I do not feel any different this week towards the concept of Contact Improvisation compared to the previous week, I am developing new skills and pushing myself to work with people I would not have necessarily worked with before. The highlight of this week surprisingly, would be the Jam on Thursday, watching how people create relationships with each other and seeing that some relationships are stronger than others encouraged me to want to work with different people in order to be comfortable about dancing with anyone, this will allow us to have strong relationships throughout the Module.
A key word that is continuously appearing in this module is the word proprioception. It is the bodies ability to sense a stimuli that impulses movement or positions in the body. In regards to Contact Improvisation proprioception is key for knowing when the right time to move yourself or your partner is, if this is not achieved correctly injuries could occur on both sides. I have experienced this in my dance training, especially in Improvisation sessions before we studied Contact Improvisation. An example of this would be when I have repeated the same movement multiple times in a row and sensing when I have exhausted this movement to the point where it could get boring for the audience, going on to me changing my movement pattern or existing the performance area completely.
Surfing and Rolling
The most important rules for this exercise were to;
- Not loose the contact with your partner otherwise the trust you have built up with each other will be lost.
- Communicate with your partner so you know the placement of your body and weight is correct.
- Use the momentum of the previous roll to take you into the next roll (never stop).
- Release your weight and relax into your partner.
- Find the ‘jigsaw’ place in your partners spine, the two backs should connect and fit together.
Doing the exercise with my eyes closed made it easier for me, it helped to forget the others around me and enabled me to concentrate on me and my partner only, I could then achieve all of the above points the best way possible. When thinking about proprioception this exercise comes into mind, especially when you are the under dancer. You need to be able to sense when your partner needs help surfing you to make the movement fluid, and if this is the case you need to roll in the direction your partner is rolling. Personally taking other people’s weight was the most comfortable role, for some of the dancers I feel too heavy to be giving all of my weight into their bodies. in the future weeks this is something that I need to work on as I know they are capable of taking my weight it is just in my head. Saying this when I was working with people similar weight to me I was fine being the over dancer.
This weeks reading was enjoyable, it explores people’s experiences of touch as a form of social interaction and how we perceive touch. The opinion that touch is the only ‘organ’ that is all over the body was the main point that stood out to me, I had never thought of this before about how every single part of your body feels touch. But are you being touched or are you touching? This is the point of reversibility and if I am being honest this point confuses me so I am keen to explore this more in future weeks.
Bibliography
Touch: Experience and knowledge. Full Text Available By: Bannon, Fiona; Holt, Duncan. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 2012, Vol.3 Issue 1/2, p215-227.
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