How does effort contribute to your moving body?

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How does effort contribute to your moving body?

• Effort effort is a word introduced by Rudolph
  Laban. According to him, it is a mental impulse
  from which movement originates. There are four
  motion factors that constitute it SPACE (direct
  or indirect), WEIGHT (strong or light), TIME
  (sudden or sustained) and FLOW (bound and free).
  The dynamic of movement is the result of the
  combination of these factors and its effort
  qualities.

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• Effort economy although effort is a word
  associated with Rudolph Labans movement theory
  by the dancing community, it is also used with
  another meaning when talking about effort
  economy' in technical terms. It refers to a way
  of moving in which expenditure of energy is
  optimized by using only the parts of the body
  needed and relaxing the rest.

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• Effort qualities single effort elements or their
  combinations (direct, indirect, strong, light,
  sudden, sustained, bound, free).

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• Flow (free, bound or continuous) one of the four
  main factors that make up the dynamics of
  movement, according to the efforts theory by
  Rudolph Laban. When flow is free, the dancer
  would not have big control to stop movement
  immediately (like the arm of a country worker,
  when throwing and spreading rice seeds or when a
  dancer makes a grand jeté). When flow is bound,
  the dancer would have control to stop moving at
  any moment (common when moving slowly or when
  doing movements that require control, like a
  pirouette). Flow is also usually called as being
  continuous, which would mean that the stream or
  momentum of movement doesnt stop. (Look for the
  definitions above for DYNAMIC, EFFORT and EFFORT
  QUALITIES to expand)

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the spine
http//www.ehow.com/video_4958171_modern-dance-rol
ling-down-spine.html
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Release the head

• Bag of water
• Heavy head
• Shake

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• DANCING THROUGH BOUNDARIESby Katharine
  VigmostadThis paper was originally written for
  a course at The University of Iowa, entitled
  Theories of Dance and the Body. This course
  explored varying theories and points of view on
  physical embodiment, and how our understanding of
  corporeality affects the way we view, experience,
  and utilize dance.IntroductionThe human body
  is inherently restricted in its ability to
  perform actions and each one unique in its
  degree of limitations. How do we, as dancers,
  performers, and choreographers, respect these
  boundaries while still pursuing an aesthetic
  goal?  How do intricate power relationships play
  into and complicate this issue in the dance
  world?  How do current dance training practices
  lend to the formation of a dancers identity, and
  how does this identity, in turn, inform dancers
  participation in and proliferation of these
  complex and often imbalanced power structures?  I
  believe these issues to be salient, and in need
  of exploitation in the practice and performance
  of dance, for their consequences yield
  considerable authority in the making and
  treatment of dancers and their subsequent
  relationship with their chosen profession. The
  power relationships established in the dance
  world have dominating tendencies, often cross
  ethical boundaries, and are rarely addressed in
  dance classrooms or rehearsal settings. I hope to
  reveal some of the mechanics of the complex
  relationships set up between dance
  teachers/choreographers and dance
  students/dancers, in the hopes that the awareness
  of such issues is capable of beginning a process
  of transition, leading to a more democratic and
  holistic approach to the practice, making, and
  performance of this art form. I will draw support
  from articles written by dance scholars and will
  try to focus my writing on 20th century concert
  dance and movement modalities, and draw from my
  own experiences in these disciplines.

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• Forming a dancers identityAs I grew up with
  dance, it has been an integral part of my
  identity, and my identification process. My
  identity has always included the statement I am
  a dancer a statement that bleeds into the way
  I see and respond to my surroundings I learn
  best through my kinesthetic sense, gaining
  insight and information through/from others
  bodies and their postures and movements. Andre
  Grau states that, identity is structured by
  otherness and vice versa and is bound to the
  dynamics of interactions. (Grau, 190-191).  Our
  identity, then, is continuously being constructed
  through the reflection and/or deflection of
  difference. I think this is key in the
  development of a dancers identity in particular,
  because the body, being the forms medium of
  expression, and a constant in the human
  experience, is so easily compared to others in
  the dance classroom and/or on stage. A dancers
  body must be trained, scrutinized, and
  controlled body ideals are clearly stated by the
  visibility of such canonical statures in dance
  performances. Isabelle Ginot writes,
  contemporary dancers memories have shown that
  one of the key guiding factors of their training
  is identity. The question is whether to succeed
  or not in becoming a dancer, in conforming to
  the real or fictional images of this being a
  dancer and its identity, perceived as both
  repressive and desirable. (Ginot, p. 251 252)
  A dancer who does not fit the mold physically
  is aware of their potential to succeed in the
  contemporary dance world because of this factor.
  Comparison with other dancers is encouraged from
  the beginning, and this early cultivation of
  what a dancer looks like into the minds of
  young dancers becomes an integral part of their
  notion of self-worth and, subsequently, their
  identity. The objectification of a dancer comes
  from teachers and spectators as well. Susan
  Foster reveals the early ballet establishments
  role in promoting this behavior. Foster states,
  Capitalist marketing strategies in the early
  nineteenth century supported and enhanced the
  objectified dancing body and the commodified
  female dancer. They pitted one ballerina against
  another in intensive, objectifying advertising
  campaigns. (The ballerinas phallic pointe, p.
  6) These tactics to increase ballets popularity
  drove dance companies to create the image of
  drama and competition within the walls of their
  organization. Eventually, these stories
  manifested into reality, and competitive dynamics
  are still prevalent and a driving force in the
  field of dance.

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• Disciplining a dancerA certain amount of
  masochism is built in to the training of a
  contemporary dancer. Pain is often explained as a
  sign of growing and getting stronger, and
  those who cannot endure it are not expected to go
  very far in the field I can remember being
  reprimanded many times in pointe class for
  wanting to take my shoes off when my feet were
  numb and bleeding. It is no question that dance
  training, like all sports and physical training
  endeavors, is physically, mentally and
  emotionally challenging. But these extreme and
  coercive training methods from such a young age
  instill into the minds of dancers extensive
  amounts of competition and insecurity, which will
  eventually travel with them into the rest of
  their lives, both within and without the dance
  world. Dancers are often asked to perform
  movements which are potentially injurious to
  their bodies, and, because of their ingrained and
  debilitating work ethic, usually do not contest.
  The average professional dancers career is
  approximately 10 15 years (according to the few
  articles I could find on the subject) the
  majority of which end due to severe injury or
  prolonged overuse. For a dancer, jobs are few and
  far between. Choosing to not oblige a
  choreographers demands based on physical limit
  or moral/ethical belief is nearly impossible
  without serious consequence. Not only will this
  behavior most likely guarantee a dancers firing
  from their current job, but their reputation will
  also be soiled, preventing future jobs from
  manifesting. I think this perception of dance
  being both repressive and desirable, as Ginot
  points out, is a key factor in the cycle of power
  relations built up around the dance medium, and
  plays an important role in our understanding some
  of these central and multivalent power-dynamics
  present in the practice and making of dances.
  The structure of dance training, in particular
  the study of Classical Ballet, seems to have
  developed from the disciplinary foundations set
  by institutions such as the military. The
  parallels are most apparent in the desire to
  control and dominate the body in the hopes to
  create a body that functions efficiently for the
  profit of the institution it serves. In
  Discipline and Punishment Michel Foucault writes
  about the evolution of institutionalized
  disciplines, and comments about the point in
  history when disciplinary modalities were
  becoming codified. Foucault explains,

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• What was then being formed was a policy of
  coercions that act upon the body, a calculated
  manipulation of its elements, its gestures, its
  behaviour... Discipline produces subjected and
  practiced bodies, docile bodies. Discipline
  increases the forces of the body (in economic
  terms of utility) and diminishes the forces of
  the body (in political terms of obedience.)
  (Docile Bodies, Foucault, p. 138) As the
  dance-pupil commits him or herself to the dance
  discipline their ability to conform to set
  standards grants them a certain amount of
  usability. It becomes the dance students goal to
  be desired by their teacher(s) and choreographers
  at large, and will most likely abandon their own
  needs/desires in order to achieve the others
  objectives. It is difficult for these cycles to
  be broken for many reasons. One may be that dance
  instructors and choreographers were taught in a
  similar way, and are propelling this mindset in
  the following generation through their classes
  and choreographic works. There is an expectation
  in most dance classrooms that the dance teacher
  at least for the few hours that they are in
  charge holds the power and should be respected
  to the point of tacit obedience from the pupil.
  This experience of self-repression becomes so
  ingrained in the student, that questioning the
  teachers knowledge of the subject becomes a
  taboo, and such questions of ethics (as far as I
  have seen in contemporary dance classes) are
  rarely raised. This paradigm then translates into
  the rehearsal process, where the choreographers
  will becomes the dancers mission and
  inspiration. It is a bizarre phenomenon that one
  day a dancer may suffer extreme physical pain,
  endure scrutinizing judgment based on their looks
  or lack of talent, yet they will still show up to
  a dance class or rehearsal the next day in an
  attempt to fulfill their own, and others
  projected, expectations/desires. The layers of
  power relationships in these classroom and
  rehearsal settings are extremely hard to
  understand and decipher, and I have only just
  touched the surface of such issues. A full
  disclosure of these relationships would certainly
  require an in-depth look into psychology, and
  other areas of pertinent human-dynamic research
  nevertheless, I have tried to reveal something of
  these dynamics from my own experience in the
  field of dance.

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• Accepting the limits of corporealityWith the
  current acceptable dance training modality in
  place, it is clear that dancers are instructed
  and expected to apply techniques presented by the
  teacher without thought of its potential injury
  to their body. Sandra Fraleigh states, Whether I
  like it or not, my particular embodiment and my
  images of its powers and limitations condition my
  general comportment in life... Not only is my
  body mine but I belong to it. I experience
  myself as implicated by my body. (Dance and the
  Lived Body, p. 17) Fraleigh continues by
  illuminating the downfalls of a dualistic
  approach to dancing, drawing insight from
  existential phenomenology in her pursuit to
  reveal the separation of mind and body in the
  language and mindset of contemporary dancers. I
  think that this dualism, which is prevalent in
  the entirety of the western paradigm, is
  detrimental to all power-based structures. In the
  dance world, this dualistic viewpoint lends to
  the promotion of controlling the body the mind
  is viewed as the agency by which the body is
  moved and utilized. From this foundation, dance
  students are trained to objectify themselves in
  the learning process, leading to ignorance of the
  bodys functioning and inherent limits, and,
  therefore, unconsciously damaging themselves
  through their exertions.

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• I realize that I have painted a very grey image
  of a traditional dance career. I have not focused
  on beneficial aspects of concert dance, only so
  that I could raise and investigate salient issues
  in the dance field that are so oft overlooked. I
  am not interested in discouraging the progression
  and continuation of concert dance quite the
  contrary, I hope only for betterment and
  prospering to occur in the field (a field in
  which I am an active participant.) I think that
  with consideration of our treatment and training
  of dancers, education in the areas of movement
  analysis, biomechanics and anatomy, the dance
  world has potential to bloom into a new and
  exciting era of movement exploration. Dancers
  could become relatively injury-free,
  self-sufficient in remaining so, and capable of
  pushing the envelope of movement potential. This
  is an idealized vision, but one that I believe is
  (and have seen living proof of) possible. I do
  not think that it is possible to completely avoid
  injury, pain, or discomfort on all fronts
  accidents and disagreements always happen. But,
  the amount and degree to which one damages their
  body should and can be held at bay.

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• In my study of the human body, and its various
  ways of moving, I have progressed from Ballet to
  Improvisational dance, to Modern and Contemporary
  dance forms, to Yoga, and most recently the study
  of movement analysis - absorbed primarily by the
  Axis Syllabus (AS). Frey Faust, the main
  synthesizer of the AS and author of numerous
  dance articles on related topics, writes of he
  and the ASs goals in an article titled The
  Pedagogical Thesis of the Axis Syllabus,
  Consistent with the natural environment that
  produced us, nowhere in the human body is there
  any evidence of a straight line or flat surface.
  It follows then that the most logical way to
  train the body would be through non-linear,
  undulatory, tri-axial motion. We could consider
  this kind of movement as a neutral starting point
  for mechanical integrity and well-being. (Faust,
  Pedagogical Thesis, (http//www.axissyllabus.com/i
  ndex.php?optioncom_contenttaskviewid105Itemi
  d2) Faust, in his observation and experience of
  the body from various lenses of both dance and
  the sciences, has developed a method for training
  the body from a sensory, rather than aesthetic,
  orientation, with his students physical safety
  at the core of his endeavors. Using visual
  references, technical terms, and physical
  demonstration, Faust is able to lead his students
  through series of transition-specific movements,
  which allow joint-integrity to remain intact and
  a priority throughout the class. Giving weight to
  the salience of recognizing and honoring our
  inherent physical limits, the AS-ump reveals to
  its patient students a powerful movement logic
  that transforms preconceived limits into nurtured
  and choice opportunities, while remaining within
  physical safe-zone parameters. In this form of
  training the body each student is given the tools
  necessary to make movement choices based on
  knowledge of anatomy, biomechanics, and
  principles of applied physics granting them
  both freedom and responsibility in their own
  safety and health. I believe this and similar
  methods of training the body could greatly
  benefit the contemporary dance world, providing
  students and teachers with practical solutions in
  their movement making decisions, as well as
  setting up clear priorities for each.

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• Theory in motion choreographing boundariesIn
  our choreographic collaboration, my group
  discussed the various perspectives we each hold
  on the idea of integrity as dancers, and how we
  feel the dance world either supports or
  debilitates this quality in our own lives, and in
  the art form we both observe and interact with.
  We have discussed how we have been marked by
  different influences in our lives dance
  teachers/choreographers life experiences
  friends colleagues schooling belief systems
  ancestry and so on.  I believe these markings
  play a definite role in ones identity and
  particular manner of identification. I am curious
  about how I have been marked and how I, in turn,
  mark others. Our discussions have lead to a
  belief that you cannot always know how you are
  influencing those around you, and where or when
  others marks will show up in your own person. In
  our choreographic process, we extracted
  essences from the conversations we engaged in
  as a group, in order to produce movement from the
  core issues at hand. We chose to represent these
  markings with colored paint as a process of
  making visible the unconscious influences from
  the world around us. Throughout the piece we
  represent numerous influences/people for one
  another, and have endeavored to represent certain
  boundaries and our dance and genetic histories
  through movement vocabulary and interaction with
  the paint.

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• The way I engaged with our dance-concept was by
  using my writing/research as a springboard for
  movement exploration in terms of my viewpoint on
  integrity and the boundaries that I attempt to
  respect in my dancing. I wanted to show my
  position on the power relationships set up in
  dance classes/rehearsals between
  teacher/choreographer and dancer, and how these
  power structures inherent tendencies promote the
  abandonment of joint/structural integrity in
  dancers. The movement material I contributed to
  the piece was drawn from the defining of my
  physical body, and applying the paint in a way
  that illuminated these boundaries. I was also
  concerned with the boundaries around my body
  further clarifying my parameters for
  self-preservation. My first markings come from
  two other dancers, and these marks are placed on
  the sides of my arms. I asked the dancers to mark
  me on my skin to emphasize the physical boundary
  of my body. Having others mark me in this way is
  both a signifier of the action others take in
  helping to define who I am, and also the ability
  to manipulate a dancer through projected
  ideas/ideals/aesthetic agendas. When marking
  myself with the paint, I place it right on the
  front of my chest. This action is a symbol of my
  desire to be upfront and clear with myself, and
  those I work with, in my communication of my
  beliefs/boundaries/comfort zones. I also mark the
  other dancers in this same way deliberately
  encouraging a similar approach to communication
  and a rethinking of priorities. Towards the end
  of the dance, we all engage in a series of
  vigorous/sharp/harsh/exhaustive movements, which
  carry on in a series of permutations and shifting
  spatial arrangements. One by one, we eventually
  withdraw from the fervor, leaving one dancer to
  continue the cycle alone. An outside force is
  pushing the dancer in this motif an imaginary
  choreographer has given her this movement, and
  she performs with full force and conviction. I
  imagine the movement itself representing violence
  towards the dancer from this outside force. Her
  boundaries are being entreated upon, yet she
  continues to dance. As the other dancers
  dissipate, she continues, now internalizing the
  previously external force of the choreographers
  demands. She pushes herself now, struggling to
  rise to the expectations of the choreographer.
  She eventually quits due to utter exhaustion,
  falling back into line with the remaining
  dancers. This section represents my past my old
  habits of relating to and approaching dance. I
  was ignorant of my bodys needs,
  pushing/pulling/thrashing through my limits,
  wanting, at whatever cost to my well-being and
  physical structure, to please my
  teacher/choreographer, and to be rise above than
  my fellow dancers in terms of skill and
  desirability.

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• I believe there is a more conscious and healthy
  way to achieve aesthetic goals through dance
  one that does not stress the importance of
  suffering or engage in violent communication in
  order to succeed. Sondra Fraleigh states that,
  Human movement is the actualization, the
  realization, of embodiment. Movement cannot be
  considered as medium apart from an understanding
  that movement is body, not just something that
  the body accomplishes instrumentally as it is
  moved by some distinct, inner, and separable
  agency. (Dance and the Lived Body, p. 13) As the
  current paradigm of dance continues to objectify
  the body in this way, progress towards
  body-conscious development cannot ensue.  I hope
  that by bringing these issues to light it is
  possible to highlight and instigate the
  application of alternative ideas for, and methods
  of, training the body that engage a holistic
  approach to the bodys functioning and treatment
  of the individuals involved in the field of
  dance.