Month: December 2016

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