The activities we did with Ondrej were fun and some parts of them made me think about the foundations of dance again. For example, he reiterated the importance of breathing, especially while using the back consciously, and transferring all of our bodies’ weight to the ground to gain balance. These are some things that seem simple yet what I have not paid attention to consciously or recognized the importance before. Moving my fingers felt very different when we had to close our eyes to solely focus on moving our fingers with concentrated energy. I was in better control of the movement in my fingers, but also of my body as a whole, and therefore better able to be more expressive.

The workshop with Professor Harrell was fascinating—nothing like I’ve ever done before. My favorite part of the workshop was Professor Harrell showing us a part of his choreography, ‘It is Thus’, and us trying to learn and dance the choreography. At first glance, his choreography of ‘It is Thus’ looked quite abstract and I was confused while trying to understand his work. But as Professor Harrell explained the meaning behind each tiny details of the movements, I could see his work in a completely different way. Movements that previously appeared (almost too) easy and simple transformed into a small yet powerful statement that defied socially constructed stereotypes. When I was trying to recreate his dance and Professor Harrell was reminding us about the small details we were missing, I was focused on how I could dance my own version, my own understanding of the original choreography and what I wanted to portray. I was totally immersed in the moment when I was attempting to create my own moment of transcoding through extremely subtle movements.

The key idea that came into the discussion was transcoding—what it means and what it doesn’t mean. As we perceive various things of our surroundings, we put things into categories to better organize and make sense of our world, such as calling a large board with multiple legs to support it from the ground a table. This is typing, but we often tend to categorize things into two extreme ways and create a binary relationship, which almost always has a power dynamic present. For example, poor/rich, masculine/feminine, and educated/non-educated. Transcoding is an attempt to break down the binary values, by not just elevating the repressed. Professor Harrell’s piece, ‘It is Thus’, demonstrates this transcoding by critiquing and breaking the binary understanding of vogueing.