Contact improvisation

For some unknown reason I was very anxious to go into this week’s contact session, I am not sure whether this was due to it being the second half of the formative assessment or nerves associated with our research. Our research group had to go last, this gave us chance to participate in everyone’s labs before we led our own. All of the research labs explored the idea of eye contact. When being involved in the exercises I have learnt that I am more comfortable closing my eyes when contacting as this gives me the chance to not think what is aesthetically pleasing to the eye as I am unaware of who is watching me. This also gives you the chance to experience new positions and movements as when your eyes are shut you are unsure of what part of your body is touching your partners, this makes it interesting. After completing this exercise and contacting with my eyes open I noticed the difference from how I felt with my eyes closed.

When it was time to explore our two questions I was excited to see how everyone would take to the exercises and what feedback they would give.

• How do we incorporate eye contact?

One of our first exercise included the group to get into pairs and having to stand facing each other. They would connect with their eyes and start to make physical contact with different parts of the body whilst keeping the eye contact. From observing this at the start they found it difficult to get into as it was very stop/ start. This was a way for us to ease them in and this allowed us to build on our idea. The next exercise for this question allowed for both the dancers to observe the duets happening and being able to feel what it is like to be in the duet. Two duets came together to make a four then they decided which pair would go first and then the pair not going first would watch the pair and observe.

Some of the feedback we got given when the pairs were observing was that they felt the duets looked intimate as the connection between two people was strong. This gave them the opportunity to create new an interesting movement which made it more interesting to watch. From my observation I felt like the connecting between the two people was interesting to watch, it was not awkward in any way. The movement material between the duets flowed and the movement was natural. During this task, it became clear to me that eye contact can make or break a connection between partners. It becomes obvious in a contact duet when there is a natural connection between a duet. Other feedback which we received was that it was difficult once you had stopped improvising with eye contact to then regain it again as the connection had already gone. I think this just happened like this as we was experimenting with the idea and using all different exercises instead of doing a jam.

 

• Who initiates the movement after a weight bearing position, the under or over dancer?

This was our second question which we explored. The first exercise our grouped showed our peers involved the dancers getting into partners again, preferably someone who they haven’t worked with in a while. In these pairs they had to come up with three weight bearing positions these positions did not have to flow into one another, the over and under dancer had to alternate who was the over and under dancer. Once they had found their three positions they repeated these but changing who initiated the movements to get out of the positions. For example the over dancer might initiated their exit before the under dancer would. This is something we wanted to play with. From observing this exercise I found that the under dancer was the one who initiated the movement more than the over dancer. This might have occurred because the under dancer is the dancer who is holding their partners weight.

The feedback we got off this exercise was that the dancers had time to think of unusual weight bearing lifts instead of going back to habitual as of the time they was given. The dancers compared this task to the jams which we participate in and the differences between them being controlled and free.

Jams/improvised	Controlled/structured
Don’t have the chance to choose which lifts you want to do as in the jams you improvise to what comes naturally to you.	In a controlled and structured time limit they had the choice to play about with different lifts and pick the best ones to show.
The lifts are less habitual in a jam as you don’t know what is going to happen throughout as it is not choreographed.	As the dancers are used to improvising they mentioned how they are not used to having as much possibilities in lifts.

 

In Contact improvisation: A question? Daniel Lepkoff (2008) Lepkoff talks about how Steve Paxton’s idea was ‘to put the dancers in an unusual and disorientating situation. His theory was that by doing this it will help the dancers during a contact duet as they are unpredictable and you are put in sudden weight bearing positions which you don’t necessarily have time to think’(Lepkoff,2008). This relates to my experiences during contact improvisation as when you are contacting in a jam you don’t have time to think about what does comes next. Something which always runs through my mind is my conscious thinking of letting my body take control instead of the mind which is something I have to constantly work with.

Bibliography

Lepkoff, D., January 2010. Contact Improvisation: A Question? [Online] Available at: http://www.daniellepkoff.com/Writings/CI%20A%20question.php [accessed 23^rd October 2015].

So I have been participating in the contact improvisation lessons for a month and I am starting to feel more confident in my movement choices and trusting my peers with my weight. The lesson started with us standing still in neutral position, closing our eyes and listening to our inner body. I found it hard to stand still without fidgeting or moving any part of my body. The idea of closing my eyes scares me so this was challenging to keep my eyes closed for a long time. Even though we were told to stay still my body was constantly moving I could not help but feel dizzy when having my eyes closed and the sensations running through my body were never still. The idea of moving my weight into different positions of the foot was difficult as when closing my eyes I had already felt dizzy before moving. Holding the position either on my heels or toes made me instantly use my abdominals to try and stay there.

When getting into partners I try to work with everyone in the room at some point as this gives me the opportunity to see who I work well with and who I struggle with. When we was in partners the idea was that we had to improvise with each other using contact, then one dancer would say stop. When the dancer said stop the other dancer then had to find a counter balance on their partner. When completing the exercise I found it easier for my partner to put their weight on me as I feel like I was more stable with my positions, however this might have changed depending on different peers I was working with. Sometimes I feel like a great difference in height made a difference on who was putting their weight on who, as I am quite tall working with a smaller dancer it just fell to the smaller person always putting her weight on me. I find this exercise easier standing rather than the floor as my movement knowledge and lifting on the floor I feel restricted in. On the other hand performing this exercise whilst standing allowed us more freedom.

Weight bearing in contact improvisation is a key factor. From the reading ‘Sensing weight in movement’ by Susanne Ravn, the key points which stood out to me was how dancers with previous dance training hold their weight differently. For example ballet dancers hold their weight vertically ‘gravity is not to be defeated by activating controlled elongation and creating lines out of the space’ (Ravn, 2010, 26). Unlike a contemporary dancer as their weight is grounded and the concentration is more on how the body feels instead of what the body looks like. Proprioception is used in all areas of the dancer techniques and also used in contact improvisation. For myself being from a ballet background this is a way which I can connect ballet and contact improvisation together. As when performing contact improvisation you have to use these skills to see the dancers around you to connect with them and for safety and the same applies with the ballet technique too.

One of the final exercise included us to put all of our trust into our peers. This included standing in a circle whilst one person goes into the middle of the circle and shouts ‘1-2-3’ and on three they would fall backwards. The dancers who were near the dancer in the middle had to run to them to gradually help them down and taking extra care of the head. At the start of this exercise everyone was nervous about going into the middle as you had to put your 100% trust on people catching you. When I went into the middle I was anxious to see what would happen but I enjoyed the feeling of being in a way lifted to the floor. The final exercise included us getting into groups and lifting someone from the group in the air horizontally. The group which I was in felt comfortable with lifting everyone and everyone who was lifted felt safe. As a group I feel like we achieved something quite big as some people in our group had never been lifted before or either don’t like being lifted. By the end of the exercise everyone had ago at every position and everyone had been lifted which was a great feeling. The body part which I went towards holding the most was the head, I am not sure why but I felt comfortable holding the head with strength as you have to be careful it doesn’t drop as it can cause injury.

Research Labs

In the group there is four other people and I for the research lab. Over the few sessions we have been told to think of questions which we would like to discover, so when we was told to put the questions we had built up over the past couple of weeks on paper our ideas kept flowing. When discussing our final 2 two questions which we wanted to discover more in depth it was a unanimous vote the two questions are:

• How do we incorporate eye contact in improvisation?
• Who initiates the movement after a weight bearing position, the under or over dancer?

The group decided to choose this questions as from watching the videos we felt like these were lacking in the reflection of our contact. We now need to think of some tasks which could reflect our questions and form our research including small group tasks and feedback from our peers.

Questions which I ask myself

What effect would the changing of weight have on our contact in improvisation?

Does proprioception come naturally to us all during improvisation?

Bibliography

Ravn, S. (2010) Sensing Weight in Movement. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 2(1) 21-34.

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 7^th 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.

– The rolling point and the interchangeable role of the under and over dancer.

Duncan states ‘ That we touch and are touched is important but is, how we are touched that affects us, teaching us how to define boundaries in response to sensory information’ (Bannon F, Duncan H,216,2011). Throughout the lesson I feel like this quote is something which is very important to know throughout our exercise and contact between others. To sense each other’s bodies before and during contact to keep the connection alive.

From walking into the second improvisation lesson I already felt more confident in myself. To start with we ran around the room and when you made eye contact with another person you put your hand on their shoulder which would lead them to melt to the floor. At the start when someone put their hand on your shoulder everyone was hesitant meaning the melting part you had to put all of the effort in and could do it in the most habitual way to you. As the exercise went on, the more force the dancer put on your shoulder the more realistic the movement felt to me. When another peer was down on the floor you could assist them by grabbing their forearm and pulling them back to up standing and restarting the process again. Here you had to form a connection with the person who was pulling you up so that you could get up in the most efficient and weightless way possible. The dancer who was pulling the other up had to use all of their force and pile into physically pulling them up as the other dancer was not allowed to do any of the work. Connection and contact was an importance here for it to work efficiently.

The next exercise was the first time we held our partners body weight. Person A laid on the floor on their stomach whilst person B laid on top of them allowing all their weight to fall onto the dancer. This is called the under/over dancer, as one dancer was laying on the floor it was easier to take the other persons weight. When I was the under dancer I sensed when my partner was about to lay on me which made me apprehensive to start with. When I was the dancer who was laying on top of another I felt more comfortable in just letting my whole body weight go. Moving into swapping partners and connecting with each other’s back as the main point, I started to figure out a pattern. I kept being the over dancer which happened in all the partners I worked with. We had not arranged this beforehand, it was something which we both noticed when working together. To me being an over dancer felt more natural but it wasn’t habitual to me as when working with partners in the past I was usually the person who would be the ‘lifter’ or the ‘base’. So this felt very peculiar to feel so natural in a position I am not used too.

The final exercise ended up with us working with another partner and whilst one dancer was improvising the other had to shout stop. When the dancer shouted stop the dancer who was improvising had to freeze in their position. The dancer would then come and either put all of their weight onto their body or make a balance. I found this exercise difficult as the points of contact became habitual and you would go to the stomach or to a strong part of the body. Finding different positions and different points of contact I struggled with. After the feedback which was given if given the chance more interesting points of contact would occur.

‘Touch is more than the making of contact, it concerns qualitative variations in the degree of attention.’(Bannon, F Duncan H, 219, 2011). This quote is very important in the exercises where we had to use contact. The attention and concentration between two people is important to ensure a clear communication, it gives a mutual understanding between the two bodies in the space. Trusting your partner is something which is becoming more natural to me. The exercise at the end of travelling up and down the room pushed me out of my comfort zone. Even though I wasn’t in my habitual moves I enjoyed participating in the exercises and it tested your trust in your body and your peer’s body.

How does momentum effect your contact/connection with your partner?

Throughout improvisation it is difficult to eliminate habitual movements, is this possible to eliminate this through contact?

Bibliography

Bannon, F. and Duncan, H. (2011) Touch: Experience and knowledge. Journal of dance & somatic practices.3, 215-227.

As this was my first class of contact improvisation I was anxious to see what we would be doing throughout this semester. From doing improvisation in my first year I was excited but also nervous to see where the connection between two bodies would emerge. The first activity we was given involved us reconnecting with the floor and using our body in many different ways which included rolling, pushing and pulling. I found this difficult to start with as I had not been able to do an improvisation lesson over the summer so I had to refresh my body and mind. When watching my peers improvise I noticed their habitual movements, for example some people stayed down on the floor more than standing. The feedback I was given was that my movement always initiates from my shoulders. When improvising I always improvise on the floor, this is something which has become a habit to me which I need to eliminate and expand my movement knowledge.

One of the most interesting and challenging exercises from the class was when all dancers had to walk around the room with our eyes closed. This pushed me to the limit as I personally don’t like being in the unknown, not knowing if I was going to hit or bump into anyone scared me. The way contact was brought into this exercise was when two dancers touched one another we had to hug. I was hesitant to start with as I did not know who I was hugging and the vibes which I was getting from the other dancers was that it was awkward. Once we repeated this task more I felt like everyone was more comfortable as the hugs as they were more meaningful, tighter and longer.

In the next exercise we improvised in partners and one peer touched a body part of another where ever there was an opening. From observing, I noticed everyone was touching lightly on their partner’s body. The dynamics also made a difference to the force of the touch. When I observed the partners doing the movement with sharp dynamics, I noticed that their touching was fast and quick so they was able to keep up with the other person. When the dynamics were slower I feel like the dancers had more time to think about where they were touching and where they were placing the hand. When my partner pressed with more force onto my body this restricted my movement slightly as I was unable to move in the way I wanted. This exercise allowed me to connect with my partner and enabled me to communicate through our movements rather than our voices. This exercise benefited me by allowing me to grow in confidence with my peers and grow closer and more intimate with each other.

The final exercise involved us being in partners and jabbing the air whilst facing each other. Every time we jabbed in the same area we had to complete the same movement. The closer I was to my partner the more uncomfortable I felt. When performing this exercise I always felt like I was going to jab in their space causing injury. The more we completed the movement the more comfortable I became with the person I was working with meaning I was able to feel the movement and communicate with my body.

From Heitkamp’s reading ‘Moving from the skin’. I can relate to ‘one of the most important elements of contact improvisation is communication by touch, both by touching, and being touched’ (Heitkamp, 2003, 256). From my experience today this idea is relatable to the activities which I performed. In the way that by touching one another you are communicating through the body and audience without speaking which can be empowering to watch and also perform. Touch is an importance in contact improvisation as this is the starting point which then can lead onto many difference pathways.

Do different dynamics effect the way we contact throughout improvisation?

How would you initiate contact through the improvisation?

 

Bibliography

Heitkamp, D. (2003). Moving from the Skin: An Exploratorium. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II, Vol. 28:2. Pp. 256- 264.