Contact Improvisation

Once again I felt that this week was another positive week, I brought more energy and engaged with the tasks effectively. Developing the skills to release the tension in certain parts of the body (specifically the head and neck), was the challenging aspect of this week. I believe this because we hold our heads up everyday without thinking about what we are doing, trying to reverse our natural instincts is more challenging than I contemplated.

Simone Forti

Simone Forti is a student and teacher of improvisation, she was involved in the project of Judson Dance Theatre and worked with artists such as Anna Halprin and Merce Cunningham. She has worked on a dance form called Logomotion for 15 years, this explores improvisational dance that is influenced by words occurring when studying common sources.

The two videos studied in the lesson showed how research in Contact Improvisation has developed since the 1970’s, there is a significant iconic change in how we move and the form of Contact Improvisation Steve Paxton developed is not what we practice today. The first video was a showing of one of Paxton’s first performances ‘Magnesium’ (1972), where the improvisers were careless in throwing themselves onto other performers. Movements could be classed as aggressive and abrupt, in saying this there were moments of stillness to create distinction from one ‘lift’ to another whereas in the second video of Blake Nellis and Aaron Brando (Aaron Brando, 2010)movements were continuous. The two improvisers were careful in looking for points of contact that they could explore, they shard equal roles of giving and taking weight. Finally their form of Contact Improvisation was more about trial and error and if something went wrong they developed a way to get out of the movement.

Moving with the head proved to be the most challenging task… especially when partnered with Gemma, this is because I have never worked with her before and we aren’t that aware of each others bodies and personal limitations. I felt that we were repetitive with our movements as we just stood up and released back into a crouch. The other exercise where we held our partners heads was easier, Jess found it difficult to release her head and let me carry all of the weight at first. I think the responsibility of looking after another persons head was uncomfortable personally, I trusted myself that I wouldn’t drop it but the thought made me uneasy. When I had to give the weight of my head to my partner it took me a while to relax, it wasn’t until I closed my eyes that I fully gave her the weight, my movements also changed, I felt more relaxed in the space and I suppose not judged for what I was doing.

The final exercise was ‘Pebbles’, I found this relaxing, giving all of my weight into my partners back was similar to having a massage. The key aspect was to constantly keep contact with my partner, this could only be achieved if I relaxed every part of my body including my head and eyes. Engaging my eyes allowed me to read the situation and understand where I needed to place my body coming off of my partners back. This is mentioned by Daniel Lepkoff in his interview with Simone Forti (2005)  ‘Likewise, you need to move your vision to build a sense of where you are in space, you need to take a reading. Once I became aware of this activity of reading space I could allow myself to play with the way I read space, and feel and shape the rhythm of that reading’ (Lepkoff, 2005).

The reading I felt most engaged with was ‘Beginning, Approaching, Practicing, Dancing’ (Paek, S. M, 2015). It talks about the fear of unknown in Contact Improvisation and the questions that go through your head when asked to partner with someone new.

How long will you be working together?
How intimate of frightening will the task be?
Will you feel comfortable?
What will you have to do?

It reminded me of when Kirsty asks us for a partner to demonstrate something and every one goes quiet, we need to just take the opportunity to work with new people and not be afraid of the unknown, committing to what you are doing and being open to create something new with some one you have not worked with before. After all Contact Improvisation requires you to be comfortable with anything and everything that is thrown at you.

Bibliography

Forti, S. (2005) The Movement of Attention: An interview with Daniel Lepkoff : The Movement Research Performance Journal, 29 (Spring 2005). Available from http://daniellepkoff.com/writings/Daniel%20Simone%20Interview.php [accessed 15 October 2017].

Fronterad (2013) Simone Forti [image]. Available from https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=simone+forti&FORM=HDRSC2 [accessed 15 October 2017].

Paek, S M. (2015) Beginning, Approaching, Practicing, Dancing. Contact Quarterly, Vol 40: 1,pp. 36.

Tumasia (2010) Fall after newton 1 . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k768K_OTePM&amp=&t=300s [accessed 15 October 2017].

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.

 

To say I’m excited for Contact Improvisation is an understatement…

I can not wait to discover what contact improvisation is truly about,  how I can train my body to sense my peers intentions and feelings when moving together. To deepen my movement knowledge and self awareness of my body as a being rather than a tool.

Knowing that this week was only a taster of what is to come for the rest of the year, makes me want to push myself into every exercise and challenge that is thrown at me. This weeks class has already taught me a lot about Contact Improvisation, it has taught me that you have to think about the other person more than yourself, you have to trust who you are working with to get the best out of the class and finally that Contact Improvisation relies fundamentally on touch.

The reading ‘Moving from the Skin’ was the one I found the most interesting, I feel that it related to the class the most. This is because it relates to my point I mentioned earlier that Contact Improvisation relies mainly on touch. ‘One of the most important elements of Contact Improvisation is communication by touch, both by touching and by being touched.’ (Heitkamp, D 2003) Describing touch as a way of communicating sparks an intriguing thought of how many other ways can we communicate with each other without moving our mouths. The reading also talks about the 3 different functions of the skin. I’ve only ever thought of the skin as a layer that protects the organs and vessels within my body, but studying the reading in depth made me realise that skin is the way we communicate with others whether this is in Contact Improvisation or in everyday life. ‘In its third function, the skin-no less than the mouth- is the site and primary means of communication and development of meaningful relationships.’ (Heitkamp, D 2003)

The second reading ‘Drafting Interior Techniques’ by Steve Paxton was a fundamental reading for getting to know the history of how Contact Improvisation was formed, since Steve Paxton was the founder. Paxton describes Contact Improvisation as ‘a physical event best described negatively: not art, not sport, not most of the things that characterize dancing in this century.’ If this is the case it leaves me with the question of what exactly does the founder of Contact Improvisation best describe his way of dancing as?

As a beginner in Contact Improvisation I would describe it as a way of communicating with a person by senses such as touch, through unconventional ‘dance’ movements. I am interested to see that as I learn more about this way of moving whether my ‘definition will change or my views on Contact Improvisation. Hopefully I will not loose my excitement and interest in the subject and my want to know more and develop my skills will only become stronger.

 

Bibliography

Paxton, S. Drafting Interior Techniques. In Stark-Smith, N. A Subjective History of Contact Improvisation. In Albright, A. C., & Gere, D. (2003). Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan. University Press. Pp.175-184

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