Warm up before you start!
This first lesson is a proposal on how to start each day before you submerge yourself in the following cookbook. It is a page to encourage and inspire you before you dive into the learning content on the topic of distribution. Let’s wake up the body!
You are probably sitting down in your room and will stay in that position, on that chair, for several hours. As your brain will be triggered by the content of every section, your body will remain mostly still for the duration of the lessons you will go through.
The arrival of computers in the 1970s has had a profound impact on the way we work and live our daily lives. With the rise of computer-based work, many people now spend a significant portion of their day sitting in front of a screen, which has resulted in a range of physical and health issues. This also applies to us dancers. Administrative and bureaucratic work, open call applications, and research is all done on a chair.
One of the most notable changes brought about by the computer age is a transformation in our posture. We spend hours each day hunched over a computer screen, which can cause back pain, neck pain, and headaches.
In addition to posture-related issues, the sedentary nature of computer-based work has also led to a decline in muscle tone and overall physical fitness. When we sit for extended periods of time, our muscles become weak and less toned, which can lead to a range of issues such as poor circulation, decreased mobility, and increased risk of injury.
Finally, as dancers, we know our brain thinks better when moving, or at least after it has been moved. Because of that, we would like this cookbook to begin acknowledging the importance of taking care of our vessel without demonizing the use of computers and smartphones; we want to emphasize the importance of taking breaks, stretching, and incorporating movement into our daily routines.
For the following video lesson, LaSADCUM has shredded its movement practice in order to share it with us as a “do it at home” training. The routine consists of four exercises that are designed to complement and build upon each other, allowing you to choose your own timing and rhythm of learning. So, you do not need to perform the four exercises in one go, we encourage you to experiment with them as you progress through the other lessons.
In order to avoid supporting the decline of your body, we would like to propose that you start your day with a specifically designed warm-up for digital natives, inspired by the internet, and created by a dance company called LaSADCUM.
Although being in front of the screen for prolonged hours can have a harmful effect, it can also be a source of inspiration for physical activity and movement practices. This is the research field of LaSADCUM. This collective of dancers researches how we can move on the internet by getting inspired by the speed of scrolling through images, the saturation of images that we consume, the flow of emotions that they make us pass through, and so on. The following video is key to understanding the inspiration behind the warm-up we are bringing you,
Check out the video here.
La SADCUM’s methodology has also been used to build their choreography ACLUCALLS, a post-internet ballet created in 2022, based on found digital footage of videos of bodies in motion that the dancers transfer from the digital realm to the physical and make it evolve.
Have a look at the trailer here.
Further reading
Here you can expand on your reading about the influence of computers and smartphones on our health:
- “How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body” by Laine Nooney. This article discusses how our computer and smartphone usage is leading to poor posture and resulting in body pain that did not exist before computers. Link.
- “The impact of mobile phones on posture and physical well-being” by Pablo Robles. This article explains the phenomenon of Text Neck, meaning the changes to the curvature of the spine over time by smartphone use. Link.
- “Cell Phone Health: Your Favourite Phone May Be Harming Your Health” by Alysha Reyd. In this brief text, we read the five specific negative health categories that can result from the use of cell phones. Link.
Lecturer
LaSADCUM (Catalonia)
LaSADCUM is a dance project founded in 2018 in Barcelona by Guillem Jiménez. The company has produced two small-format dance works, The Uncanny Valley (2018) and The Lesson (2020), the performative exhibition Classmates (2020), and a two-hour dance piece for eight dancers called Aclucalls (2022). These works have been performed in spaces such as La Casa Encendida, Centro Cultural Conde Duque (Madrid), TKM Room, and Sala Ars (Barcelona), among others, and have received awards at festivals such as the Madrid Choreographic Contest (resident award in La Caldera) or the Festival 10 Sentidos (first prize of the jury).
