Contact Improvisation

Reflecting on the last few weeks of CI is a revelation. I thought that contact improvisation involved moving around another body and keeping contact at all times. However, I now know it is much more than that and I never realised how much you could actually do. At the beginning of the module I was not looking forward to it, and I hated working with another body so closely. Although now, I am not fazed by that aspect and will happily move with anybody comfortably.

There have been many high and low points within the journey, but every single moment has been unique to me. There have been times where I have had no clue how I am responding to another body or what has happened in the last 10 minutes. All of this relates to our research question how do we think in movement when we are not thinking? and the reading Thinking in Movement. ‘The mind is always one step ahead of the body’ (Sheets-Johnstone, 2017, 12) and that is down to the sensations that the body is receiving. In hindsight we are able to think and move because bodies are sending impulses from one another, then to the mind and then back to the body to allow us to move again. What always intrigues me within CI is that there is no right or wrong.

Many coincidences occur and many was from moves that did not work out. This then lead to moving on and doing something else, or sticking with that moment and developing it into something else. Some moments even arise from falling or stumbling, and sometimes these are the best coincidences to happen. They are unexpected to the body and this may even create something new to work with. As Maxine Sheets-Johnstone mentioned CI is ‘an unrehearsed and spontaneous form of dance’ (Sheets-Johnstone, 2017, 8) and nothing must be planned. So, if you go off track it does not matter, it makes the piece. I am surprised with myself liking this approach in a dance because I always want things to be perfect and rehearsed, therefore this was a strange encounter. When improvising it is easy to look after your own body, however in CI there is a whole other body or bodies to look after.

Moving with more bodies as the weeks went on got easier, our instincts of how to move with one another grew. We could not achieve complex movements, but we could apply our knowledge of how to support one another. Even with a simple table top position, another body can help a body over. I found that when another body was introduced in that situation, I was able to move away from my habitual path that I was working towards. My pathway changed to moving with 2 bodies and I was able to create a new connection easily, without my first connection being interrupted. When moving with several people it is important to communicate, whether you are an over or under dancer. Within the last week I experienced being the over dancer to around 10 people. The thought of that is scary. However, I did not have the chance to think about it because I was already in the air. It was unexpected, although thinking back I can see how the movement developed into my body being lifted. When I was being carried I was rather relaxed, and in that moment, it showed me the importance of communicating through bodies, and how we need to share body weight between bodies when being the under dancer.

Touch is the fundamental to all communication, and it is also a way of asking someone do you want to move with me? without having eye contact or speech. No one is going to refuse to work with a body, because all we look for in Ci is a body to work with. If I got into situation where I had already worked with someone and it was not going anywhere, I would try to introduce Nancy Stark Smith’s Underscore as prompts. I could even use repulsion to work against the other body. However, I would still be working with the other body, just in a different way, and this could then spiral into something else.

I have learnt so much over this module, and has opened my eyes, and body to a new way of moving. I will now be able to apply my knowledge into other things, such as my technique classes. I will most definitely carry on with improvising and contact improvising as much as I can, whether that is to create movement for choreography, to warm up or to just have fun.

 

Sheets-Johnstone, M. (2017) Thinking in Movement. Contact Quarterly, vol 42: 1, pp. 7-12.

Getting to grips with the underscore is challenging, even when Nancy Stark-Smith explains how she came up with the underscore. She mentions that the symbols are the nature of each stage without words (Stark-Smith, 2013), which if you do listen and look you can see it. I saw the symbols as prompts for my body and some of the prompts like attraction and repulsion helped when initiating movement. With these I changed the distance between myself and my partner and weight bared in different ways, like repulsion I resisted and pulled away. Some other prompts such as collision was difficult. The first initial thought was to run into another body at speed. Although after that encounter, I tried to experiment with the momentum but apply it to a certain body part instead. Trying to apply the same quality to my arm was still difficult, however it did create a new dynamic when moving. When introducing empathy into the score I experimented with my weight. I included the activity 1,2,3, falling without saying it, and the move was unexpected to my partner, although they did sense I was going to fall because more of my weight went into their body.

From week 8 I mentioned about there to be no hierarchy, although I did intervene and take lead when it came to a sticky situation. Ever so often we would get into the motion of moving around the body on the spot, and repeating so I would initiate a lift or level change to get out of the motion. We would then return to sharing the responsibility of leading.

I no longer find jams daunting. Whenever I enter the space I will move and wait for someone to make a connection or I will search for a body, not a certain person anymore. Even if everyone is working with one other person, I do not feel awkward to go and interrupt that now. I feel more confident working within a group, and I am now able to use symbols from the underscore when there are too many bodies moving. I use touch and the skinesphere as an option to explore my body and others, and experiment with what body parts can touch my partner and what that touch will do to their movement, and then how that influences my next. Introducing the underscore has helped my practice because I now know if I do get into a habitual pathway I can take symbols from it, or even graze from symbol to symbol to keep my partner and myself on our toes.

Finally, I have worked with Fenia and it was a great experience. Having an experienced body to work with influenced my body to move in different ways and it was peculiar. Even though I had never worked with her, I trusted her and had no fear.

I have been worried about improvising for a long period of time for a few weeks now, and thinking how am I going to keep creating movement for a long time, and not get tired or bored? Although it was not that hard. Once you are focused on the connection of bodies moving, all other aspects disappear like; time, the weather or who you are working with or near. I have really enjoyed learning how to move in CI and feel prepared for the upcoming assessment.

 

 

Dancetechtv (2013) An emergent underscore: a conversation with Nancy Stark Smith, London.

Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzG609NWp1Y [accessed 30 November 2017].

Stark Smith. (Undated) Underscore-sheets-3. Available from http://nancystarksmith.com/underscore/ [accessed 30 November 2017].

Maura Keefe compares baseball and contact as being the same thing, and I did not understand. However, she explained that both are an improvised activity that creates movement from other people’s actions (Keefe, 2003, 231). This point stood out from the reading because, I feel my body making an unconscious decision on how to move from the action the other body has made. My body then takes influence from that action, to create the next movement.

Within contact improvisation there needs to be an evenly distributed weight between two bodies, otherwise the movement could injure someone. This rule needs to be applied for all going up pieces however, I especially feel this while going up in the two new tasks: the arm to arm shoulder lift and the backbend lift. When practicing both tasks, myself and my partner had moments where we were not stable. We found this was happening when our bodies were not connected in the right place. Once we jig sawed together we was able to find the balance of where our weight should be, and keep stability.

When moving in contact improvisation, it is important to remember that there is no hierarchy and that both, or all participants should be contributing and not make one individual the leader to follow. In the jam this week I feel like I stood by this point, and equally listened and contributed my ideas. Apart from at the beginning, I felt myself lead because it was hard trying to listen to 2 other bodies when we could not get all our backs to connect. After spending time experimenting of how to move as a trio, it became easier to negotiate where bodies were and what they were doing. I found that moving in a group was easier to sense with the eyes closed rather than open, because I was able to connect with the bodies I was touching as well as the bodies around a lot more. There was nothing to distract myself, therefore I was able to zone in breath and start to concentrate on other sensations my body was receiving. Due to my vision being at loss, I was not bothered how I looked when moving, whether that was ugly or pretty. It may not have looked right for someone else, but it felt right to move the way I was. Another positive note was not knowing who I was working with. As a result, I was thinking have I worked with this body before? Although I used this to my advantage, I imagined that whoever I was working with, was someone I had never worked with before. A fresh start, to create new movement that has never been seen and ‘something which will never be again’ (Sheets-Johnstone, 2017, 8). I had this image in my head because I know that I can get into a pattern of how to move with certain people because of its familiarity.

 

 

Keefe, M. (2003) What’s the score? Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Conneticut: Wesleyan University Press.

Sheets-Johnstone, M. (2017) Thinking in Movement. Contact Quarterly, vol 42: 1, pp. 7-12.

At the beginning of CI I really disliked the module, although now we have more tools to work with I am finding CI so enjoyable. I feel like I can truly relax and just experiment with my body, because there is no right or wrong. Everybody is different and have their own unique way of moving, and this stood out for myself when reading Exposed to Gravity. Curtis said, ‘I wanted to dance like everyone else’ (Curtis, 1988, 156), however this was not possible because he is in a wheelchair. Bruce Curtis found his own way of moving and he can do certain things that other people cannot do.

Recapping the going up really benefitted me, because I was not as confident with going up as I am on the ground. The aeroplane movement was challenging. It looks simple, however it is hard to find the balancing point between 2 people. I got pushed out of my comfort zone on this movement because I wanted the safety of my hands on the other persons hands. Although, it was exciting because I had the sensation of flying. I now want to experiment with what I can do while I am up there, to play with weight and to find out where I can go next.

The two new exercise we learned felt weird in my body. When I was the under dancer, I did not think about the weight aspect, I only concentrated on the gravity side and that the floor was taking the weight not my body. Therefore, I found the movement easy and it was smooth going down.

Having more tools to work with makes CI so much easier, and working with new bodies (Fenia) is interesting because she brings new things into our body’s. I am trying to push myself more in the jams to experiment with the movements we have been given, instead of just moving how we have been told.

In my opinion I think that the idea of twisting and spiralling is a key aspect in CI. I think that the action happens due to momentum moving us and our bodies keeping contact with one another. When I am moving in CI I do not think about the relationship between my body and the space, because I am listening to the other person’s body. Therefore I feel because the body is constantly trying to keep contact, the body goes into its own bubble because both bodies are working round each other and trying to find new ways to move.

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The inspiration for our question was from the previous session and a quote we found ‘A constant readiness to catch oneself and to deal with incoming weight’ (Unknown, 2012). Our question for the research lab was How do we know when a partner is ready to receive full weight? My initial answer for our question was being grounded, bent at the knees and weight sharing. From our small jam we made them experiment with how do you know? Many of them responded with giving a little bit of weight to their partner to check stability, after checking they would then give all of their weight to their partner. However, Chloe told us that she was more conscious with our question in mind because she was working with Gemma and she has previously had an injury. Therefore, Chloe held back a little but did give as much weight as she could. One of our sub questions was are you more comfortable with the task when you are working with someone you trust or work with more? I thought that everyone would have agreed that they felt more comfortable with someone they work with more, however everyone said they did not feel different working with someone they do not normally work with. I asked the question does everyone feel like they have pushed past the boundary of working with others and not feel judged? In a way this question was personal to me because I feel like I have pushed past the point of feeling judged and wanted to know where everybody else was at. One individual mentioned that they want to explore with other people more, and I think that is down to different bodies move in different ways, so you can create new moves that we have not done before.

 

Curtis, B. (1988). Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, Vol. 13. Pp.156-162.

Unknown. (2012). Fundamentals of Contact Improvisation. Available from http://www.bodyresearch.org/contact-improvisation/fundamentals-of-contact-improvisation/ [accessed 18 November 2017].

Phenomenology is a word with a lot of meaning but from what I understand is that, phenomenology is the lived experience and that it is subjective and no one else can understand the world as I do because they have their own opinion of the world.

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This week we learned so much, and it was quite overwhelming. However, I loved coming out of the floor and experimenting with gravity. I found it quite interesting how our ‘centre of gravity changes’ without having an awareness and that it ‘can move around 6 or 8 inches from its standard position’ (Woodhull, 1978-79, 43-45). The body is an amazing thing, and it is always looking out for itself even when we are not thinking ourselves.

Going up was exciting but I did struggle with some of the exercises, however I just pushed through and worked with it. The key points to remember when going up are:

– Sharing weight
– Sharing centre of gravity
– Momentum
– Stay grounded
– Keep in contact
– Jig sawing together

It was difficult at times, especially with weight. Sometimes I would not be giving all my weight and I would not be aware of it, and I would have to be reminded. Another point I struggled with at times was momentum. I found out the hard way on the roundabout exercise, but I now know that the loss of momentum will make the movement harder, and if I keep moving with the flow the movement will be lighter and more fluid. By the end of this exercise we got the hang of it, and found it easy.

Compared to some of the other videos we have seen throughout CI such as Steve Paxton’s ‘Magnesium’ (1972), the video Embraced – Contact Improvisation made me realise that CI does not always have to be high energy. You can move slowly and keep contact. I feel this will help me in my practice to relax and go slow, so I can really listen to my own body and my partners. In Dance and Somatics, Chapter 3, it mentions that when dancers try too hard it ‘encourages dancers to ignore their bodies’ (Brodie, 2012, 69). I can relate to this because when I try too hard it does not work out, however when I relax and do not think about it, the finishing product is better.

I had a mixture of feeling towards this week’s jam, my first initial thought was how am I going to link floor work and up work together? I made myself anxious and ended up being the last person to go in, although I was observing other people in the circle to see how they coped. I then thought to myself, forget about linking them together, go in and see what happens. Throwing myself in there was the best thing I could have done, I worked with people I do not normally work with a lot and it did not feel awkward or uncomfortable. I let go, listened, and moved with another person and ended up with a few good comments, which boosted my confidence level.

 

Brodie, J and Lobel, E (2012) Kinesthesia The Sixth Sense for Dancers. Dance and Somatics. London: McFarlane & Company Inc. Chapter 3.

Irene Sposetti BeingMotion. (2016) Embraced – Contact Improvisation. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4wUEiHowSU [accessed 10 November 2017].

Tumasia. (2010) Fall after newton 1 . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k768K_OTePM&amp=&t=300s [accessed 10 November 2017].

Woodhull, A. (1978-79) Center of Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I Vol. 4. Pp. 43-48