experiencing the Space to have an idea of the way that Laban propose the use of the space. The idea of engagement of the space had took my attention. The text says that the space is only an empty void, until we get into it, filling it up whit movements. That is something very interesting, because when I try to improvise something, I usually forgot about the place, but as a dancer, I can change the place where I am, is that what the engagement is about. Not only dance in a space, but also dance into and with the space. For this, we can use the Kinesphere. We can try different movements to engage the place.

I noticed in that video that I am not used to explore the frontal plane. Maybe this happens due to my background on urban dances. I use a lot of arms and also go from one side to another, but staying at the same plane (up). For the next week, I will try explore more my backward space. I have never thought about that until read about the kinesphere. This is all for today, my friends. Keep your kinesphere at home and wash your hands. See you in the next week! Bye!

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 5 (part three): MIDDLE POINT

I know that it’s very fast, but can you see all those jumps? I have to improve my middle points if I want to have more impulse to jump higher. Let’s see some steps in slow motion. Pay attention at my foot:

House dance always use the metatarsals and all the foot joints to get off and return to the ground. As I learned at this class, the main important muscle for this is the Flexor Hallucis Longus, which goes from the back of fibula to the ankle bone. This muscle is also responsible for the flexion of the big toe.

I know I probably make you feel worry about my metatarsal issue, but relax. I have been stretching my middle points before and after of the ballet classes, what greatly relieves the hurt. However, from now own, I think I will try to stretch my Flexor Hallucis Longus too, to see if it release my big toes a little bit.

Thank you for read this blog! This is part of my exam to the anatomy module of the University Of Limerick. I hope you had enjoyed. My middle points are hurting right now, so I need to do some stretch (I am not joking, it is hurting a lot), so goodbye --- or as we say in Brazil: falou amade, Deus te elimine!

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 5 (part two): HOUSE DANCE

I have been trying since I had started to take ballet classes, 3 years ago, to improve this little and freaking hurtful parts of my foot. After the weak five, a think the problem it’s maybe at the metatarsophalangeal joints (that connect the metatarsus to the phalanges) of my toes, because a have a normal flexibility at the others fingers. My toes are the only part that do not flex as well. Also, this affects my performance on house dance too, as the most of the house steps are basically jumps. The metatarsal are very important to receive the impact of all the jumps, what makes me fell a lot of pain in my toes. Here it goes a video of me dancing house:

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 5 (part one): THE FOOT

The week 5 was our last week with the Teacher Lisa (:’() and we studied the foot structure, what was very interesting for me since I have very interesting foot. As usual, we started looking at the bones of the foot. The foot have a lot of bones and joints, because, besides of the balance and the locomotion, it’s a very flexible part of the body, which responsible for the transference of the weight.. The bones are: Calcaneus, Talus, Navicular, Cuboid, the 3 cuneiforms, the 5 metatarsals an the 14 phalanges. My feet have all this bones. So now you are probably thinking “ok, Luan, The Brazilian, you have a lot of bones in your foot, just like everyone else does. Why are your foot so especial?”. Fine, I think it is time to tell you about my main enemy, since I started to dance, teen years ago: the terrible, the horrible, the merciless… middle points. Let me explain: the truth is that I have very shortened middle points. Do not believe me? So look at those picture:

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 4 (part one): SHOULDERS COMPLEX

This was the shoulder complex week. We learned all the bones that are part of the shoulders structure: Clavicule (which transmits force from the arm to the skeleton), humerus and Scapula. In this class (and at the most classes of the feldenkrais module), I have noticed that my scapulas are more prominent then the scapulas of the others students. They are almost like wings in my back (I do not know exactly why, but the teacher told me that this is not a bad thing). Besides that, we meet the main shoulders muscles --- the 3 deltoids, the rumboids (where I have a lot of tension), the picturalis and the trapezius --- and the elbow structure.

Let’s focus on the shoulders movements. You already know that my favourite kind of dance is Urban Dances, right? So, there is type of urban dance that use a lot of the shoulders joints, that we call waacking. Waacking is a very strong and fast dance that abuse of the movements of rotation, adduction and abduction of the shoulders and elbows. To dance waacking we need to have very strong muscles in the elbows (biceps, to flexion, and triceps, to extension) and shoulders (to rotation, adduction and abduction). Look at this video of a little waacking improvisation by me, Luan, the Brazilian (I am not so good in waacking, but a really love this dance style).

Did you see the work on the elbows joints? And the movements of my shoulders? I should really do some push ups to improve my muscles, so I have to go now. See you in the next post (spoiler alert: we will talk about the last avenger’s movie! Ok, I’m lying, it will still be about anatomy, but I promise it will be very nice!!!)

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 3 (part two): KNEES

At the end of this class, the teacher made the postural analysis with me, because I was not there at the first class. Fortunately, I do not have any huge problem with my posture. All I need to do is relax my shoulders a little bit, because I have a lot of tension in this region. My knees, although, do not touch each other when I stretch my legs. This also makes me “walk in first position”:

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 3 (part one): PELVIS AND KNEE

At this week, we studied the pelvis, which is a region of the human skeleton responsible for give stability to the body. The pelvis have two arches, and something that we call of meeting point — where the spine meet the pelvis. I also learned that the Hip Joints are connecting the hip to the Femur, allowing the body to do the movements of the hip (so important at the ballet classes).

For me, the most important part of this class was when we talk about the Knee. This is interesting for me as a house dancer, because I use this part of my body to do something very necessary in the house dance: the bounce! Bounce is the base of the house and it starts in the knees. To do the bounce, I use my knee joints, which allows me to do the rotation, the flex and extension movements, “waving” my body down, to the tibia. Ok, I think you will have a better image in this video (it is on slow motion, so you could see the movement of the knee):

[anatomyluanthings-blog]

WEEK 1/2 : POSTURAL ANALYSIS

I arrived on Limerick at 1th of February, one week after the beginning of the classes, so for that reason, a i’ve lost the first week class. In the second meet, which was my first anatomy class, we discussed about the types of movements that the human skeleton is able to do. First, the teacher showed us the planes of movement, which are only 3:

● Sagittal Plane: imagine a vertical plane that divides the body in two identical sides, passing through the head and leaving one arm and one leg for each side. That is the sagittal plane. It’s in this plane that happens the movements of Flexion and Extension.

● Frontal Plane: this is also a vertical plane, but not splits the body in two halfs. The frontal plane goes from the head, passing through the column and ending at the ankles. the movements of this plane are Abduction and Adduction.

● Horizontal/Transverse Plane: a easy way to imagine this plane is thinking in something parallel to the shoulders, passing through the belly. The movement of Rotation belongs to this plane.

Then, we talk about the Spine Misalignments, which are bad postures of the body and can be dangerous for our column. In fact, in the next week I had discovered that I do not have any misalignment on my posture (thanks, god!), but I will talk more about it in the next post. See you there!