Cael H, MA Somatic Studies

Posts

The art of feedback

Feedback: the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source (Merriam Webster, 2023). I am a feedback-forward person. I use dialogue and conversation to dissect feedback and to understand its fullest potential from the source. Within my various jobs feedback is something that I am continuously receiving. Although I give feedback to teachers and students daily, I am also receiving it from those in superior positions (my boss', choreographers, and directors) and those I work with (students, colleagues, reviewers, and audiences). Adding school back into my life adds another layer of feedback and one I am still trying to navigate. The feedback I receive as a dancer is not a suggestion, it is based on implementation and immediate change. Within my teaching and leading roles feedback is more conversational and subjective but often is something that needs to be acted on with the changes proposed. I rarely re

Task One, Martha Graham

Task One: take a body of work from an artist and relate it to notions of knowledge, certainty, and positivism. For this first task I chose to look at the work of Martha Graham. Graham technique is something I have dabbled in a few times throughout my early 20's and early 30's and over the Winter Holiday I decided to complete the teacher training workshop via zoom from the Martha Graham School in NYC. It was a lot to take on while on break from the MA but it was really incredible and I was so grateful for the time moving my body and relating it to what I had been reading for a few months prior. One thing that I love about Graham technique is the use of imagery, the explanation of breath, and the simplicity of the theory yet the difficulty of the execution. Martha's technique was built on "the simplest movements walking, running, skipping, leaping" (Bannerman, 2010, p.3), and the reference to the spine is often correlated to a tree or more specifically a tree of l

Knowledge, Learning, Information

Knowledge: facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject . Learning: the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught. Information: facts provided or learned about something or someone. Questions taken from Dr Helen Kindred's blog. Where are you now in your MA journey? At this exact moment I am in the roundabout. I feel as though there are several different routes I can go, each with a destination that is unknown, yet I can't quite decide which off-ramp to take. I have been circling a few common themes and ideas about the inquiry and now just need to let those sit and percolate before I decide which one I will dive into. I am feeling more confident in my academic writing and understanding of where to access the research, and have enjoyed almost all of the texts I have read thus far. I am still continually confused with the school website and the v

Research, the researcher, the researched.

I have just finished reading "Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples", by Linda Smith. After chatting in the MAPP Cafe with a few of you I wanted to bring forward a couple of quotes that have me reflecting on the research to come. "Another problem is that academic writing is a form of selecting, arranging and presenting knowledge. It privileges sets of texts, views about the history of an idea, what issues count as significant; and, by engaging in the same process uncritically, we too can render Indigenous writers invisible or unimportant while reinforcing the validity of other writers" p. 39 This reminded me of the blog post that Matthew posted reflecting on the readings as mainly white male-authored, and how as a researcher it is imperative to the narrative that we understand where the research we are using is coming from and the lens this gives "The basic questions to answer are ‘Where are you from?’ ‘What brings you here?’ ‘What are y

Wearing multiple hats or one hat?

This past week I had my reflective essay feedback session and review. It was so interesting hearing what Helen had to say in comparison to my questions. Written on my sheet were: * Is my tone academic or juvenile? How to write "I" without sounding like "Gossip Girl xoxo"? * Struggling to separate Somatics- any ideas? * My practice is all three streams- how do I pull this to one if that is not reflective of my practice? Before I read these my feedback was given, and this is what I wrote down from Helen's conversation: * The use of I is imperative, it is after all from your perspective, so the writing matches what has been asked * I am in a Somatics focused MA so I need to pull together my HOW rather than comparing my experience or agreeing to literature, explain more about your feelings or sensation in relationship to these theories. * I am focusing too much on separation, these are not so much 3 different avenues or different hats that I am putting on, they

Reflecting on Reflection in Reflective Theory

Reflective learning. Although I quite enjoy writing, I have never been one to write consistently in a journal, or come to think of it... I don't do anything consistently. My sleep schedule is all over the map from going to bed between 9pm-2am, to waking up at 4-10am. It depends on the day. Some days I work 14 hours, some I work 1. Some days I eat 3 meals, some days I eat 2, and some I eat 5. Depends on the day. Some days I listen to soft jazz and lay on the ground, some days I blast techno and scream around the house. The most consistent part of me is my inconsistency. I am a juggler of many jobs, a wearer of many hats, and a feeler of many emotions. When it comes to learning...I am the same way. Some days I can listen and learn, other days what you say goes in one ear and immediately out the other. I am a note taker- but on paper, never digital. I learn by observation but some days I just have to feel it in my body. So when it comes to reflection of my learning I find myself ag