Week 1

Today in class, we received information regarding the In-School violence prevention and Therapy program going on at different schools. Afterwards we did a body check in. I was feeling a little tired at the beginning of the class and doing some stretching helped out a lot. Rena asked us to go around and say through movement how our bodies were feeling. Imitating everybodys movements not only exercised my body but my mind. I was trying to figure out what my classmates were trying to communicate. We repeated the exercise and added sounds with new movements. What was unclear before became crystal. Some were tired, excited, random, silly, and really warmed me up to the group environment. Then we were provided with beautiful colorful scarves. Connecting through movement with the group helped create a comfortable atmosphere for me. When moving by myself I realized that I was unsure and even a little subconscious. Two things this experience shared with me was it is sometimes harder to connect with individuals you are not familiar with. Will they accept your attempt to connect? Will they want to lead or follow? Whose going to end the connection? Another aspect was transferring energies. Upon connecting with several of my classmates who had higher energy shown in their movements than myself then my movements became higher in energy. Cecilia didn't take a scarf and in the discussion afterwards shared how her connection was different. My connections dealt with mimicking my classmates actions and movements but hers were more of compliments and still connecting. It just shows connections can be subtle or explicit but one doesn't disregard the connection or have more of a connection than the other.