We began the lesson with a brief summary of the two weekly readings. The main points of the readings that I found interesting were about what is actually aesthetically pleasing to watch? I feel that during Contact Improvisation we should not worry about what we look like, alongside not thinking about what/where we are planning to do/go next. We should allow the body to be in the movement and with what it feels. I feel that some dancers in general may struggle to accomplish this. We automatically have this ‘idea’ of what we should look like to look good to an audience. We are also familiar to learning choreography and sequences and habitually think of what move/step is coming up next.

We began with a warm-up similar to the ideas we usually play around with at the beginning of a jam or class. The work is very grounded and we looked at:

• Forward, backward, shoulder rolls
• Transference of weight through the hands e.g. cartwheels
• Floor rolls/releases
• Weight in the hands e.g. handstands

I realised that this work is similar to ‘Release Technique’ which is something I read about in the weekly reading. I learnt that Release Technique is all about finding the most efficient and effective way for the body to move. This is by the body moving through the centre pathway which releases tensions from the outer muscles. This links to what I read in What Is Release Technique. ‘An important aim of the technical work in Mary’s Release classes was to draw the body closer to channeling its action along these pathways. This would both realign the body so that the weight was supported through the center of the bones as well as re-patterns the flow of energy so that the action was initialed by the muscles closest to the bodies.’ (Lepkoff, 1999) All of these movements in the warm-up allow the body to release and move in an energy free way. The movements are supposed to be effortless for the body. This is an important skill to have for Contact Improvisation, because the body needs to have freedom and release to be able to adapt and move with other bodies. I also learnt that being well grounded and centered puts the body in a stable, strong position. This makes it easier for the body to be safer as it is closer to the ground, so the impact if something goes wrong will be less. The body is therefore also more firm for people to give weight too and be manipulated during improvisation.

In the class we started looking at our Research Labs. We were asked to focus on a couple of questions we have been thinking about since starting Contact Improvisation. We had to prepare and create tasks that would help explore different outcomes and hopefully create some answers. I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in all the different range of exercises, it allowed to experiment with ideas I had not even thought about myself.

Group 1 looked at how different senses affected improvisation. What I found most striking from this exploration was how when I closed my eyes when I was improvising; it made me less conscious about what movements I was doing. It was peculiar not knowing what body parts were touching at times, but it allowed me to feel new sensations as I was able to break habitual movement patterns and experience new feelings between my body and another. This group also looked at pressure points which led me to realise that I can actually take more pressure than I initially thought, which will help me in future jams. I found that these tasks helped me understand what Daniel Lepkoff means when he says ‘my own fascination in dancing Contact Improvisation was the discovery that through my physical senses I can gather information directly from my environment; that using my own powers of observation I can shift my perspective, have new perceptions and fee myself from my own conventional/habitual ways of seeing’ (Lepkoff, January 2010) because I was able to use the environment and my internal feelings to initiate my movements by reducing my senses.

Group 2 had a strong focus on eye contact. The exercises they had prepared made me see that finding eye contact can sometimes break the flow of improvising, but can also expose interesting positions by having to tilt, bend, twist etc. to keep the eyes in contact. It actually made me create positions with my body I never have before which was exciting to discover. I learnt that eye contact can be a great way to establish a connection between two people. I will definitely use this more when trying to initiate improvisation with another person.

The last group wanted to experiment with weight bearing. It was interesting to find new positions with the body, as I tried to be different with my choices instead of predictable. I enjoyed playing around with the initiation of these positions changing between the over and under dancer. It made me recognise that I can hold positions for lengthier periods of time than I originally thought. It was a very surprising task in a positive way.

I and the other members of the group had two questions we wanted to explore and many tasks to help find the answers to our queries:

1.Why is it so difficult to keep eye contact?

Our Tasks:

Warm-up

Walking around the room, ignoring one another, making eye contact, making eye contact and smiling, gaining and maintaining eye contact.

This exercise was just to introduce this idea of eye contact between two people.

Imagery

Two lines of people facing inwards to each other, holding straight eye contact with different ideas in the mind e.g. being in love with the person, hating the person, not knowing the person etc.

The idea of this was to try preventing people from laughing or finding eye contact awkward. The imagery was a way of changing the situation in the mind to see if the participants could overcome this awkwardness.

Retreat and Advance

In pairs, facing one another the partakers maintain hold eye contact whilst moving back and forth with one another.

The aim is for the eye contact to be strong so it guides and aids the movements between the two people.

Mirroring

In pairs, facing one another one of the two begins to improvise whilst keeping strong eye connection with partner and the other tries to mirror the movements.

This exercise has a similar objective to the previous exercise.

We as a group hoped that the participants manage to overcome the hilarity of having eye contact with another person. As well as seeing the importance of how it can guide and aid movements.

2.Why do some people trust more than others?

Our Tasks:

Spontaneous Lean

In a small circle, one volunteer stands in the centre and spontaneously falls in any direction, the job of the outside people is to catch and rebound the person back to the centre.

The idea of this exercise was to try gain trust with everyone and not just certain people.

Run and Jump

One person runs and dives into the arms of the rest of the group.

This exercise was to try getting people over the fear of giving people their full weight and actually enjoy having no responsibility of their body for a change.

Due to time we were unable to continue with our other tasks and development of the first task. However, we were hoping to discover why some people trust more than others and to overcome this.

The results we gathered from the feedback from the group were very mixed. It was interesting to hear that the use of imagery did not help with overcoming the amusement of eye contact. I honestly thought that this technique would work, as I have used a similar exercise in my previous training and the shift in mind really helped maintain the focus. However, it was good to know that all of the group realised how much eye contact can benefit and support movement with another body. There was an excellent point made about how a strong connection through the eyes creates a strong connection in the body, which was very good positive feedback and what we was hoping to achieve through our tasks.

I was very surprised at how well everyone has begun to trust all of the members of our class. It is very pleasant to see how far we have come with allowing to put our weight into other people so far. Everyone mentioned how they did not mind who was catching them as they felt very safe, which was very positive. We thought that some people may struggling trusting others due body size, shape and how good friends with people they are. So it is good to know that no-one is in that place and we should all feel comfortable with one another.

It was very intriguing to see how many different questions emerged during throughout the research labs. I think this shows that as we are always asking questions during contact improvisation, there is never going to be an ending or plateau. This is because it will always be expanding with new thoughts and material. Which linked to Contact Improvisation: A Question? As a question I found in the reading interesting was ‘What happens when, after a few years of practice, what was once an unpredictable emergency situation becomes familiar?’ (Lepkoff, January 2010) I personally think that even if the unfamiliar does become familiar, there will always be new irregular material to explore due to the ever changing environment and internal feelings of humans.

I would briefly like to comment on how I felt during the Contact Jam this week. I honestly felt not as confident as I usually do, which was quite disheartening. I struggled making contact with other people however, I did enjoy the sensation of moving on my own. I found this benefited me in a way, because I was able to transition in and out of the jam much easier than others. I feel that because I am new to the group this year that people are more resistant to come and make contact with me. I think they feel more comfortable and familiar with the other girls in the group. I hope to overcome this next week and just let my body be in the space without overthinking. Despite struggling this week, I thoroughly enjoyed watching other duets in the space, I felt very captivated as I observed how beautifully two bodies can communicate with one another.

 

Works Cited

Lepkoff, D., 1999. What is Release Technique?. [Online] Available at: http://www.daniellepkoff.com/Writings/What%20is%20Release.php

Lepkoff, D., January 2010. Contact Improvisation: A Question?. [Online] Available at: http://www.daniellepkoff.com/Writings/CI%20A%20question.php

We started the forth Contact Improvisation session by sharing our findings in our reading groups from the asked readings. I enjoy sharing these, as I always learn new things about the texts I did not fully understand.

Kirsty then began the physical aspect of the lesson by asking us to stand as still as we could with our eye closed, she asked us to think and recognise what was happening in the body. I asked myself:

What do I feel internally in my body?

I felt myself slightly swaying back and forth. I noticed a habitual pattern that I gave way in my knees a lot; I think this is due to having injuries from a young age in my knees. I found it interesting feeling the intricate movements I would not normally notice. Kirsty then asked us to give in to these movements and create bigger actions initiated by these ‘internal’ triggers. When I allowed my body to do what it wanted I felt relieved as I was able to relax and listen to what my body wanted which felt good, because I am so used to being upright and putting my body into positions and alignments that do not feel natural. I feel this is because I have been trained in ballet since I was young. I can see how this relates to the reading taken from Sensing Weight in Movement, because Susanne Ravn investigates how ballet dancer’s weight is generally well centered as their movement comes from the engagement of the core, which is why ballet dancer’s alignment is generally upright, similar to me. (Ravn, 2010, p. 24) Therefore this helped me understand why I felt relief, because in Contact Improvisation you are able to experiment and explore with different placements of weight within the body, to which I am unfamiliar.

A thought that came to my mind throughout this exercise was:

The body is never actually still!

I found that this linked to a video we were asked to watch in preparation for this lesson smalldance by Steve Paxton. This allowed me to visually see these movements you may not actually see externally which was fascinating to see.

After this we looked at getting used to the idea of being upside down and coming in and out of the floor in different ways this included:

• Rolls
• Handstands/Variation handstands
• Adapted cartwheels
• Grounded elevations

It was a great experience to play around with different ways of putting the weight into the hands, and it was a good way to explore different transitions we could use to get out of balances and moments that do not quite connect when contacting. I could sense fear in the room, including myself as going upside down is not an everyday thing to do, which led me to the question:

Why is there such a fear of going upside down?

I believe there is a bigger fear of just going upside down, alongside falling, balancing and being lifted. I think this can be conquered by learning to trust one another as well as ourselves. I feel that what I learnt from the reading Is Contact a Small Dance? very fitting to these ideas I asked myself. As I now understand that there is a connection between contact and nature. There is a well-known saying ‘form follows function.’ I think that this is a principle that explains that the movement of the body should be primarily based upon its intended function for example: when catching yourself as a recovery the arms automatically come out to absorb the fall. (Brown, pg. 73) Therefore we should be able to rely on bodies to work for us when we need them too.

We then developed an exercise taken from one of the first weeks of Contact Improvisation, where in pairs we improvised and then one created a frame for another to balance on/give weight to. We advanced this by making the frame none static so the movement was continuous and fluid. We then incorporated these new transitions we had looked at during the beginning of the class. These ideas really helped improvising become much smoother, I felt like I could just go with the flow and my body could easily move in and out of different movements better due to gaining the new skills.

As the lesson progressed, we had not actually been in contact with anyone yet, so Kirsty led us through an exercise to ease us back in to being in contact with someone. The exercise involved being chest to chest with a partner, and pushing against each other to roll to being back to back. As a group we found this quite difficult as it is a combination of allowing the full body weight to be given to find the counter balance, to also being very closely contacted with a large part of the body. I found it a fun way to get involved again.

We then looked at a couple of trust exercises that involved lifting. As this is the first time we have thought about lifting during Contact Improvisation it was important we could gain each other’s trust first. We began by forming a circle, at any point anyone could walk in the circle and fall back and they had to trust that people would run in to catch them and place them safely on the floor. I observed that people found it hard to let go of their entire body, in particular one girl tensed her entire body due to fear and it actually made her become twice as heavy. We had to learn to relax, I personally was afraid to begin but once I had done it I realised that it was not daunting in the slightest and I quite enjoyed having no responsibility for myself for once. It was sad to see that not the entire group had the sureness to do this, because I feel their doubts would have vanished instantly, but I am sure their confidence will gain in time but it made me think:

Why do some people have difficulty trusting others?

The class came to an end by Kirsty introducing us to part of the assessment which is the ‘research lab’ we began to investigate this by in groups looking at questions that we have discovered and thought about through Contact Improvisation so far. Here is the mind map our group created:

(image)

 

We then had to choose a couple of these initial questions, and think of tasks we can use in the session next week to explore what we think the possible outcomes may be. We chose the two questions that we find the most interesting and difficult to find the answers too, as it gives us chance to experiment with live bodies to find our answers. The two questions we have chosen to explore next week are:

• Why is it that eye contact is so intimidating?
• Why do some people find it harder than others to trust?

 

I felt that throughout this class I worked with people who I usually don’t and this led me to finding new sensations which was good to explore. I found it exciting to start our research labs and I look forward to leading a small session on our set tasks next week.

I would like to briefly comment on what I observed in the Contact Jam this week as I found it very interesting as an outsider watching the entire class. Throughout the entire process all I could think about was how much I wanted to join in, and it got me thinking about the reading from last week Steve Paxton’s ‘Interior Techniques’ and Lisa Nelson’s discussion how audience members watching Contact Improvisation often join in, and feel they can embrace performers after performances as they feel like this contact is appropriate and the norm after what they had experienced as spectator. (Turner, 2010, p. 128)  I could really relate to this, as it summarises how I felt as an observer.

Works Cited

Brown, B., n.d. Is Contact a Small Dance? Contact Improvisation Soucebook I. Vol. 6 ed. s.l.:s.n.

Ravn, S., 2010. ‘Sensing Weight in Movement’ Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices. Vol. 2 Issue 1 ed. s.l.:s.n.

Turner, R., 2010. Steve Paxton’s ‘Interior Techniques’ The Drama Review. Vol. 54 Issue 3 ed. s.l.:Black and White Photographs.

 

To start the third class of Contact Improvisation we began by looking at the weekly reading of Steve Paxton’s Interior Techniques by Robert Turner. It was interesting to get together as a whole group and discover what we all found striking from the same reading. The main points we established were that as dancers we have a fear of judgement and of the unknown, and Contact Improvisation is a way to increase individual awareness and to grow used to the unfamiliar. I found these points interesting because they relate to my personal experience from Contact Improvisation up to this point.

Kirsty then thought it would be a good idea to look at two different pieces of Contact Improvisation, one called Magnesium by Steve Paxton which was from 1972, the second piece was Earthdance by Blake Nellis and Brando performed in 2010. I found it fascinating looking at the similarities and differences between the two pieces. It was interesting to see how Steve Paxton’s initial idea of Contact Improvisation has changed and evolved to what it is today. The performers in Magnesium; which I learnt was Steve Paxton’s piece of his continuation experimentation with Contact Improvisation through duets, were very brutal and aggressive with their movements; they were very daring and had no thought or care with their action choices. (Turner, 2010, p. 124) Unlike Earthdance which looked very controlled and comfortable, the two dancers seemed to really value each other’s bodies and it made it quite therapeutic to watch in my opinion. I can see how my practise currently is similar to Earthdance because we are constantly reminded to take care of each other’s bodies. However, I have not reached the standard that this duet are at yet.

To begin the practical side of the lesson we began with an exercise in pairs involving giving another person the whole weight of the head. I found it quite scary to have responsibility for someone else’s head, because this is one of the heaviest parts of the body and it needs to be looked after. I learnt that this exercise was a good way for us to get used to having responsibility for the full weight of one body part as soon we will have accountability for an entire body. The sensations that I experienced from this exercise were very surprising. I felt like my head was not attached to the rest of my body which showed that I was able to trust my partner with my head. I found it very calming and I felt very relaxed throughout the process. When my partner Lauren was in control of my head and directed me which path to move, it led me to discover new movements which was exciting to experience. I was shocked that I was able to give my full weight of my head to another as I have struggled with letting go of body parts in the past. It was clear that I had gained trust, and I can see how this exercise was a good way to learn to gain reliance in others.

We then moved to an exercise where in pairs we improvised whilst keeping one body part attached to another one of our partners for example: head to head or neck to shoulder etc. As the exercise progressed the points of contact became less planned and more spontaneous and I found myself contacting with the parts of the body that felt most natural and fitted in with the movements between me and the body I was working with. I feel I could be more daring with my choices but I feel this will come when I have had more experience and time working on contacting, as Steve Paxton comments ‘experienced contact improvisers become more daring and improvisational’. (Turner, 2010, p. 133 ) Afterwards when I reflected on the exercise I felt that a massive pressure had been lifted. I found it much easier to go with the flow. From my reading this week it became clear to me that the reason I have been struggling with having freedom with my movements and being interacted with another dancer is because, as a performer I am so used to being told/shown what to do, that I panic when I am given this independence to explore. This made sense after reading that Steve Paxton says ‘We are disciplined in “constraints and taboos of touching” that undermine our potential for satisfying physical contact.’ (Turner, 2010, p. 124) I found that the transitions between changing partners was the most difficult part. I recognised that it broke the flow I had found so difficult to get the hang of in the beginning. It was clear that some bodies were much easier to negotiate and connect with than others. A question that came to me throughout this process was:

How can transitions become smoother?

Towards the end of the class we focussed more on eye contact with others instead of creating contact with others. Since starting Contact Improvisation we have neglected the everyday activity of gaining eye contact with somebody else, as getting over the fear of contact has been priority. Now that this is becoming a more natural sensation to us as a group, we can now bring back this idea of eye contact as it is very important to connect to another person in every way possible. I found it fascinating that how in a simple exercise of walking around the room and gaining people’s eye contact, we now find it more difficult than being in fully body contact with somebody else. I find it surprising how as a group we find it amusing to make eye contact with one another, my theory behind this is because in today’s society we are so focussed on technology and can communicate without actually talking in the presence of a human we are not used to this personal invasion. I found that this theory related to when Steve Paxton says ‘The understanding of personal space is social/habitual and since the habit is defensive, having that space invaded can be shocking.’ (Turner, 2010, p. 125) Which reflects on why we react the way we do. I feel very proud of what I have achieved so far.

Works Cited

Turner, R., 2010. Steve Paxton’s “Interior Techniques” Contact Improvisation and Political Power. Vol. 54 Issue3 ed. s.l.:Black and White Photographs.

 

 

I was very apprehensive to see how the second class of Contact Improvisation would unfold. However, I came in with a positive attitude and was keen to get started. We started the class on the floor, similar to last week. We put all of our focus on specific body parts, and for me personally this made the certain part of my body feel much heavier than the other, a sensation I have never come across before.

We then moved onto a game that unfolded to mean much more than we thought. The game entailed the group walking around randomly, we then were able to touch another person’s shoulder and this person had to melt to the floor and wait for someone to help them up. At first, as a group we were just going through the motions instead of actually thinking about how this exercise could relate to Contact Improvisation. We were then told about how we should value and look after our own and other’s bodies, this made a shift in attitude towards the exercise, and we suddenly began making stronger connections and worked together more, which showed how our trust with each other was growing. According to Holt and Bannon’s work with students, they also had the same perception from being touched. As one of the students said ‘Touch allows you to connect with another, from my experience it has helped me engaged with my group members to a higher level of trust.’ (Holt & Bannon, 2012, p. 221) This is similar to what I experienced from this exercise. I learnt that authenticity is vital!

In pairs, we explored and played around with being able to give our fully body weight to another dancer. I personally found it very difficult to be able to just relax my fully body into somebody else’s. I was reassured that it does not matter how much I weigh, or the size of my body because any body can take any weight in the right way, it just may take more time for that reality to sink in for me. An exercise we did later on in the class in pairs also explored this idea of giving body weight to another, as well as counter balance and resistance. These were:

• The Pendulum
• The Walking Squat
• The Rugby Tackle

I found these exercises difficult and was unable to complete them, I think this is due to my fear or not being able to trust another with my full weight. This is an area I need to work on as it is important skill to have to be successful at Contact Improvisation. I need to let go of the idea of being too cautious!

We looked at the idea of ‘over’ and ‘under’, which is where one dancer is under and the other is over (just as it sounds) when improvising. This could mean one dancer is always one way or the two dancers can switch between the two roles. The idea of this is to go with the flow and listen and connect to the other dancer’s body and the two bodies should automatically take on the roles. We began experimenting this idea by closing our eyes being back to back with another dancer. I found closing my eyes to start a good way to connect with the inner skin and motion. It allowed me listen to which way my body and the other dancer’s body wanted to move and work with one another. I found the quality of touch between me and another dancer very strong and informative, which related to what I read in this week’s reading by Holt as he talks about how being touched affects us and stimulates awareness. (Holt & Bannon, 2012, p. 216) I found that this awareness created by touch motivated the movements between me and somebody else.

Leading on this from idea of giving weight, we then in pairs started to create frames for our partner to come and lean on, balance on and give weight onto. I learnt that being able to adapt to connect your body with another is important because, any dancer could be in any position when improvising as it is an organic process. I personally find it difficult to improvise it has never been strength of mine, therefore I find myself falling into habitual patterns, which I need to avoid. I learnt that trying new things will help me lead to exploring different sensations which I find a good motive to stop me ‘playing it safe’. I can see from this exercise that it is good to experience new things, which helped me understand Holt when he discusses how we should all support one another to become versatile and articulate in recognizing shifts in our knowledge to help us explore and explain the complex interactions in our learning process. (Holt & Bannon, 2012, p. 224) A question that emerged in my mind from this exercise was:

How can I stop myself from falling into habitual patterns when improvising?

This class was challenging, but I enjoyed how fast we are learning new skills. I look forward to how we progress next week as things seeming to be moving fast which is exciting.

 

Works Cited

Holt, D. & Bannon, F., 2012. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices. s.l.:s.n.

 

 

 

My first Contact Improvisation lesson began with an introduction to the module and what it entailed; this made me feel very apprehensive. However, as the lesson progressed I began to feel less worried and more motivated about all the new skills I will be learning.  What initiated my eagerness was that, as part of the module assessment at the end of the semester, we will be asked to perform a Contact Improvisation duet that has been choreographed. To help give us an idea of what these duets may look like we were shown two clips of two different duets, by two companies we need to be looking into throughout this module: La La La Human Steps and Ultima Vez. Watching these made me excited to think about what I may be able to achieve at the end of this semester.

Firstly we were asked to lie on the floor and create tension in separate areas of the body e.g. lower back. I found it quite difficult to isolate different parts of my body; however the results after completing this were surprising as my body felt much more relaxed and lengthened. The idea of this was to recognise and feel comfortable in our bodies and skin which helped lead onto what we were asked to do next. We were asked to play around with the ideas of pushing, pulling and rolling whilst we were on the floor. To begin with I found it challenging to let go and to not think and care about what I looked like. This idea of ‘letting go’ made much more sense to me after feeling it physically from reading about how Heitkamp describes one of the most important elements of Contact Improvisation being ‘what is happening right now, letting it happen, letting oneself go, being in flow.’ (Heitkamp, 2003, p. 259) However, I could feel myself falling into habitual patterns such as doing a back roll if I did not know what to do with myself. I noticed that the floor was my safe place and I like to lead my movements with my head. I feel that these habitual patterns are not uncommon when first exploring Contact Improvisation as Albright discusses how people seem wary and unable to let go of conscious control, and how disorientation, fear and fixed habitual responses can be noticed. (Gere, 2003, p. 180)

The lesson progressed fast, as we were suddenly asked to be in pairs, and as one of us improvised the other had to touch the person improvising and make a point of contact. I found it interesting to observe a pair as they did this exercise, because it was fascinating to see whether the place of touch influenced the next movement or rejected it and went in the opposite direction. This related back to Heitkamp’s suggestion of how touching can suggest a direction. (Heitkamp, 2003, p. 263) I learnt that either way is right, it is all about how the body feels to what transition it makes. A question that entered my mind whilst watching this exercise was:

‘What happens and changes when speed and dynamics change?’

I feel that the game ‘Ninja Jabs’ really helped me realise how important it is in Contact Improvisation to make bodily communications to people. The game started as a simple arm exercise and slowly developed into how bodies can fit together. I personally felt that it became much easier to get closer to another person and bend into the knees to really see and make a connection between two bodies and to see where best they could piece together.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the class today and was amazed by the natural and organic movements that my body was able to create in the moment. I look forward to exploring my body’s movements more, as well as being in contact with another and seeing how they link and interchange together. It excited me how quickly we progressed and learnt new skills and I cannot wait to develop these skills further.

Works Cited

Gere, A. C. A. &. D., 2003. Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader. s.l.:Wesleyan University Press.

Heitkamp, D., 2003. Contact Quartely/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II. s.l.:s.n.