Contact Improvisation

Our last contact lesson had finally began. When I think back to the beginning of the process, its amazing to think how far I have come as an individual. But also I think it is interesting to look at how far we have come as a class. We went from not even wanting to touch each other, to rolling on top of each other experimenting what our bodies could do. I no longer feel negative feelings towards Contact Improvisation and I have actually enjoyed the practice that we are going through!

The class started with the showing of our individual duets which we had been choreographing over the past few weeks. I was beyond nervous to see what everyone had come up with, but also to make sure that mine and Anna’s duet actually went according to plan! Choreographing these duets I found to be very difficult, if me and Anna improvised something that worked, sometimes we then couldn’t remember what we had done afterwards. This was tricky as it meant for a long time our duet was in two sections and we struggled immensely to join them together. I am very pleased with how the duet came out overall however and I really enjoyed working with Anna as I feel we have similar movement styles to each other. I liked the performance of our duet and I was impressed that everything did go to plan, and we executed everything that we set out to. I also really enjoyed watching everyone else’s duo’s, they were all so varied. Its impressive to see how far we have come from the beginning of the process to the end.

After we had showed the duets, we had to discuss Nancy Stark- Smith’s score, and the elements that she believes go into a contact improvisation jam. Kirsty gave each research group 3 symbols/ words from the score and we had to explain what they were with a practical showing too. The words my group received were, Divergence, Influence and Collision.

Divergence: We thought this to mean going with intention towards someone and then curving away at the last second, as not to touch the other person.

Influence: We thought this to mean, being open to let someone else control your movement, for example you could mimic someone’s movement. Another example of this could be getting in a dancers way, so you are influencing where that person has to move.

Collision: The definition of this was simple, crashing into someone! But in contact it comes down to how you react to this collision, do you work with it or do you move away from it?

We then moved onto a Nancy Stark- Smith score. I was nervous about going into this having only just learnt what the score was about! I also wasn’t sure if I could remember what each word/symbol was in the jam. As we started with a discussion and a bit of a pow-wow about what we were about to do I suddenly felt more confident. I knew a lot more terms than I thought I would. I really enjoyed participating in this score, it had freedom but at the same time structure. I found myself making strong connections  with a lot of people, something that before I was never very good at.

Time went surprisingly fast for me, at one point me and Zoe were improvising for what seemed like a very long time. We were bringing different parts of movement into the score and we began to play with dynamics and pace. This felt really smooth for me, there was no real thinking about what movement might come next. That is always what I have experienced before and I enjoyed not having to think about what I was doing, just going where the movement takes us. I also played with counter balance and lifts in this score more than I ever have before. Lifts were coming smoothly and I really enjoyed how that felt in my body. The sound section was something that I think I will always find awkward. Making noise to go with movement has never been something which comes naturally to me, and I am glad that every movement I made I tried to make some sort of noise with. As the score slowed down, there was a humming section which everyone joined in with at the end! This is something we would have never done in the beginning, whereas now no one was scared to get stuck in and it meant the atmosphere immediately relaxed as everyone joined in!

Contact improvisation for me is now something that I will not shy away from. This module has taught me that I can do things that previously I would have thought would be next to impossible for me to achieve. I enjoy taking part in jams and I hope it is something I can take up in the future.

This week’s reading was based on scores, having only recently learnt what a score was, most of this reading seemed to go over my head! Some Considerations When Structuring an Improvisation (to be seen by an audience by Stover, taught me to think about ‘spatial rhythm’ and how to structure a score. Scores now make more sense to me and I can see how scores would help the practice of improvisation develop. As me, Claire and Indre began to think about how our score would be structured I began to see how a structured score could create differences between improvisation and restrictions in improvisation.

Kirsty started the lesson easing us straight away into a jam, something that we have never done before. This included finding safe points of contact, being able to give yourself to someone to manipulate. Also we worked on safe structures and the way to get in and out of these over dancer poses. As we went through these movements, i began to get more confident with who I could give my weight to, I could see basic structures and by just putting your body on them you began to make more structurally interesting poses. This slowly led into a jam, which is was one of the most interesting jams i have yet been in. Everyone began experimenting with all the things we had learnt and it was easy to see how much the jam started to improve.

Kirsty then went over the movements we had learnt with Feet of the Ground dance company on Saturday. I found this workshop so helpful in my Contact practice as it taught me to do movements that I never thought I would be able to do before. Such as a walkover across someone’s back, this has always been something I found challenging and with the help of the dancers I was able to achieve it. As we were going through the movements i was with my duet partner Anna, and we were able to find new balances in which we could probably put into our duet.

We then went into each groups’ score, starting with a ‘Halfway Score’, I found the layout of this score very interesting as it is a lot different to how we usually start a jam. I liked the fact that you could only enter with someone because that meant once you were in the space you always had someone to dance with. It taught me about spatial awareness and the fact it was with music meant that i was able to forget that the music connected to the movement.

The next score was stood in a circle in which you had to make a noise to exit. You also had to do 3 lifts before you could exit the space, this was something i found difficult as everyone was trying to lift everyone. There was also a bit of confusion in who was being lifted and who was lifting. However I did like the lifts that came from this practice, they were original and a lot more interesting than they had been before.

The final score I took part in was the ‘Mouse Trap’, i thoroughly enjoyed this score, and even the fact that you were restricted in space didn’t seem to bother me. It meant as a class we interacted more, and i was able to dance with people that I don’t seem to dance with that much. It also meant that people traveled more and we were able to reach around more of the space than i had before. The mouse trap made me think of original movement ideas that i previously wouldn’t have done.

 

Finally it was time for our score, which we named the ‘sensory score’ as it was based a lot around observation skills. We used a lot of different limitations to see how our group would react to it. For example only every having one group of people of the lower kinesphere was one that was particularly hard to observe. As i was taking part in this score it was hard to see what was going on. But from Claire’s description we were not as good at observing as we think. I think this is true for me, i spend a lot of time thinking about my movement, not the movement that is going on around me. Maybe this is something I could change. Can you observe others as well as yourself when dancing? I want to work on this in next week’s jam, making sure that  i take notice of the people around me, whilst at the same time, thinking of what movement i can use to be more original.

I feel this weeks jam went so much better than normal, with the over and under dancer coming much more naturally to me this week. It also meant the jam went a lot faster, something which i have never felt before. I am excited for our last week of contact to see what happens.

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Stover, J., 1989. Some Considerations When Structuring an Improvisation (to be seen by an audience). In: V. 14, ed.Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook. Northampton : Contact Editions , p. 185.

This week’s reading, What’s the Score? Structured Improvisation as National Pastime by Maura Keefe, brought up many unanswered questions for me. As I don’t actually know what a score is, trying to connect and understand this reading seemed next to impossible. What did Keefe mean when she talked about ‘a score for structured improvisation’? (Keefe, 2003, 229). As I read on things started to make a little bit more sense to me. I could see the comparisons she made as she talked about baseball being similar to improvisation. ‘The choreography of baseball as structured improvisation’ (Keefe, 2003, 233) got me thinking about how baseball cannot be predicted. Although we know the overall set of what’s going to happen in the game, we never know how the players may choose to portray this. This is very similar to contact improvisation, as dancers know they will contact with someone during a jam. It is just up to them how and for how long they achieve this. ‘Baseball’s structure is understood certainly, but every game is different’ (Keefe, 2003, 234) this is so similar to contact improvisation. We understand the concept of what we should be doing, but there is no way you could draw exact comparisons between two different jams for example. I enjoyed this weeks’ reading as it did kind of help me figure out what a score was, whilst at the same time, drawing upon comparisons in dance and sport that I had never really thought about.

I was excited for this week’s contact research labs, with a clear structure and interesting questions I couldn’t wait to see what we would find out this week. We decided to base this weeks contact lab on dynamics and balance points within the upper kinesphere. Our idea behind this was because we felt like it is the elements we neglect the most, dynamics for me are something that i find next to impossible to change immediately. Our first exercise was to get the class to stand by themselves and then improvise, but only using the upper kinesphere, we then got them to speed up by using the numbers 1-10. I found this exercise very interesting to watch, you could see everyone really concentrating on making their movement faster or slower. This got me to thinking, Why don’t we use a speed technique like this during jams? You could also see the dancers movement range getting slowly smaller as the movement got faster, this was something that was very interesting to me. Why can’t we perform large movements as fast as we can with small ones?

I found from this exercise that by forcing people to change dynamics, they can. However when told to go back to their own speed, most dancers would just return to the speed they feel most comfortable working at. We then told them to try the same exercise again but in pairs, this time as I was leading the exercise, I felt I should add another concept to it. Although they were with a partner I told them to resist with what the other person was doing, something that is rarely experimented with in contact. As they were resisting and changing speed, some different movement styles began to develop. You could see people forced to break their habitual movement patterns as that would mean they had to travel with their partner.

Our third exercise was about finding safe balance points, this is something that I know many dancers struggle with. We didn’t ask the dancers to improvise, just literally think about finding interesting lifts. And the things they came up with were amazing. Whilst still thinking about being in the upper kinesphere, lifts were coming out of nowhere. Every single pair had a different movement and I couldn’t help but be impressed by some pupils sense of balance and awareness while they were on their partner. Why is it so hard to fit lifts into a jam situation? After this exercise was over we asked the couple’s to improvise using all the things they had learnt during the lesson.

I found out from this contact research lab, that when pushed out of your comfort zone you are more likely to achieve different movements than when you play it safe.  Dynamics began to be something that people were playing with, and i loved watching the difference in improvisation from the end to the beginning of our slot. When pushed dancers can work in the upper kinesphere and they can make amazing movements, that before you would have never seen.

I am excited to put all these elements I have learnt into my own practice and see if they really can improve an awkward jam situation!

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Keefe, M. (2003) What’s the score? Improvisation in Everyday Life. In: Albright, A. C., & Gere, D.Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 229-237.

This week I was back in my apprehensive mind set again, having sat out last week I felt I was at a disadvantage when it came to the whole ‘going up, coming down’. I hadn’t really yet experienced the feeling of going up properly yet, and I was definitely nervous about what was to come. Kirsty started the lesson off by making us watch two contact improv duets. One by Martin Keogh and Neige Christenson called ‘The Play of Weight’ (2009), and the other by Mirva Makinen and Otto Alkkanen.

She told us to focus on dynamics and the role of the ‘over and under’ dancer. In Keogh and Christenson’s duet they used a lot of eye contact and momentum in order to see where the movement might flow to next. However I noticed that it was always the girl that was the over dancer, there wasn’t really any swapping between the two of them. Keogh came across as being the most dominant as he was usually the under dancer, starting where he thought the movement should go to. In Makinen and Alkkanen’s duet however the role of the over and under dancer was very equal, the movement was slower and the duo were able to find secure balances where they could easily shift with each other. It almost looked like they were both the same weight they were so equally balanced with one another, this made me feel better about the lesson to come, if they could do both roles, so could I!!

We started class by concentrating on the idea of the surfing body. Finding a partner and seeing what movement could come just by holding a part of the torso together, my first partner was Ellie and we struggled with not just going round in a circle! Using each others hips as a anchor kept becoming increasingly difficult. We then swapped partners and I ended up with Nicole, this time was much more efficient. Why is it you work better with some people than others? She helped initiate our movement and soon we were flowing so much better, the over and under dancer changing all the time. We also found some weight placements and balances that were interesting and that I would like to put into my duet. ‘The dance was within us’ (Ptashek, 1988, 156), this statement is defientely true, when contact works with someone you forget about everything around you. Your bodies become as one and the movements you begin to find become more and more interesting.

We then stayed with the same partner and went on to trying Aikido rolls, something that when we watched the video of looked impossible. Me and Nicole managed to do the roll pretty much straight away we just couldn’t quite seem to get the transition between each roll. This made me think that we could definitely use these rolls in a contact jam, in order to get in or out of partner work. We then went on to improvise with bigger lifts, like the paperclip and the cradle lift, I was with Millie for these lifts and we managed to do the paperclip one straight away. This was something that built my confidence, I WAS ABLE TO BE LIFTED! As we went on to try the cradle lift i realised how much we needed this idea of centre of gravity from the reading. In the reading it talks about using someone else’s centre of gravity as your own (Ptashek, 1988, 158), if me and Millie could do this together the balance point in the cradle lift would begin to come more natural. Eventually we found the point and the lift was as easy as other people were making it look,

I  have also had time to rehearse my duet with Anna this week, and I like the progress we are making. Slowly contact improv is making much more sense to me and I am actually really starting to enjoy it, I even look forward to our lesson now! Improv Jam with the addition of different people is something that I am also liking the experience of, the fact I can now dance with everyone is something which I think is  a major improvement for me!

Next lesson I would like to work on going up into the air more and also becoming more confident when improvising alone.

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Curtis, B. & Ptashek, A., 1988. Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I. Vol. 13.

This week was different for me as for the first time I was watching the class from an observers point of view, it is amazing what different perspectives you see when not actually dancing. This weeks session was based on flight and although I was not participating myself in this class, I still felt nervous for the other dancers. I know from experience that other people struggle with putting their own weight into someone else’s hands and I knew that this lesson could definitely have disastrous consequences!!

The class started off as we usually do with weight bearing exercises and the use of getting in and out of the floor. Even from here I was impressed with the progress we had made, at the beginning everyone was so nervous to put their weight into their hands. Now we look stronger as a class and it is clear to see we are definitely not scared anymore! Kirsty focussed on movement that we might be able to put into contact, such as rolls and handstand etc.. I could see how this linked and how you could use these movements to get in and out of contact! Why is it that by being an observer you feel nervous for the people around you?

They then went into an exercise in which they had to contact together and begin to hold each others weight again. It was strange to see how awkward they looked, whether this was because of reading week or not I don’t know. But the movement seemed disjointed and almost like they had forgotten what contact feels like. As the girls put pressure on different points of each others bodies, you could see the clear change in movement, something that before sitting out and watching I hadn’t really noticed before. ‘the point around my body is perfectly balanced’ (Woodhull, 1978 – 1979, p. 43) this also was a statement that made a lot of sense to me watching. While you are contacting it is hard to put your weight into another person, but if you actually just went for it, chances are you would be very balanced. The point around your body in this instance is the other person, and they will more than likely be very aware of how they would react to your body if something was to go wrong.

Then the class got into pairs and started with one person on their hands and knees and the other person laid over the top of them. They then had to find a stable position and see if they could flip over the other persons back. This was an exercise I thoroughly enjoyed watching, it was interesting to see everyone’s progress keep coming along and I admired the people who just kept going at it until they had mastered it! Woodhull talks about the sharing and communication between bodies in this week’s reading and it was clear to see that everyone began to do this with ease. By putting your trust fully in your partner it seemed the movement was easier to execute and I am interested to see how this might progress for me next week!

The group began exploring many different lifts, which kept travelling higher and higher up in the air, until the whole class was flying! I then enjoyed them working as a group to catch people, and saw how some people were completely comfortable with just throwing themselves into it, whereas others were a lot more apprehensive. I learnt that when participating in group exercises you have to look out for everyone else as well as yourself, by maybe tucking elbows or knees in and making sure they are not a threat! I want to be able to try these movements as I feel being an observer this week has led me to believe that I could in fact execute these lifts. Whereas before I was apprehensive that this might not happen or work out for me!

Next week my aim is to do all these lifts and weight bearing exercises myself, while showing the determination that my classmates did. I don’t want to just give up as I feel the people who did probably wouldn’t have had such a positive experience from the lesson given. I’ve promised myself I will get used to being lifted. I am now very excited for next week!

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Woodhull, A. (1997) Center of Gravity. Contact Quarterly/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, 4, 43-48