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