My Journey to Juicy
(Connecting with the ground, my breath and continuity.)
My final project represents my journey to juicy floor flow movement.
Before this training, I wasn’t all that sure how to use the floor in a meaningful way apart from the usual pole low flow based items.
I found it quite difficult at the beginning to do a loop as I could feel the hard floor, not to mention my hard stiff body. It was all very far from juicy. I think I pulled an abdominal muscle at one point earlier in the year doing the spiral exercise that the lovely Leah Woods taught us in her guest workshops. Nonetheless, that movement concept stuck with me.
Initially, I just lay down. I had little clarity on what I was going to do. The first thing I noticed was that I held my breath almost the second I was there. I did many sessions of writhing and rolling around the floor before I felt I could start my project to Juicy.
Eventually, I decided to adopt a “see what happens” approach for the first recorded session (Music: Sweetbox - Everything’s Gonna be alright). In this session there was variety in my movement with spiralling, writhing, level changes, stretching and contracting and threading although it didn’t feel clean nor thoroughly comfortable.
In the second session I applied the instruction to “push and pull the floor with different contact points” (Music: Doja – Control). There was a significant difference in the quality of some movements. My body felt lighter and I felt more attuned to and supported by the floor.
In the third session, (Music: Cannons- Temporary Romance) I recalled the initial piece of homework we submitted “entry to the floor” and remembered how awkward this whole piece felt so I decided to return to this concept to play with my entry. I experimented further with “driving into the contact points”. I had removed socks for this session so that I could use my feet for “sliding and pushing” while my hands did more “reaching” resulting in a luscious lengthening. Another area of focus was on slowing down my movement and really paying attention to what was happening in my hips (writhing)
In the fourth session, (Music: Meg Myers - Desire) I returned to my starting place on the floor and played with seated crossover slide as well as “gliding across the floor” “using up space” and “taking pauses”. I noticed an improved ability to use pressure in my feet despite wearing socks for gliding. I feel that my movement became more expansive in this session. I definitely felt really comfortable in parts.
I felt completed rooted in the process, my body and mind felt open to the floor and to the flow. I utilised a lot of slide and glide in this session and as a result found new pathways to shapes I hadn’t really explored in great detail before. I also focused on driving into the hands as contact point which provided lots of opportunities to create air between me and the floor and as a result consistent level changes. I made more use of my knees on the floor in this session.
In the fifth session (Music: Dadju & Anitta – Mon Soleil). I attempted to use more “sweeping and reaching” and felt a difference in contraction and lengthening movements
In the final session,(Music: Johnny Rain…F**k) I did some warm up movements on my feet to lead into my entry to the floor, I felt much more comfortable entering the floor into flow having included this at the start. I enjoyed this final flow so much I continued seen though the music had finished as it didn’t feel like the right time or place or position to exit the floor and for this session, I had cued and entry AND an exit. A “melting to the floor” to enter and an “Unsticking” to exit.
The result of these sessions is that I have “slided” and “glided” and “pushed” and “pulled” and “twisted” and “turned” “contracted” and “lengthened” through a wide range of moves from the programme to find what would become my loop. Throughout this journey, I took the opportunity to share some of these learnings with our studio client base. It was interesting to receive their feedback as well as watch them execute the movements I had demoed and provided cues for. For the most part, they enjoyed the experiences and like myself reported feeling strange and uncomfortable on the floor until they felt themselves flowing into the cues.
I feel like throughout this journey I have been learning about my body as well as the relationship a learner develops with the floor.
I did demonstrations of spiralling and gave them the opportunity to try this movement for themselves.
I included the “paint the floor” cue as well as “lead with your top hand”, “follow with your eyes”
The day I recorded my final loop, I did demonstrations of side slide to floor with instruction to “writhe” once they found their way to their back.
I wasn’t entirely sure I would be able to record my final loop in one go but I did and for this I am extremely grateful for my Journey to Juicy Project as it was this consistent showing up on the floor that led to the loop. I am excited to keep moving into the future with floor flow practice. My recordings have shown me opportunities to work on new loops using the material from the programme.
Thank you
∞