I was surprised with my own movement and behaviour when we did the exercise of crossing the room with Ondrej today. At first, I moved in a more elaborate manner, and the second time, after Ondrej reminded us that we should search for the ‘second option’, I think I relaxed and really began to think about what the proposition is. In movement, there are many options, and what you think of naturally isn’t the only thing your body can do. Going against your instinct is also a form of instinct.

I have to admit to something personal in relation to Trajal’s class today, which is that I was completely petrified by the idea of performing in front of the class. I was not completely surprised, but still some, since so far I had not felt that stagefright in the class yet. This fear forced me to start asking myself why I was afraid, and I realised that I felt there was more weight to my performance since I was imitating the early postmodern style. As a result, I’d say I want to explore that fear more and see where my own body comes into this in relationship to the grander style of dance: how much of the dance is my own doing and how much is already there?

In our discussion today, when we were talking about the act of writing the reflections, I began to think more deeply about intersubjectivity and translation, and especially translation between not only language, but forms of communication. These reflections have not felt very natural to me so far, and I think that is strongly correlated with me becoming more comfortable with communicating with my body and with my spoken word when it comes to this subject, due to the form of the class. This is extremely impactful for me to think about, and I’m interested to see how this might change in the progression of the course.