What's it like learning IB dance? - Dance Saturday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Today, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about my experiences so far, studying IB dance. If you don't know about the IB qualification in general, it is quite simply a 6 subject course that is designed to broaden your knowledge of the world around you. Although it doesn't go as into depth as the normal A-level, it does get you to look at other fields of work, other than the things you know and are good at and for me, I really like this because it gives you knowledge outside the classroom environment as well. I'm taking English Lang/Lit, Maths Applications and Interpretations, Nature of Science, History, Japanese, and of course Dance. The subjects I'm taking at higher level are dance, English, and history and the other 3 subjects are all at standard level but today, I'm going to be talking about dance. I hope you find this interesting!
I think the IB dance course is very much a contemporary-based course that focuses on everybody's unique and individual way of moving. When I had my first class of IB dance with my first teacher, it was very much based on stretching and basic technique exercises that would help to improve your core abilities as a dancer. However, when I was doing some contemporary classes with my other teacher, he taught us more about enhancing the natural way we move, instead of focusing on stylistic features. For me, I like this approach to learning dance as a whole because not only do you get a bit of added technical training, you also learn the proper way to dance contemporary. I think I've seen too often contemporary danced in a way that is too rigid and theatrical and I think I've now learnt that actually, this is not what this style is supposed to be about. Contemporary is not only modern but it's also about you and nobody else and I think that this is what many dancers get wrong.
Some of the exercises we do in these contemporary classes are almost performed as yoga exercises because they're designed for you to let go of tension and focus on your breathing. Sometimes we'll lie on the ground for a bit and close our eyes so that we can just tune our breath to the music because breathing is very important in the contemporary style. We'll also do some partner work to work on dancing as a pair instead of dancing solo. We are in allocated bubbles for this so that we're not mixing with different people each lesson because of Covid but the activity is still fun because it's really pushing you out of your comfort zone. We do this weird exercise called "the seaweed" and it basically helps you to begin reacting naturally. One person is in a relaxed "seaweed-like" position with their eyes closed and the other is gently moving them and the idea is that the person who is reacting to the movement isn't doing the navigating, it's the person moving them and controlling them. Obviously you'll have that feeling that you're going to fall but that's the idea. It's about switching on your mode of hypersensitivity and using that to improve your dancing.
Overall, there is a technical aspect to the course. We do a lot of stretches in the different ballet positions and we do a lot of rises and relevés and that helps develop a stronger foundation for dance. However, we also do exercises that help us to let go of our organised way of doing things and although it may sound a bit strange, this really helps to develop a strong contemporary foundation too and this is something that many dance schools look for in their students.
Have you ever studied dance before? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
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