I think we’ve reached a point in this class where we can start reflecting back on the beginning and on the experiences we’ve been going through since last week. Having this in mind, I can only say that dance slowly becomes a source of knowledge that is shaped by certain parameters I was not familiar with. But as I go through each class, I feel like this system of reference becomes more articulated. I’ll make a parallel to drawing: you cannot have the same visual perception and hand movement right away, compared to someone that has been drawing for years. It’s not even about the technique, but of that framework in the mind that makes images captured by our vision be interpreted and converted much faster and better. The eyes are trained in a specific way – they are trained to see, and the hand almost unconsciously leads on the paper. I think the same goes for dancing – it’s about that relationship between the brain and the muscles in the body, where the intention of moving or coordinating receives a fast response from the body, and also the muscles having some sort of ‘memory’ that articulate and harmonizes the movement – even if the movement it’s something as rigid as a postmodern dance piece. After these days I can feel that something changed, even if it’s just barely noticeable.

But why did I chose ‘technique’ if I said ‘it’s not even about’ it? Because, as reading in A Choreographer’s Handbook, I see that in dance the meaning of ‘technique’ is exactly the process I tried to describe earlier. I’m particularly interested in this term –  ‘a sensory engram’ – because it describes both the relationship between the brain and the muscles (sensory) and the framework (engram).

This flow of thinking began from the choreographing process in Ondrej’s class, in which the last exercise was more instructive than the ones in the previous days where we had to improvise and interpret movement. And I felt that it was the right moment to break that ‘routine’ with this new exercise and then maybe come back later to the others.