I expected this class to be unpredictable, hence it became somewhat predictable in that the unpredictability was expected. My expectations of what this class would entail were only met to the extent that I knew that it would be a different teaching/learning method and a challenge distinct from the ordinary I face in my classes thus far. I could have never anticipated how it would feel to move my body in front of and with other students.
When being asked to close our eyes and move in whatever way came natural to us, my immediate reaction was that of a vague alarm. But as soon as I resisted the temptation to open my ways and focused my attention on my own body while listening to the music playing, I found myself savoring , something I would have expected only to feel comfortable doing in my own presence. In the same way, I was able free from self-imposed restrictions and ideas of right and wrong bodily movements in another exercise involving trust to what was up until this moment; a stranger to me. With closed eyes, I was being led by someone around the dance floor to the rhythm of music.
Being led by someone I , trust, felt suddenly at ease, I think partially due to everyone doing it but mainly due to the movements we had been doing prior to this exercise. Having eyes closed seemingly enhanced my bodily feelings. I was aware of my every step and sensed normally imperceivable tensions in muscles. This was especially the case when Ondrey would draw our attention to the tensing of our shoulders which I had not released up until this point because I was not completely cognizant of my body which is a kind of knowledge I have never fully realized or appreciated.
Certainly I was surprised and amazed by the development I noticed in my physical experience in the first morning dance class.
The style of professor Harrell’s class was both unexpected and unpredictable. Knowing merely the title of the class: “Choreography”, I assumed the class would revolve around learning specific and fixed dancing moves. For this reason, I was surprised when we were asked to (as one of the first things in class) to together a cumulative choreography of our own. The notion I had just a few moments earlier expressed to my classmate that I am not a dancer was already being put to the test. Reflecting on what Harrell suggested, about everyone being able to move, is starting to change my conception of what dance is.
Rather than regarding us students as inexperienced and needing to be taught, Harrell takes a more collaborative and engaging approach.
The way we swiftly alternated between moving, talking and reading I think engaged us more because of the unpredictability of what was next.  Perhaps this non-sequential and unconventional method of learning is not so “disorganized” after all. I think it enables the formation of new ideas valuable connections that can be made between them – the different components give meaning to each other.
Experiential learning of this sort is new to me and I look forward to seeing how I will, throughout this month, engage with new sides of myself as well as with my classmates and instructors.

What is dancing? This question was posed in class. Frankly I have never questioned it before, rather I expected that dancing meant something fixed – like ballet; movement purposefully selected sequences of movement that is aesthetically pleasing and also demands talent.
I now see this is a narrow conception of what dance really is. Ordinary movements in everyday life can be made into dance. This also raises the question of meaning. Meaning cannot be fixed.
But to make sense of things it is essential that we classify the world into categories, this is how we can differentiate between things. All meaning is intersubjective. Culture is trying to tell us how things are even though culture is contingent and can be changed. Transcoding tries to break down binary relationships we have constructed to make sense of the world. Dance is a medium for transcoding – we have bodies that can transcend the way we are objectified.