This weeks class was mainly focused on balance and gravity. A way to introduce us to the idea of gravity constantly affecting our body was the ‘small dance’ exercise. Firstly we watched a video on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44) which I didn’t understand and was a little bit reserved about at first as I wasn’t sure about the concept of it or how the body could move in such a way without being able to control it, however we then got onto our feet and applied this practice ourselves. Steve Paxtons ‘The Small Dance’ involved standing alone with the feet in parallel and the eyes closed. You then had to draw your attention into your own body in order to feel the subtle shifts and changes that are constantly occurring. We then adapted this small dance exercise and began moving our body more in the space dependant on how we felt gravity was affecting us as the time. This lead to us falling and relaxing into the space. I really enjoyed this exercise as it was an extension of the head exercises we had done the previous week, and due to me not relaxing my body much prior to these classes I feel as  though my movement is becoming less and less habitual each week. We then applied this freedom of movement and application of weight to the ‘cat’ exercise that we did in pairs. I worked with Beth and the aim was to use each other as a surface by pressing our weight into each others bodies and balancing through contact.  This was a really interesting exercise as it felt very trust based and this is something that I feel I have always needed to work on. Throughout this exercise I felt as though mine and Beths movement complimented each other well. This may be because we have worked together in the past and trust each other, as I feel we weren’t afraid to experiment with movement or weight. This exercise has been my favourite so far as it involved our whole bodies to be aware and free to use as a surface to balance on or experiment with in movement.