A Thought On Learning

Found this on twitter (https://twitter.com/ProfFeynman/status/1196101977664454657)… and I totally agree.

The FEYNMAN technique of learning:

STEP 1 - Pick and study a topic

STEP 2 - Explain the topic to someone, like a child, who is unfamiliar with the topic

STEP 3 - Identify any gaps in your understanding

STEP 4 - Review and Simplify!

My son has been struggling with thing that he’s been unsure about as I have been helping him with his homework. The most effective way I have found is to get him to explain what he is doing.

I find this works for me as well. If I can explain a subject / concept to someone and they understand what I mean, then I get the feeling I know what I am doing. Of course there are always different ways and perspectives to doing anything and that is where the review and simplify comes in!

An idea for an emotion / movement exercise

So I am working here on summarising ideas so far to do with feelings and movement.

I guess there is some ideas that need to be more concrete so I am putting them out here.

One of the wonders of dance is that it is experiential. All the theory and, ideas mean little unless they are experienced. I think this connects into our emotional sides, as feelings are just ideas. They need to be experienced to understand what they are and it helps if that experience is also physical. Physicality definitely gives them depth and / or power.

As feelings are internal, the physical form is secondary. It is a natural expression of what is going on inside. Physical experience is perhaps best done through improvisation, where the form is derived from the emotion rather than having a specific form and transposing feelings onto it. The form appears organically and can be identified through shape and dynamic drive, the six parts I have mentioned previously (see blog post - understanding how feeling affect movement).

Here is a basic concept of how to get to exploring emotions through movement.

1. Awareness - Awareness of the body and how I am feeling in this moment. Awareness of the flow of energy through my being and also of how I am, how I hold myself - posture - and how I am moving.
   By simply closing my eyes and breathing, listening to my body I create space to be aware of where I am. I am connecting with myself in this present moment. By doing this I am also tuning into what is going on in my body so that then when I move, it is more present.

2. Vulnerability - To connect with our feelings we need to allow ourself to be vulnerable. Allowing vulnerability needs trust. Trust that I am in a space where no harm or judgment will come from what I do. Trust that the experience will be one of discovery. So to be in a non-judgmental space with supportive people around helps. Also having my eyes closed and focusing inward lets me give up what is happening externally and whether people are reacting to what I am doing.
   Vulnerability allows us to experience and feel with depth and provides the basis of expressing those feelings which is what I do as I hold myself or move. Being aware is a start, but so to is putting myself in a safe space and allowing myself to release, relax and let go. It is going with the movement or where my body wants to go, rather than controlling it. It is seeing a flow and experimenting with this inner impulse.
   An idea is with eyes closed to start following inner impulses and movements. Start by releasing, changing shape and following ease. After tuning in our bodies want to move in certain directions, going with this is allowing the vulnerability to be.

3. Play - as a continuation of allowing vulnerability, the next stage is to play with the movement that comes. It is engaging with what is there, following it to its ends, sending it in different directions. It is allowing a flow and moving how I feel like doing. Giving into natural impulses.
   The difference here is that we are subconsciously directing/influencing our movement, feelings and thoughts, rather than just observing them. It’s not controlling the movement, but allowing them to take shape, move in different directions, be present with movement and feeling. Taking inner impulses further, even to extremes to enhance their presence and amplify them.

4. Directing - Here, after the experience of the first three moments, it is time to add a conscious decision. To decide what feeling I choose to experience and to discover and explore it. It is a form of conscious immersion. An improvisation that is actively driven by the chosen feeling, dynamically explored in its entirety. The aim is to connect with and discover what the emotion is (and what it is not). It is here that I am consciously expressing what I feel inside through movement of my body.

Where to next? In isolation a cool down would come to put us back into balance and in ourselves, a la no. 1. But there is obviously further to go with these ideas.

Ideas like contrasting two emotions, I find interesting. The question is always, if they are too far apart, can the body make that jump or does it need steps in-between?

Ill add to this as ideas come!

Dysfunctions of a team… Vulnerability / Trust

I reread a classic book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni during the week. It’s a book about teamwork that I’ve had for a few years now. The book is a theory on how teams work and don’t work. I sometimes wonder how much people understand as to how teams best operate or what a team really is? Anyone who is a part of an organisation or club encounters teamwork so what makes a team great?

Teamwork is really important. I’ve always believed that the ideas of many are much better than the ideas of one. It’s simply that many individuals with unique experiences can bring a lot more to a table than one person. Naturally they have differing views that need to be synthesised to create progress, but the scope is there to create something that generally is greater than the power of a single individual. Of course this requires leadership!

So what are the 5 dysfunctions of a team?

• Absence of Trust

• Fear of Conflict

• Lack of Commitment

• Avoidance of Accountability

• Inattention to Results

They can also be spun in a positive way - how a team functions best. A team:

• Trusts one another

• Engages in unfiltered conflict around ideas

• Commits to decisions and plans of action

• Holds one another accountable

• Focus on the achievement of collective results

It sounds so simple but of course it’s not! Each part builds on the next, with trust at the bottom and results at the top. Yet they are all so important.

So where to start with my thoughts? I’ll focus on the first one today: Trust

There is an interesting take in the book on trust. Trust in a traditional sense is trusting that people will behave in ways that they have done in the past… being dependable or reliable.

Yes, this is trust, but there is a second version that is perhaps more pertinent to teams, relationships and perhaps life in general. It’s being open and vulnerable and trusting that one is safe to be this way.

Vulnerability is a key theme that I have been thinking about and encountering a lot lately. How willing am I to be vulnerable? It’s the vulnerability of sharing, of being open, of being able to admit mistakes, of freely expressing ones opinions in a non-judgmental way. It’s exposing a part of oneself where one can be rejected or disliked and being ok with that. It’s about taking chances realising that failure is a possibility. It’s never about being reckless, but it’s about living life to its full.

Vulnerability is so interesting and is a choice in our hands. I can choose to be vulnerable or not.

In my experience, being vulnerable is quite uncomfortable. I have liked to avoid it, but I am trying to be more vulnerable. Yet at the same time as it being uncomfortable, the act of being vulnerable in itself is extremely valuable. Even with the possibility of failure or rejection. A growth mindset helps to get over setback, but it’s the fact that one was vulnerable, that one can learn from the experience rather than avoiding it and living in fear. Vulnerability is in itself is actually liberating! And that feeling is great!

How can we be more vulnerable? It’s expressing our inner selves, our unfiltered thoughts. It’s taking risks especially interpersonal ones. It’s allowing the true me to be seen, letting down my guard and realising that who I am is good enough, a work in progress.

The benefits of vulnerability are immense. Through vulnerability we create true connections. Through vulnerability we allow others to come closer. Through vulnerability we create and grow. Through vulnerability we are able to be ourselves. Vulnerability is about recognising ones weaknesses, deficiencies and shortcomings. It’s being able to make mistakes and owning them and being able to ask for help.

Relating to a team environment, trust is about allowing vulnerability, feeling safe enough that these weaknesses will not be used against the individual. With trust, rather than using valuable energy to protect oneself or manage ones’ own image, it allows is people to focus fully their energy on the task at hand.

How to do this? Well it starts with being able to share personal information, feelings, experiences. It’s giving insight into who one is. It’s also about being able to share ones weaknesses or ask for help.

Here are a few from myself:

I struggle with commitment. I’m not great at making up my mind or making decisions. I rarely treat myself or do nice things for myself. I’m awful at recognising others and expressing gratitude.

If I do commit to something I am very loyal and will see it through and give my all. I love working out concepts and exploring ideas. I am usually quick to understand how things function.

The Third Form - Schillers' Idea of Play

So in a continuation of the idea of art being defined as feeling or form, I found more art philosophy, this time from Schiller, about the mix of the two. A great post on the idea can be found here: http://www.goldenassay.com/2012/09/21/schiller-and-play/

Schillers’ theory is that there is a third form in art and he calls it “play”. It is the point where the combination of or the act of combining form and feeling.

It makes me question what play actually is, so lets explore play in more detail:

What is the definition of play? Here are a few select definitions of play from the dictionary (source):

1 Engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.
1.2 Amuse oneself by engaging in imaginative pretence.
2 Take part in (a sport)
4 Represent (a character) in a theatrical performance or a film.

These are definitions that resonated with me (there are of course others). What links them is the engagment which I find crucial for play, as it is the part that makes it experiential.

In looking at these definitions, I also question whether play needs to be unserious? Sure it can be enjoyable and for recreation purposes (unserious outcome), but I wonder if anyone who truly takes part in playing does so without engaging themselves 100%?

There is a spontaneity about play in being alive and engaged in the moment - experiencing. Outcomes can be important but are not necessarily the goal. In my observations of young children playing, they are always 100% involved in whatever they do. Perhaps the act of playing can be described as letting go and involving oneself in an activity whether it be sport, art, creation of any kind with varying importance on the outcome.

If we take this back to the idea that there is a combination in art between form and feeling which is called play what does it mean….

Well as an artist, play can represent the creative process. Playing with ideas (form and feeling), synthesising them by turning them around, putting them in different positions, constellations, comparing them to others, stretching them, shrinking them, associating them… all exploration of the imagination - tangible and intangible. It is taking inspiration, a form and a feeling and then playing with it that is the creative (doing/experiential) process.

By engaging form and feeling we are developing art. Synthesising the two brings develops an idea, enriches it and allows it to grow.

The three parts form, feeling and play correspond with many philosophical and historical ideas: mind, heart and imagination (soul/spirit) or intellect, sensitivity and spontaneity. They have also been related to the ancient gods and mythology.

Great pieces of art have all three. A work that is sentimental, smart and imaginative, that engages both visual forms and provokes an emotional reaction, making one think and feel at the same time.

How does this relate this back to dance? It’s in the philosophy that dance combines and synthesises both simple forms creating play. This is an absolute luxury, though makes dance complex. By design all parts are essential to dance. Form is clear in the shapes our bodies make in their pathways as they move and also the positions held between movements. Feelings are expressed through how a body is held - its posture and also through the changes in form - dynamic expressing emotional depth and intensity. Or put another way A solid state conveys one emotion depending on it’s position or expression. A moving state can vary not only the emotions expressed but also their intensity!

Dance is play!

Sundays Musings

I’m feeling kind of humble after the last week. Quite a few habits that I thought I had put behind me crept back in. It just reminds me that life is a learning process. Setbacks are great to help me to grow and improve. And I realise I continually I need to keep up with my own standards and the best of me.

This past week it was It was little things. Being under prepared for classes… Sure they still went well, but I couldn’t enjoy them as much as I should and they sucked my energy rather than replenishing it (as they often do). I kept repeating mistakes in trading that I hadn’t done for many weeks. I frustrated myself to the point where I wasn’t thinking clearly. The one of the biggest assets in trading is having a clear mind to process information in the moment as decisions need to be taken in real time with a certain amount of pressure. It’s living on the edge, kind of a replacement for live performance… maybe that’s why I enjoy it. I did manage to take a step back and observe, moving away from the frustration, so that is a positive. But by letting frustration get to me for a while, suddenly the depreciating self talk kicks in. It’s there and always will be, to hit me when I feel vulnerable.

And what was my reaction to this adversity this week…? Avoidance. My time spent on social media increased as a way to escape, leading to me being less prepared and achieving less from the week.

Ok, perhaps I am being a little hard on myself here. I did manage to do all I needed to do and though I could have done more or found a better emotional state, sometimes energy and productiveness does ebb and flow.

I think there is one thing typifies what I was going through. It comes back to the “Leadership: Step by Step” book that I keep putting down and picking back up. The task was: as I feel unwanted emotions to work out what beliefs contribute to them?

It’s been really tricky to engage here. I have avoided the task, even in and of itself (to start it). And as I attempt to do it, I catch myself distracting myself by suddenly wanting to check e-mail or listen to some music, as I am attempting to write and think. Avoidance pure!

So what is in this? Well, yes I am avoiding the difficult emotions, but also the beliefs that lead me to them, which of course is the point of it all!!

Eg. Feeling unworthy:

• I believe I never learn from my mistakes

• I believe only people who are perfect are worthy

• I believe my worth is reflected in how much I achieve

• I believe I am not good enough

Feeling overwhelmed:

• I believe only busy people are of value

• I believe I need to push myself to do more

• I believe life is a struggle and I will fall in a ditch

• I believe I have to fight the feeling

• I believe I am alone and isolated

Amazing how much relief I feel as I type this. As I write these beliefs, I don’t judge them. But I do see how irrational they may be. Without highlighting them and by avoiding them, I keep getting stuck in a circle of subconscious beliefs that hang there in my mind, keeping me in protective behaviour and robbing me of the energy I need to bubble and feel free. The energy that drives me!

There has always been a struggle inside me with negative emotions. It’s a habit of wanting to deny their existence, which never works. Maybe it’s cultural or upbringing, but I am totally responsible for the way I behave and think. Expressing them and their accompanying beliefs does actually feel good.

I’ll admit I’ve never really had a handle on self-worth. I know that I should believe that I am worthy no matter what, but there is a difference between knowing something and feeling it! And really one’s worth should have nothing to do with other people. But as I say that, I don’t believe it does have to do with others, but a feeling in me says that it does?!?

The gaps between thoughts/knowledge, beliefs and feelings! At least awareness is the first step to resolving them!!

Understanding how feelings affect movement

The way we move is directly affected by our feelings. Our physical stature each day expresses how we feel in the moment as well as how we feel in general. Someone who is feeling confident will have a more outward, open body position and be more physically active. Someone who is feeling sad will be inward looking, resist eye contact and be happier by hardly moving at all, moving only in small slow efforts. It is all subjective of course, but there are tendencies to certain types of movement.

How can we define this movement from a movement analysis perspective?

We can look at Labans’ Movement Analysis techniques to see how each type of emotion can be defined. I will qualify this here in saying, I have not formally studied Labans theories. I may be wrong in some of the expressions and definitions and this is just my understanding through my experiences as a dancer/teacher/choreographer.

To look at emotion, an approach would be to define characteristic movements dynamic qualities — Time (fast, slow), Space (direct, indirect) and Energy (Strong, light) with Flow (controlled, uncontrolled) as well as its shape or posture qualities — Rising, Sinking, Spreading, Enclosing, Advancing, and Retreating.

So taking a feeling like confident that I just previously explained:

My definition:

Confident - Slow, Direct and Light combined with Rising, Spreading and Advancing movement.

This is totally subjective, as I can see how someone may want to portray confident with Strong energy. My opinion is that would then be the feeling of powerful but that is open for discussion.

To note is that by changing one component one accesses a different feeling. Also that it is a generalisation of the type of movement a feeling produces, not the complete picture. ie. more slow than fast…

What else is there to define here?

One could define emotions on positive/negative polarities. They can have the same action dynamics but different shape/posture qualities. Positive emotions will want to rise spread and advance while negative emotions will want to sink enclose and retreat. This is obviously another generalisation rather than a rule. Someone who is fearful may fulfil the negative side, but for instance resignation or shock would want to spread rather than enclose.

I have been and will be working on this idea with my students over the next months as it’s an interesting way to address the feeling side of dance (see previous posts on dance being a cross between form and movement). There is much to explore here and I haven’t as yet found any literature that goes into this kind of use of movement analysis in detail.

Another aim is to work on is not only how emotions can be defined, but then how to apply them then to dance. Of course a feeling is quite a strong point to work from. If I feel here happy, then I will naturally want to move faster… etc. Yet, say I have a certain choreography, how can I transpose happy onto the form? Or does the form need to be based in the emotion? What exercises are there to develop this skill both from an education, research and choreographic perspective?

Plenty to think about!

Feelings in Dance 2 - Beliefs

In searching for answers and ideas to develop my ability to teach/inspire the feeling side of dance, I read some research papers that inferred one doesn’t actually have to feel a feeling to express it as a dancer. I’m trying to be open-minded about this idea, yet instinct says that this is academic rubbish!! Yes, we don’t need to feel actual pain to express pain… but conversely wouldn’t it help? It comes down to the authenticity of emotion and the depth of performance one desires.

I have the belief that the movements (within reason) are less important than the emotional content behind them. The form is always there but it can change and evolve with the emotional content. The power and meaning in movement comes from its intention, what one desires to express. Movement in itself can be done in different ways so as to express different emotions (there will be natural variations, but in essence it will be the same steps). That this is the power of live performance, not the actual technique but the raw presence and feeling.

We are lucky in dance that we have both form and feeling. It makes dance unique and the crossover between the two gives it its power. I teach a lot of ballet to younger kids. I see the disinterest when a class gets to dry and technical and the excitement and joy that creating movement or expressing an idea through working with feelings gives. You of course need to teach kids both and ideally combine the two in exercises.

To get to the feeling content, one thing that I started a number of years ago was writing down a table of emotions and their basic movement qualities described in dynamics (Laban movement classification). Feelings are subjective, as each person feels slightly differently and also reacts physically and expresses themselves differently to certain emotions, but there are broad generalisations that one can make to do with different feelings. I will add some of the ideas over the next weeks as I refine and work on them.

Feelings in Dance 1 - Reflection

This is most likely going to be a theme for me for a while as it is something that I’m unsatisfied with and want to grow into. There is a general knowledge gap here. I struggle to integrate the ideas of what I want to know with any serious answers. It links into yesterdays topic: Feelings in dance.

In reflection on the last project, I was unsatisfied as to how much of a struggle it was to find the emotional content the dancers were trying to express in performing the movement. The ideas were there but there was a gap between the idea and the practice. I have many questions that I need to work out answers to, but as always it comes back to an examination of my own processes and beliefs.

It was strange to me, yet shouldn’t have been that unexpected, that the way to find emotional content of a dance in the project was difficult. I was myself more focused on the form from the beginning than the feeling. Transposing the feeling into the dance at the later stages proved difficult.

So why was this the case? The content of the dances I had explained at various stages in the process. There was a written protocol with the emotional content/keywords to do with each dance that one could reference. I did engage and encourage feeling in the movement, but obviously from the rate of development, not enough. Somehow it was a struggle. I would talk to the dancers about how they felt and the answers I received also avoided the question asked which was either a reluctance to connect or a lack of understanding. eg. “how did you feel while performing… x… dance? or what did it mean to you as you were performing? The answers received were “I liked this moment/such and such step worked well, this was good…” Valid answers yet mostly devoid of emotional content!

Now I will qualify the situation a little. I was working with amateur dancers, but I don’t find this an excuse. We all are humans, no matter our training, with emotions and feelings. In the end I take responsibility as the choreographer for what comes out. We are only as good as each other and that is the reason we continue to strive for growth and development. That we had mountains of. The idea is to focus it better next time!

Capability and a willingness to connect with our emotional sides can sometimes be different, but I’m not too sure this was the case. It was a group of 10 women and group dynamics can be tricky. Yet my feeling was they felt comfortable with each other and connected so the surroundings were not adverse. At one stage we talked about having an awareness for the others with which one dances and from the moment I placed the focus on this area, it came straight away and was amazing!

Sometimes there may be a lack of willingness to be vulnerable in front of ones peers, yet it also didn’t really strike me as an issue. Though that is only from my perspective that I can judge it. We have known each other for over one year, some for 3 years and more. Generally, I receive well thought out feedback when I ask questions or leave space for the dancers to reflect on their experience of an idea or exercise that we have just performed.

So I am drawn back to the disconnect between the knowledge of emotion and how to put them into dance in a meaningful way — to at the same time create a stronger connection with oneself.

There was a wide range of feelings that I was asking for throughout the piece.

So what do we need to connect with the emotion of dance?

Here are my first thoughts as to a checklist/steps (it needs development):

• Connection with oneself

• Willingness to be open and vulnerable

• Able to tap into/connect to desired feeling through pictures, memories or personal experience

• Allowing the feeling to be embodied — letting go and surrendering to the feeling/emotion

• An understanding of what a feeling is and how it affects movement

• Being able to transpose the concept/idea/theory into actual movement/performance

Dance - an unproductive expenditure of energy?!

Earlier in the week I was reading about dance philosophy. Just a taste of a book by a French man Frederic Poulillaude. It came about because I was asked to recommend a book on choreography to a friend and I couldn’t think of one in particular that I would recommend! But that is a topic for another post.

Unworking Choreography has some really interesting ideas and theories in it. I’ve never delved too deep into dance philosophy so this is actually new for me. I have strong beliefs and ideals about dance, but they are built from experience not from analytics or an academic perspective. And the ideas in this book crystallise some of them and shed new light on others.

I was surprised to read that dance was omitted by Kant from his classification of the fine arts in the 18th century. To him it was problematic as it didn’t fit his models of classification of the aesthetics of art. Dance is more transcendental being part of both polarities of classification in many areas. It is in itself actually transcendental due to the fact that it bridges the different art forms. I shall try and explain.

The first description that brought a chuckle from me was the idea that dance is an ”unproductive expenditure of energy”. Think of it like this: to dance we move and expend energy in doing so. There is nothing left after “dancing” save for the memory or experience of what has happened.

To explain this further let’s look at Kants’ aesthetics of fine arts.

Arts are classified as: form or experiential/sense based

For example, a picture has a fixed form that one can see and does not change, as does a sculpture. There may be many iterations of a picture but there are lines or strokes or dots that are fixed in time and space producing a visual form.

Experiential/sensual art is that which touches the senses such as a music performance or a play. It is experiential as the senses are engaged in listening to the piece or the actors portray a character, though usually this comes from a set score or text.

So how does dance fit in this formula? Well it is both in essence, yet does not fulfil either fully. It is a visual art very much based of forms that we see. The shapes our bodies make as we dance are clear and part of the aesthetic beauty — think ballet but also modern dance in its many forms. This is something music and plays do not usually have.

As an experiential/sensual art, one has to be present to experience dance as a performance. There is a choreography (text or score equivalent), yet it is very difficult to notate sufficiently. There are methods of notation that do capture the movement but do they also capture the essence sufficiently? If one thinks about the movements that are created today, there is no defined form or technique that can directly classify many movements adequately. Dance in itself over the years has shied away from being notated (there have been many attempts, yet nothing that has become mainstream, a la music or dramatic texts), so apart from videos today in the digital age, there isn’t much that is left over from a dance performance. The performance itself is unique as it is a living moment and even with video, it is very difficult to reproduce the same performance say 10 years later if you weren’t involved in the original, knowing the intent. Even today in rehearsals dancers argue about what the steps were, or the meaning behind them (I put my hand up!). If you weren’t there to experience the performance then you missed it. And even if you did, how much does one remember months or years later? A great tune one can hum and sticks in ones head. So does a classic line of a text. How many dance sequences can an audience remember and reproduce?

The sensual side of dance one experiences from being in the live performance, demands the use of ones senses to perceive the expression of feelings and connection and relationships between dancers. This is so important for the experience and without the energy that is produced by dancers performing, it becomes mechanical. It is the difference between being there live and watching a video of a performance. Sure you see the same thing but the experience is very different. And in our digital world these days the live performance is very valuable.

Expressing dance as being unproductive expenditure of energy, I think the theory misses the point. Dance transcends both classifications of the aesthetics of art in that it is both yet it 100% fulfils neither. Maybe that is what makes it so special!

This is to me why dance is so interesting. It’s more than one type of an art/experience. There is often a debate about form and feeling in dance, whether one is more important than the other. In having both, it raises what dance can be. For great dance you need both. Great dancers and great performances have emotion stirring the senses and a visual form that is aesthetically beautiful. You can have one more than the other, or be proficient in one side and still have value, yet the magic is in the two combined, enriching each other!

Frustration and Creativity

It’s a Friday evening and I’m feeling frustrated. Stuck at home with little that I want to do (there is always plenty to do!). Yet this feeling of frustration is my own making and usually leads to me to start being creative.

Why is it that sometimes I have to push myself to be so unsatisfied so as to start something new? It is a little nonsensical, but for some reason my motivation only comes when I have procrastinated so much that to get out of this feeling I need to express myself or let out the energy in some form. ie. this blog post. I’ve been putting off posting for about a week. I’ve had plenty to write about but I’ve avoided it.

Actually I don’t mind posting and feeling open and vulnerable with my thoughts. They are mine and they change and develop as I type. Self-reflection is always a good mover of my beliefs and just by expressing myself they evolve to new places.

A couple of things I have been working on and thinking about:

I’ve been editing a 3 angle film from the Lebendige Landschaft performance. It’s been fun being a film director. With Final Cut I can click and choose which picture I put into the film. I was a little click happy at first, but slowly I am finding a balance. Ever since I taught myself video editing about 14 years ago I have wanted to do a multi-film cut and finally I have the opportunity! I think it was a new feature (or streamlined feature) back then, yet I never had 3 films of the same piece. This time I’ve needed the 3 angles just simply because one camera is too narrow to capture everything that is going on in the performance. I’ll post some snippets once it is done!

I’ve been doing some reading too! Earlier in the week I was reading about dance philosophy. More about this in the next post!