We had our first ever Contact Improvisation session on Flight! I was feeling quite apprehensive about this class however, I came with a positive attitude ready to give anything a go. I could sense some of the nerves in the room, as I can understand that the majority of us were scared about being taken off the floor completely into somebody else’s responsibility.

We started the class with the usual travelling steps involving release technique and getting used to putting weight into our hands and going upside down. I feel I am getting much stronger at these and I think I am benefiting from doing these every week. I have noticed that sometimes I do not place my hands flat on the floor which is causing strain in my fingers and not giving me full support in my hands and arms. If I work on this I think my strength and base will be sturdier for me to put weight into. I think as a class we lack upper body strength, and this is something we need to work on, which is why I find it great when we do planks and press ups etc. in the warm-up. Developing this strength will lead to making these travelling steps a strong way to transition in and out of improvisation. These have helped me a lot with answering my question in Blog 3 about ‘How can transitions become smoother?’ These skills have been a great learning tool to discover the answer to this exploration.

We were then led into a small Contact Improvisation exercise with a partner. This was to allow our bodies to get used to being in contact again after having a week off for Reading Week the previous week. I honestly felt not as fluid as I usually do, despite Kirsty saying that me and my partner, Ellie looked very comfortable together. It was a good exercise to allow us to ease our way into contacting with one another. Throughout this exercise I tried to incorporate some of the mid-term feedback I received from Kirsty. She told me that I tend to be a ‘listener’ when I am improvising with another, meaning I do not lead. So in class I worked a lot on being the ‘talker’ so I used my body to manipulate and push Ellie’s body around the space. I found this easiest with me guiding her head. I also tried on allowing my head to be relaxed, as Kirsty has noticed I carry tension in my neck and don’t allow my head and neck to release and flow with my movements. I think this is because of my lack of confidence, I think I continuously look up and around at what other people are doing instead of being in the moment. This is something I really need to develop, the ability to let go and be free. This connected to what I read in Center of Gravity by Ann Woodhull, because she talks about how Contact is about sharing and communication between bodies, instead of over thinking the movements. (Woodhull, 1978 – 1979, p. 48) I have realised that I sometimes have great moments when I a fully let go and I am fluid with my movements but then I stop and start thinking, and I need to resist this temptation.

I learnt that the most important skill to have during contact lifts is to scoop under to get up! This means you have to go down to have the momentum to get good height up into the air. Another key skill to have when being lifted is to carry no muscular tension, relaxing the muscles makes you feel lighter to the lifter. One of the first weight bearing exercises we did, involved one person being in table top position on the floor, the other person then laid their back on to their partners and flipped their legs over. I found that this was another good example of a transition or movement to get out of a lift or balance etc.

The second exercise we looked at was ‘superman’ which involved one person lying down with their knees into their chest whilst the other put all their weight into the lifter’s feet to create the effect of flying. I struggled with this exercise, I think that was due to the fact I did not feel comfortable putting my weight into my partner Claire, as she is much smaller than myself. I felt that this idea of ‘going down to come up’ really came into play with this exercise, especially when we took away the use of our arms. As the lifter I had to really bend in my legs to get the momentum to lift my partner into the air, the deeper my legs plied the easier the flight came.

I found it interesting that some of the exercises throughout the class came really easy to me and others I struggled with. For example I found the exercise where I was lifting and being lifted onto the side of the body, where the principle of scooping under to get up applied. I found that this technique worked really well which is why I grasped these tasks easier. Unlike where someone was throwing their body and I had to catch them. Some of these lifts are going to take practise to be able to make them flow and secure. I think learning these new skills this work is really going to help develop and progress our movement in our jam sessions.

I was disappointed that I was not able to work on some other feedback I received from Kirsty, which was to experiment with pace and dynamic. I have also noticed that I seem to stay on the same level and there is no light and shade with in my movement. It made me think:

How does pace and dynamic affect movement?

This is similar to a question I first asked myself in the first week of Contact Improvisation. I feel that now I have developed the right skills to be able to contact well I can now experiment with these ideas and I look forward to playing around with this concept more in the future Contact Jams.

As the main focus of the reading this week was ‘Centre of Gravity’ it was fascinating to keep that in my mind through the class. I thought a good statement that defines centre of gravity is ‘the point around which the body is perfectly balanced.’ (Woodhull, 1978 – 1979, p. 43) I found it interesting how  my body instinctively remained in balance and centered whilst I was moving. This linked in with how Ann Woodhull describes this consciousness ‘We change center of gravity when we change shape, and often compensate so automatically that we aren’t even aware of it.’ (Woodhull, 1978 – 1979, p. 46) I love how clever the body is! I think a strong statement she makes is ‘In Contact Improvisation, we purposely change center of gravity in order to move.’ (Woodhull, 1978 – 1979, p. 47) Meaning everything in our body automatically happens. I learnt that there is so many different things going on in the body that I am so unaware of when I am moving. However, I need to keep my mind unaware of these things whilst contacting so I can go with the feeling of my body. It is a good thing to be aware about when learning where the body weight should be and centered in order to achieve the best potential in certain movements. It also applies especially to all the new skills I have learnt in this session as we are becoming responsible for other peoples bodies.

I look forward at developing my flight skills further next week!

Surprisingly, this week I thoroughly enjoyed the Contact Jam. Unlike all of the other girls  who said they did not feel in the moment and zone this week. I felt that I was much more confident and daring with my choices. I contacted with nearly all of the people in the room, and I focussed a lot on changing my speed throughout the time of contact.  Changing my speed and dynamic made the movements seem much more spontaneous and I enjoyed this sensation of not knowing what is going to happen next. I was very happy with my progression this week, I hope it continues!

 

Works Cited

Woodhull, A., 1978 – 1979. Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook. Center of Gravity. Vol.4 ed. Northampton: Contact Editions.