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.