Contact Improvisaition

Overall Contact Improvisation has been an experience that I have enjoyed throughout the whole duration. Some weeks were harder than others admittedly but they pushed my body to try new things that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of trying or experimenting with myself. It has opened my eyes to more possibilities of creation when producing choreography and improvising showing me that there is so much more available to me as a dancer. When I first started contact I found it to be a slow process as I wasn’t sure exactly how my body and self would take it. However, as the weeks progressed and more became available to me contact grew even more. I found that I put my trust in members of the class I wouldn’t have always worked with in that way. But the new bodies that I experimented with I found that I was coming up with new movement I never explored or experimented with and my bodies were in new positions which I liked the sensation.
One thing I really enjoyed learning was the pelvis to pelvis connection as I found that there was so many ways to go with it through the lifting, circling the body around, what body parts can I get on there. I found that no matter where your body was connected there were so many possibilities available to you that the experimentation could go on by taking it to new levels weight baring and lifting. I found the more released I was when performing lifts, weight baring or table toping I found it to be much easier as I found I could connect with my partner a lot more and by staying released the body was able to go anywhere you wanted, as long as you kept this connection between one and other.
I noticed at the beginning when we thought about releasing finding the release at certain parts was hard due the positons we were asked to get into. However, once we became more comfortable with releasing into someone’s body movement and material being produced became a lot easier. Also I found you could tell whose weight was being put fully into you and you was resting that action, this was still happening with some towards the end as well. I found this to be frustrating as I really wanted to be able to use certain elements of contact but because they weren’t released enough you didn’t want to take their body somewhere and for it to be unsafe for them.
Finally, doing the jams every week I found that I was becoming more comfortable and experimental not just with the people I worked with but my movement. I found new positons and ways of thinking around elements if you got stuck. I found in the jams it was hard to communicate with certain bodies as I was reading one thing and they were wanting another. But I found when that communication was found my body was going everywhere and I really enjoyed the sensations and feelings I was getting from this as it made the process enjoyable. It also made me determined to get into the jams more to work with these bodies so I could see what would come from it and how we can produce from this.
To conclude, contact has been an experience that have enjoyed from the very beginning, it has been challenging both physically and mentally on my body and something that I hope to continue on. I found some weeks easier than others and I found I went into the jams more and more as the weeks went on coming up with new ideas. Contact improvisation is a process I have been looking forward to and I didn’t realise after the process just how much went into it. After having this experience I have come away with so many more possibilities and it has opened my mind to a lot of ways that I can experiment with my body.

During today’s session we watched a variety of videos based around contact improvisation to begin we watched a contact improvisation jam from Roehampton dance in which you can see their pace is always different. As the pace becomes varied they still always stay connected through the pelvis or some form of the body rather than disconnecting to find something new. Constantly they think about their momentum and where they are taking their bodies in the space. When thinking back to our improvisational jams I realise at points the pace is kept slow due to wanting to keep bodies safe but by staying in a released state this pace we create can have a diverse state that we can work around. Within the second video played during a Poland Contact Improvisational festival it showed the participants thinking about how the bodies become one, keeping one and other safe and allowing for lifts to happen. When looking back at class finding that relationship with someone is key and I have come to realise that when you find the relationship you find your bodies create this fluidity and dynamic with each other. As a whole I find I manage to keep people safe during the jam I am always conscious of their body and where it may be heading supporting them the best I can. As for lifts I have found they either go according to plan or they tend to go a different direction you don’t want them to. As contact improvisation has gone on I have come to notice that my body will now go with whatever happened even if it’s not the thing we want.
Nancy Stark Underscore is very complex filled with many different tasks a video watched in class is based on her Global Underscore in which everyone around the world who was taking part would begin and end all at the same time. She began the underscore by inventing with students in which she discovered certain habitual actions and elements the students did, this then enabled Stark to start creating symbols that represented the state that the students were describing. Starks jam is a deliberate and reflective way of doing a jam as it creates and intentional different environment enabling the body to focus on what’s happening within the jam and developing on how I am getting to these places.
“Bringing attention into the present moment” (Nancy Stark, Global underscore) helps me to understand the score a lot more as the elements are always changing. The body should be present and ready for any changes that may happen within the underscore weather it’s a change within you and your partner, you move onto another partner or the element for the score changes. When doing the score I found it hard to understand at first due to the amount that went into it by being spoken through it I found my body allowed new elements. The part my body tend to enjoy more was the open score as I was able to do what I wanted however, when there was one element to move I sometimes felt restricted or lost on what to do. At points I found my body tended to go habitual due to being lost for what I wanted to do at points.
Bliblography
Contact Improvisation Jam 20th May 2011 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdKZlryJ4HY
GLOBAL UNDERSCORE with Nancy Stark Smith YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOGLMZdm2uA
Poland Contact Improvisation Festival – Warsaw Flow 2012 – Jam YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyaHk7KN9b

This week we began to work and focus around using the pelvis and how we connect with each other through this point of contact. Firstly we connected over pelvis through tucking around our partners and rocking from side to side. I found this helped the connectivity not just through this movement but as we proceeded on I seemed to find my pelvis a lot more than I used to. Experimenting with new ways to come in and out of this to create new positions and movements. I also found this rocking sensation to be a good swing of momentum to push into new material and movement gilding in and out and it gives a good lead into interesting positions. Another positon of working with the pelvis is in an upwards table top seeing where the tailbone can be placed to where the body can roll and if we can rise up into seating. I found I needed to engage my core in order to get my body around it different potions and to experiment more, if the core wasn’t engaged the body would flop and the movement becomes restricted.
To continue, we looked at working around frames seeing which frames worked in order to create new places of lifting and weight taking. I found his challenging too do with my partner as I think not just me but others have become habitual with the frames we are comfortable and used to doing. Although some of this felt habitual you can sense just how much everyone is trusting each other to catch them and develop into new experimental phrases and lifts. It’s nice to watch and see how confidence has grown not just in myself but others, I feel like there is a lot more braveness and compared to week one everyone is a lot more daring knowing others will catch and support them throughout.
Contact jam
During this week’s contact jam I found that I was in the jam a lot of the time and I was really focusing on new ways to move my body not just with a partner but by myself as well. I found that I came up with new experimental ways that I hadn’t felt in my body yet. At one point I was improvising with Natasha and we both went into upwards table top whilst one was the base and the others head rested on the pelvis. This had never happened before and something about it really intrigued me and I felt like we could really experiment and see how far we could take this, it was exciting to figure out how were we going to get out this and what the next move was going to be.

DANCE4 / FEET OFF THE GORUND

.Dance4 is a well-known company and space based in Nottingham which create pieces of travelling work as well as having workshops based around many styles of dance. Today I got the opportunity to visit the space along with the rest of peers getting the opportunity to do a workshop with Feet off the Ground Dance Company who are well known for their contact improvisation. During this session I became “exposed to gravity” (Curtis, B , Ptashek, A, 1988,156) and made aware of so many new connects I made with my body and gravity itself. For example during the rep phrase we learnt I found I was either in the air gravity taking me up or my gravity was lowering me to the floor, grounding me down to support my partner. I feel like throughout this learning of the rep the physical environment around helped provide a new experience to gravity as it felt a lot more open and bright. By having the new environment I felt my movement changed and I explored new things I never have done before with my body the sensations and movement I managed to accomplish really made me feel excited and my body felt comfortable and enjoyed the new experience I was being given. I found my body wasn’t apprehensive to try new things and the space we were given at Dance4 gave me a new experience to contact improvisation that I could bring back into class. However, being exposed to this new environment I found my body left the movement in that new positive space and when bringing the rep back into class which is an environment I am very used to, I found my body had left the movement within the Dance4 stuido and I didn’t feel as relaxed and released as I did when doing so in the university studio. Maybe it’s because I’m used to the environment? Or that the rep had disappeared from my body, the feelings and sensations needed to come back into my body.
RESEARCH LABS

How does movement enhance small dance?

My second research lab group based our workshop on small dance and how can it enhance and effect our movement. Within this workshop we asked yes or no questions and had eight stages of how can it affect us moving as well as standing by one’s self and connecting with each other. These stages we gave were;
1. Half sitting and half laying down, eyes closed and complete stillness
2. Staying either sitting and laying down, sensations are brought into the body allowing the subconscious movement to begin
3. Standing up bringing awareness to the subconscious movement, eyes are still closed and standing still, during this section we asked them to thin about a quote from the small dance reading by Byron Brown, “Personal responsiveness become the basis for creative play” (Byron Brown)
4. Standing bring awareness to your feet and the weight that is provided, eyes are still closed
5. Standing eyes slowly open and being moving in your own kinesphere
6. Stop moving eyes closed and begin to bring awareness back into our body
7. Find a partner come to each other’s side is the small dance enhanced
8. At the end come back to the sides you began on forget the sensations that were felt and see if the small dance is enhanced
During these sections after each we would ask one question for each even section and all the odd sections had two questions. These added up to a tally of who felt small dance was heightened in each section and who didn’t:
Section
1    Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye? Yes- 7  No- 13
Was there any movement whilst you were sitting or lying down?  yes -12 no – 8
2    Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye? yes – 9  no -11
3    Did you give into the subconscious movement? yes -15  no – 5
4   Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye? yes – 12   no- 8
5    No question
6   Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye? yes -4    no- 16
Was the sensation of small dance stronger after moving? yes – 12 no – 8
7   Did you feel a change in balance from not moving and focusing on inner movement to when you improvised and then moved? yes -Side – 17   no -Side – 3,  yes – back -14 no- back – 6
8 Going back to the sides you began on sitting or lying down, block the sensations you have just felt, did the movement feel more enhanced? yes -7      no-13

During our investigation I found we had a mixture of what people thought and how they felt about their small dance some comments we found at the end of the workshop was that when they were asked to come back to their beginning stance it was hard to block out the sensations and movement they were feeling before hand and asking to become till they felt like they wee moving more. For some that movement became a lot more visual to the eye and you could tell they were moving around the place although at points during this it was hard to tell the difference from the start and weather they actually had connected within themselves for the small dance to happen. Aldo once they got into partners you could tell again this was difficult from the visual eye perceptive as you could tell their bodies wanted to sway and they wanted to produce further connection into the movement.

CONTACT JAM –  Thursday 17th November 2016

During our contact jam this week I found my response to gravity to be a lot more positive then the previous weeks as I have better understanding of the movement quality and the sensations of how’s ones body being lifted feels and one lifting another’s body.  Compared to being lifted, lifting someone requires to search for your core and the strength within your body finding the connection between your body and another’s,  otherwise if not this can become a safety hazard for you and your partner ending in a fall. having the body to body connection when taking someone’s gravity away form them is key otherwise the support and balance will disappear and in some cases depending on the positioning could end with the partner falling. In comparison, being lifted requires you to have full trust within your partner and asks you to put your weight onto their body and releasing through. Again you need to have that body to body connection and communication between you and your partner in order for the lift to take flight and for gravity to be taken away from you. When I am lifting I am always conscious of my partner and their body taking in any need they require to get to the position our bodies are communicating to each other. getting the correct balance and level of concentration between us for the lifts to work or any for of counter balance or weight take, during lifting I like my body to have the sensation of being supported and having a good stance to support my partner during the period they are in the air for. When I am being lifted I like my body to have a key connection with my partner and for it to be able to communicate the lead of where it is heading to in order for both of us to engage. When I am in the air now I have become more comfortable with this sensation of the different lifts I find myself to be experimenting more with new partners and how they lift and where I can place my centre of gravity onto their s in order for the to take gravity away from my feet.

All in all for me this week brought me to places I had never thought I would go from experimenting to the new lifts and working with bodies I don’t usually work with, its allowed me to really experiment and see what my body can do. I’m also starting to find myself going into the jams a lot more finding new ways for my body to move and realising just how other people move and how much its reflecting on my body and me. Sometimes I am getting the sensations of faster and slower paced people and moving at those different places makes me realise just where my body can go a disappear to into these new places. I find the sensations stick with me for instance the slower pace I like to be able to place that upon a faster paced mover and see how our bodies can move and connect together. I am beginning to realise how amazing and intriguing it is to work with these different bodies because I being to learn new and exciting things and I am always excited to see who I am going to work with and what my body is going to get up to with the next person I improvise with.

Bliblography;
Curtis, B. (1988). Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, Vol. 13. Pp.156-162.
Brown, B. Is Contact a Small Dance? Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I. Vol. 6 Pp. 72-75

This week we watched two videos based around contact improvisation finding the differences and looking at how well they connect with one and other. During the first video The play of weight, Martin Lleogh and Niege Chris Tenso play a lot with balance and how it links them to each other. The dancers they use in the video both take a very slow pace allowing one and other to feel how the other is moving. Even though they connected this only lasted whilst they began to use gravity and take weight, which was clearly led by the male, in contact there should be no obvious leader. However, there was always a constant support between the two when using gravity and weight, but this would always move into a floor sequence or they would lose this connecting chain between them going into an individual improvisation which looked very habitual points. To contrast, the second video Contact improvisation Mikea Molekinen and Otto Akkamen, looked a lot more fluid and their centre of gravity was more equal. As well as this they each took one and others weight and lifted as it fitted rather than stopping and starting to go into them, they both went with the flow and allowed their bodies to feel what the other was saying. This pair was always moving the connection between them allowed them to move at a faster pace adding more momentum. If they lost the contact they would automatically come back into some form of contact. Whereas when we contact we tend to break away and just leave the circle waiting for another opportunity. Also they use down to go up thinking about the support you give your partner. If you don’t go down to come up and up to go down even though you are supporting the partner it could end up with them landing heavily or the lift going wrong.
“We change centre of gravity when we change shop, and often compensate so automatically that we aren’t even aware of it.” (Ann Woodhull) Jumping back into our partners hands I could the gravity and momentum bringing me up into the air to come down. I felt supported in the moment although my landing out of the jump could be smoother from this. Jumping back like this has made me more aware of my centre of gravity and I may come in or out of a lift. I found it helpful for momentum and realising that the flow and pace of which you do this can help with the accuracy of lifting and good for focusing and what point your gravity will be at. “Wherever this point is above this point is above the point of support, the shape will be balanced.” (Ann Woodhull).
During class today I really enjoyed being told to work and experiment with new bodies and found that some bodies within the class I really linked well together with and wished id worked with them sooner. When we began body surfing we decided to take it at a slower pace and our bodies had to keep completely relaxed also thinking about the pelvis to pelvis connection. By taking this slow I found it helped me focus on the fixed points of contact and really think about two bodies as one, how they move together. After finding this in our bodies we then began bringing it up from body surfing to our middle and high kinesphere this experimenting brought me to paces I have never been and brought me to new and experimental positons in which I had to really think about moving in and out of. When experimenting you had to really think about “the further your centre is above your base of support, the less stable you are.” When going up into middle and high kinesphere the centre of gravity is always there and the connection is constant trusting the support and gravity is there.
Contact Jam
During this week contact jam I felt very confident within myself and went in much more this week, this I found as I have become more comfortable with the process of lifting and weight baring with people. I have realised now where I can place them and trying to find new ways of coming in and out of them. During the jam it felt interesting but exciting to be able to place them in, when the momentum and the gravity took over I felt like I flew and flowed because I knew how to get in and out of them I found myself feeling very relaxed. Moreover, as we experimented with new people at the beginning when it came to being in the jam I felt like I could just go up to anyone and pull them into the jam. During this it didn’t matter if it was the smallest point of contact or if I was using gravity, weight or thinking about were my centre of gravity was. The point was it was all contact even if it’s bigger or small it all looked good, I got into using other contact devices and I enjoyed the new sensations I felt and my body was feeling.

Bliblography
Woodhull A. Center of Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I Vol. 4. Pp. 43-48
Chirstenson Neige. 2009. The play of weight. [accessed 13th November 2016] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltq6y06E8ew
Omegbranch. 2011. Contact improvisation Mirva Makinen & Otto Akkanen [accessed 13th November 2016] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw