First of all, it was an amazing moment for me to know somewhat in contemporary dance how to deal with our body and mind. Actually, in the first part of the lesson, the language barrier prevented my understanding of words from a teacher Do Hoang Thi Ngoc. But never mind. It is a dance and we have a body. I just read the surrounding atmosphere, gaze attentively at other participants, and stole their movements. They sometimes remained quiet and silent like ghosts, sometimes had a quick repetition of a walk and a stop, and sometimes moved their body randomly and intensely. So, I was just following, following, following them. With crossing eyes, smiling bashfully each other. Gradually I became to feel as if I understood some and danced well. It was absolutely an illusion though, haha. When the freeness in restrained condition happened to my body and mind, that is in action and recognition, I felt it encouraged me. My incompleteness pushed me forward even without filling itself. What I learned with my unclear understanding during individual practice was that even tiny or seemingly awkward action can show our mind and nurtures it. The grown mind also leads to the next actions of our body. The cycle, that raises me up, may be the center of the action as improvisation itself, not only contemporary dance.
In pair and group session, there were two key factors to do. One was a strong decision by oneself for the next movement. The other was the clear behavior to deliver it properly to the dancer(s) confronting. I several times received from others the words in dancing, “hey, stop your motion” or “wait for 3 seconds”, which explicated my restless, less-planned and too improvised character (yeah, it’s true). But after that, I also noticed that the more conscious to take a pause I was, the less smoothly I could move. Stiff hearts create stiff bodies. Luckily, I could get a profound notice about the relationship between body and mind. Seeing and knowing others in the dance were tough for beginners including me. But might worth trying. If got the moment, could feel to expand our world through connecting other’s body (I guess!). Each member of the group would reach the shape of a beauty named as harmony with diversity.
About the several minutes of the dance presentation by each group, honestly speaking, I only remember a small part of our group’s. I almost lost my memory during the time. In the beginning, I was too conscious to make a comparison to other dancers. I was too conscious to listen to background music. I felt nervous suddenly although I enjoyed the dance just before the last minutes. But once, maybe one dancer came and touch me (I don’t remember clearly), my switch turned on and blew my mind. I only remember that I might have a concentration on my movement fiercely but not on others. The time passed quickly. When I saw the dance of the other group after that, I felt ashamed of myself. Ashamed of self-centered dance. It was a true feeling. The regret has been left. Uplift emotion might cause to lose a cool head. Maybe if next opportunity will come, I hope I can do better and contribute to better atmosphere…
In the Q & A at the end of the workshop, the answer from the teacher sounded the thought-provoking for me: although the classic dance is usually with the music accompanied, the contemporary dance is often against it; the cases depend on the storyline created by a dancer in their mind. Being contemporary means, I think, breaking previous and prepared composition and moving to the next, which creates the following “post-“. Each of the order created by dancers through their bodies would show a fragment of emerging contemporaneousness in our world.
On the whole, I absolutely enjoyed the 2 hours lesson. I at least got some insight in and after the workshop. I also loved to see sophisticated action by a teacher and some assistant dancers. It was fantastic. Probably my next challenge will be to understand my comfortable balance between building and rebuilding; haste and wait; fixed and flexible. That seems to be not only for contemporary dance but also for my life which is with art...
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