When watching Steve’s Paxton’s work Magnesium (1972), I noticed that the force and dynamics of the jam is completely different to what it is today. The dynamics are fast which made it seem like they did not have time to think about what they were doing so they just fell into the movement. There was no set choreography or technique put into place throughout this jam so the improvisers had complete freedom. I noticed there was many solos throughout and only points of the contact.
After watching Blake Nellis and Brando’s Earth dance (2010) it was clearly the complete opposite of Steve Paxton’s work. It showed how much contact improvisation has changed over the years, which relates to the reading and how Steve Paxton does not like how the idea of contact improvisation has become a taught technique, it does not give you as much freedom that you would have had in the 60’s and 70’s. Earth dance was a more controlled and precise jam, the connection between the two dancers was more prominent which was interesting to watch. The fluidity through the different point of contact was smooth and looked effortless. After watching both videos I enjoyed watching the Earth dance more as it inspired me to become like them when improvising and contacting with my peers.
The first exercise which we participated in included us to get into partners, person A laid on the floor and person B sat behind them. Person B then had to hold their partner’s head in their hands, whilst person A had to in a sense let their head go so all of their weight was in the partner’s hands. I found it easy to let go off my head and let my partner which was Rebecca, take control and take the weight of my head. When I had to move and her hand was connected to my head I did not result to habitual movements which is an improvement as I tend to return to these. When the roles were reversed, I found it like I had a big responsibility as the head is the heaviest part of the body and I had complete control over it. Once I had held her head in my hands and felt the correct place for me I got more confident in myself and started to connect with my partner which is important in exercises like this.
The last exercise lead us to getting into partners again and attaching at the head, we had to improvise without letting the connection of our heads go. Charlotte and I found this hard to start with as we did not know how to start but once we had started to move, our movements were flowing. This exercise opened my eyes to new movements and dancing with another person attached to you. When Charlotte’s head was touching mine her head felt very warm but when we was dancing I did not feel any sensation from her. We then had to choose another body part to connect and start the process again, we decided to choose the elbow as it was not an obvious point of contact. This was challenging to try keep the elbows touching as it has a small surface area and our movement was restricted. After a few minutes we had to swap partners. After a few times of swapping partners I noticed that I worked well with different people. The dancers which I worked well with enabled the movement to flow and it was natural, so I did not want to swap partners because we had a connection between us. When I had to work with other dancers I did not feel as comfortable with the movement as it seemed forced and unnatural. You did not notice this until a few minutes into the exercise as I would struggle with movement choices. This exercise was the first exercise which was explained to me and I didn’t feel comfortable doing as it was out of my comfort zone. Once I had got into the exercise I was more confident and enjoyed the exercise which shocked me.
In Steve Paxton’s “Interior techniques by Robert Turner ‘The spontaneous physical interaction of contact usually compounds this basic improvisational fear’ (Turner, 2010, 132). This quote can relate to society and what is ‘normal’ to us. People in society don’t necessarily walk around touching people surrounding them, so when people are put in a space and are told to make contact with others not many know how to react which makes them fearful of what is about to come. This quote to me relates to what my initial thoughts of contact improvisation was. I did not like the idea of connecting with other bodies and improvising with each other in everyone’s personal space. From participating in the past three sessions my confidence and thoughts of contact improvisation have changed, and I look forward to see what happens throughout the next sessions.
Bibliography
Aaron Brando (2010) Contact improvisation: Blake Nellis & Brando Earth dance. [Online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQRF2sLK1vY [accessed 7th October 2015).
Nelson, L. (dir.) (2006) Contact Improvisation Archive DVD #2: Magnesium, Peripheral Vision, Soft Pallet. [DVD] East Charleston: VIDEODA.
Turner, R. (2010) Steve Paxton’s ‘Interior Techniques’: Contact Improvisation and Political Power. TDR: The Drama Review, 54(3), 123-135.