Unit 25 - Dance improvisation

Wednesday 29^th March

Today we were focusing on learning some more lifts for the duet and learning some more choreography.

To start the lesson we did a warmup which consisted of stretches and some half twists. After this we moved onto learning some new lifts.

The first lift that we learnt was quite difficult. It consists of standing quite close together and both bending our knees at the same time. As we both bend our knees, Callum leans over me and I bend and curl. As Callum is bent over, he puts his hands under my legs and has to lift me up from under my legs. We found this lift very difficult to start with because Callum wasn’t bending low enough so that he could pick me up but then we started to get the hang of it. The other lift that we looked at was when we stand facing each other holding hands. I cross my arms and bend down as a preparation for the lift. Once the momentum has built up I have to launch myself upwards and forwards and Callum has to catch me. This lift takes a lot of trust because I am not allowed to grab onto Callum. To practice at the moment, I am grabbing onto Callum’s shoulders so that I can get used to the lift ad then once I have got used to the lift, I will not have to grab onto his shoulders. Because the lift wasn't getting easier over time, we decided to improvise and change the lift slightly. This time I started on the floor and crossed my arms. We figured that Callum should not cross his arms as he may not have enough time to uncross them and catch me. When we improvised this lift, I automatically put my hands around Callum's neck for support. We decided to do this lift and fit it into the routine because it looks really good. Over time as we practice these lifts more, they will become easier and they will look good when we include them in the choreography. 

For the rest of the lesson we ran over the choreography that we have already learnt and then added some more. We were only able to add a little bit on this week as we spent a lot of time focusing on learning and practicing the lifts. At the end of the choreography that we learnt last week we both end up on the floor with our backs against each other. We decided that we should sweep around each other, contract and then sweep back around again. After this, Callum does a teddy bear roll to end up sitting next to me and then I do a split backwards roll to end up further away from him lying on the floor. At first, we were both going to do a teddy bear roll at the same time but this looked a bit childish which is the opposite of how we want it to look so we changed it so just one of us did the teddy bear roll.