My work over the last few weeks with my older dancers company has been refreshing, interesting and exciting. For the first time in a while we are not meeting to create a piece of work so have had the luxury of focussing on process instead of product!
I have taken the dancers through different experiential-type tasks each week emphasising that we are experimenting and I am not expecting specific outcomes from the work. They now refer to themselves as my guinea pigs!!!
The tasks have focussed on different aspects of witnessing and observing, muscle-memory, sensing and reading another's movement. Much of the work has taken place with eyes closed for a deeper sense of the experience. One of things I love about working with Rhuddem is their readiness to reflect on what they do. We can talk in depth about their experiences and their feedback is always really interesting and they use the process to find out about who they are as dancers. They become aware of what aspects of work can engage them more than others, how music can have an effect on how they feel when moving and what their experiences are during the work.
Meeting with this group is an absolute joy to me and feels like a positive and successful collaboration between all of us. I become involved in 'the moment' along with them and feel more than a facilitator or teacher. I know this happens because when I carry out my own reflections when the session has ended, I regularly realise that I spend the entire time with them, literally thinking about nothing other than what is going on at that very moment. It feels like such a great partnership! : )
