The Path So Far

I’d like to take a moment, halfway through this free inquiry project, to say that I’m learning a lot. This is not my usual way of learning: as an academic, I have had few opportunities to track my learning in certain skills, as opposed to concepts. Learning to do something has different metrics than learning to know something. Back in September, I enjoyed playing in the hoop or trapeze or silk hammock, but had no idea how one would actually perform such a thing. I knew a few cool poses, and had built up some strength, but until I started watching videos of performers late one Friday night, I hadn’t dreamed that I could put those moves to music, let along choreograph a whole song!

Look at this goober.

Undergoing this free inquiry has helped me understand that ‘learning’ doesn’t have to be reading peer-reviewed articles or writing a paper. It turns out that video editing isn’t as daunting when you’re editing a video of you having fun and doing something cool! My biggest sources of knowledge in this endeavour have been my instructors at Island Circus Space, where I’ve been practicing weekly, and my amazing mentor Eve Carty, who has taught me not just hoop combos but how open pedagogy can be as easy and natural as breathing. The structure for my project came from a dance blog that breaks choreography down into 6 steps. Those steps have been working really well to structure my process, and so far I’ve completed four steps:

  1. Pick a song and listen to it like crazy (I actually did this twice, as I’ve since switched my song to On the Arrow by Rachel Rose Mitchell [a cover of the original by AFI])
  2. Get actively inspired (by watching videos of others, talking to my instructors, and listing the moves I could do so I could put them in order)
  3. Freestyle! (At practice every week, I got the feeling of new moves and new ways to combine and move between ones I already knew)
  4. Piece combos together by ‘chunking’ (I did this by first choreographing moves to pieces of the song that were really poignant or important, or to certain lyrics that spoke to me. After that, I filled in the rest of the song)

Next Steps

There is no way to not make this look awkward.

The next two steps will be covered over the following weeks:

5. Polish execution of the moves (in free jam sessions with Eve, I’ll drill the choreography and film it for my reference so I can make it look awesome)

6. Make edits – but not too many (If there are moves that I’m not as comfortable with, or that take longer than I expect to get into even with practice, I might have to adjust the choreography a bit)

In addition, I’d like to do an audio interview with one of my instructors so I can work on my audio editing skills. I’m still attending weekly practices and biweekly sessions for filming, and I am amazed at how this project is coming together. I’ll check in next week with another video, this time hopefully my first attempt at the full song!