This week has been “Autumn Week” for me. I haven’t had the chance to dance much, unfortunately, so I may well extend my little program to the next week as well.
Basically, I found that I’m trying too hard and sticking doggedly to the instructional programs I want to work with. None of them are about to be completed in a short period, so it just gets to be too much hard work. I make it even harder by always timing my practice sessions, making sure there’s some big chunk of conditioning work, building in some aerobic segment… etc. On top of that, I feel guilty if I don’t do some bit of yoga/pilates/stability ball work – even if it’s for a few minutes.
So, I decided to give myself a break, remember that dancing is a hobby not a profession, and get on with having a little more fun. I plan to do this by varying the videos I work with a little more. A period of whatever-I-feel-like.
So, I happened to find myself gravitating towards Autumn’s video. I did work with this a little bit when it first arrived, but I knew even then that this video would need a lot of watching before I got down to working with it. And now that I’ve begun, that idea is reinforced.
For beginner-intermediate dancers, I would really recommend getting familiar with the terms Autumn Ward uses. They’re unique to her and can be confusing because instruction fly at you thick and fast throughout this video. You can’t afford to keep stopping to figure out what she means when she says “pull in” or “take a staggered stance”. She’s got some of these things all written out in her guide, but I don’t think I learn easily using notes, so I’d rather figure it out as we go along, on video.
Practice a ruler-straight side slide or “full shift side” with Autumn
I find that Beautiful Technique is a video you really need to take your time with. And I’m totally not rushing myself. Even if I think I know a move, I re-examine it carefully and inevitably find corrections to make. for example, I’ve worked on really straightening out the hip slide so that it happens now without altering the overall posture and alignment one wants, without changing the lift of the arms or creating any unnecessary tilts and slouches. It’s obviously coming along because I’m enjoying looking at it in the mirror and finding it more and more “Autumn-like”.
This dvd has really helped my technique. I do it fairly regularly, if I just have 20 mins or half an hour I do the warm up, and a few drills, the arm drill has helped me a great deal. Now I’ve digested the bulk of the technique section the drills are great to do in small chunks.
I have also discovered that I have been doing hip drops slightly wrong all along, -doh! well they look a whole lot better now I’m doing them the Autumn way.
Autumn is exceptionally good at breaking down and explaining every tiny detail of a move, which is perfect for me as I’m an analytical dancer.
As predicted I read through the notes for about an hour then lost them under a pile of stuff. They are well written, but nothing that isn’t in the dvd.
For me too it’s changing the look of many of my moves. For me the most visible is the way I can keep a “lift” in the upper body. The “throat open, head afloat” and the strong floating look to the arms.
In fact, I must do a continuing series of posts on this. I don’t like looking at the written notes, (they alarm me
but I like writing about what I’ve learned later. Somehow it makes it clearer for me what’s to be done next.