Month: November 2016

Focusing on the pelvis was one of the main focuses of this week’s class and is not something I would usually think of or engage with. Having this idea present made me feel more released throughout the class which I believe had an overall effect on my performance in and attitude towards this class. I was confident and excited to explore.

 

The warm up consisted of walking around the space and engaging with our pelvis to drop to the floor and get back up again. We then developed this into exploring how we could use our pelvis to lead our movement on the floor, and how we could find a connection between two pelvises and what happened to our bodies once we found that connection. Dropping to the floor and leading with my pelvis was interesting as I wasn’t pre planning any movements because I was moving in a completely new way. It was refreshing for my body to follow instruction and discover new movement without falling into any habitual movement. However, whilst moving in this way I initially found it difficult to make a connection with my pelvis and another. Being unable visualise what this would look or feel like make it difficult for me to understand what I needed to do to make this connection successful which caused confusion in how to approach another body. If a connection was made I then didn’t know where to go from there; to stay there and play with the weight, start to introduce movement or leave and move on to a new partner?

Moving in to keeping a connection between two bodies, we worked in pairs and wrapped around each other experimented with rocking between partners and changing the over and under dancer. Here gave the opportunity for both roles to experiment with movement and see how much our bodies do and what affect that could have on our partner. My partners found it difficult to change the role of each dancer so instead I explored how changing my weight could change where our connection was. I found that rolling and twisting allowed me to move and find new positions which kept a connection but did require a drastic change in my partner’s weight. We also tried to transition from this into an over dancer in reverse table top and the over dancer exploring this new frame. As we have never used this surface as an anchor point before it brought a new sensation in the body, as the over dancer, as the possible positions look interesting however feels restricted. As the torso is a smaller surface area than the back, which we are used to, and this position is harder for the under dancer to maintain than a table top position, this exercise causes hesitation of where to go next and how we can explore this anchor point without putting too much pressure on to our partners.

Something missing during our explorations is movement contribution from both bodies at the same time, usually it feels like turn taking. Introducing the ways the under dancer can move cohesively and staying safe felt revolutionary as it allowed both keep moving together with a secure connection, then continuing to explore movement further. Initially this felt unsteady and slightly unsafe as it was new and unfamiliar in the body. The more it was practiced and developed, the more it began to feel natural with more room for creativity. After this, the natural intention was to continue moving out of anything we explored.

As the course progresses I am becoming increasingly my confident and starting to really enjoy contact improvisation. Because of the psychological change, I am beginning to notice a difference in my ability to master the elements of contact improvisation that I was previously scared of and I am eager and willing to try out anything new.

Working with Kayleigh to discover anchor points on new frames proved interesting and I surprised myself with how much my body is capable of doing. Finding new frames, climbing on, then moving and exploring worked the best for us as it allowed us to find new things first and find a way to move in and out of it after. The frame that allowed the most range in movement was bent legs in a lunge or second position with a tall spine and free arms (available to move for support later on). Being in this frame felt stable and safe for another to be supported by, there was also the freedom to move the arms or adjust the torso to move with our partners to ensure the movement was fluent and as safe as possible. We also experimented in finding unconventional anchor points, which I had never thought of, or tried, before. Using a kneeling position as anchor position proved to be harder than it looked, however there were more areas to explore than originally expected and it was incredibly easy for both bodies to roll out if this position and into something else.

During the class we created a jam with a simple score:

• Minimum number of bodies in the space: 2
• Maximum number of bodies in the space: 4
• No limitation of movement
• Keep up the pace as a collective

 

This was one of the first jam situations where I have felt confident enough to enter the space immediately and alone. Because of how successful my explorations in this class had been I felt slightly responsible for being involved with starting off the jam and setting the initial pace. I believe this to be a result of wanting to encourage other people to enter the space as a more confident body setting the pace usually helps me to find a way to move into the space. Remaining in the space for the majority of the jam encouraged me to explore more thoroughly than I usually do and gave me the opportunity to work with completely new people who I have never worked with in a jam before. Working with Heidi enabled me to move fluently and we never lost connection, meaning we explored new frames and found completely new and interesting ways of moving in and out of these positions. This made me excited to be a part of the upcoming jam two days later.

As I am starting to enjoy contact improvisation my energy for this class was different to usual. This week I entered the jam class with an open mind and I was excited to explore.      I still have an apprehensive attitude towards inversions as I have a fear of being upside down and not being able to fully locate where my weight is whilst here. However this class started with three different inversions and I attempted and mastered all of them. Working with Natasha, we took it in turns to start as the over or under dance so we could both sense how it felt to bare someone else’s weight and how it felt to be completely released someone else’s back. Usually I would feel more comfortable and stable as the under dancer and holding someone else’s weight on my body, however with this I was more confident with releasing and being the over dancer which I believe is a result of feeling safe whilst working with this partner. We also used the shoulder as an anchor point and revisited a lift we are familiar with, but in a kneeling position on a lower kinsephere rather than standing. As the over dancer I was apprehensive about this at first as it is a hand stand motion that can be transitioned out of by forward rolling. Nevertheless, once I tried this I found that I could experiment with the position of the legs and how I could control them to find different options of how to change out of this position.

Next came the jam with no rules except starting with and empty space, having a minimum of two bodies in the space and introducing contact within small groups, not just in pairs. I entered the space alone and was exploring my own improvisations for a while before Natasha came and initiated contact with me. We explored the new things we had tried this week in class and before the jam, resulting in this being the first time that we moved away to find a new body to work with because the exploration was exhausted rather that our bodies being tired. I also attempt to work in groups with other people. The first time I tried to interact with an existing duet but moved away after a while to let them continue alone, sensing that we were all unsure of how to involve a third party. However, later on I worked with Casey and discovered new ways to initiate weight baring on a high kinsephere, resulting in me being off the floor more than usual. After a while we became a trio as Lauren Isbell introduced herself into our conversation. The movement we discovered as a three was new, interesting and successful. It seemed easier having a new person introduced to a group than being the third person and trying to initiate a connection with bodies which are in an existing conversation.

Working in a new environment and with new people can often help us to renew and improve our contact skills by taking it back to basics. This week we had the incredible opportunity to visit the Dance4 studio in Nottingham and take part in a workshop with Feet off the ground dance company. Starting with games to warm up automatically created a relaxed and trusting atmosphere between students and teachers. The majority of the warm up consisted of basic contact skills that we have already learnt in our contact improvisation studies including walking around the room and starting a conversation with the people you made contact with. We starting by making a connection at the hand, going through the arm and rotating until we were back to back. We started this way for each stage but experimented in all different exercises including finding each other’s weight, going down to the floor and coming back up, one person going into table top and the other going over them backwards and releasing your back onto someone else’s and taking your feet off the floor as they go down to go up. Although none of these exercises were new, it was nice to be able to revisit them and practise getting in and out of them smoothly and continuing to moving through the space, which is something I usually find challenging during a contact jam. However, seeing examples of what some of these movements looked like on new bodies helped to discover new positions in movements that we are already familiar with. For example, whilst working with a shorter body than mine, we found that we could find a back to back connection and she could take my weight by me sitting on her back rather than completely releasing and lying flat on her back. Not only was this a new discovery but it created new levels and opportunities to be more experimental.

[Insert photo of me sat on Elycia’s back/ take on Monday 8am]

Learning the rep of this company was an exciting experience which was a shared opinion amongst the group. It made a difference in the class dynamic for everyone in the space to be engaged in/ excited about what we were learning and trying new things. I chose a partner which I knew I was comfortable lifting and being lifted by and who was a similar height to me. Working with a different partner could have altered my overall experience if we didn’t trust each other or if frustration was caused by constant (hypothetical) failed attempts. Demonstrations whilst giving spoken instructions proved to be helpful as it helped to clarified what they were saying in terms of movement. There was also room for us to adapt things or make small changes if particular things weren’t working, giving us the opportunity to try a lift/balance and develop it to see how our bodies could explore the ‘set’ movement.

The movement I found the most difficult was the body surfing to standing at the end of the phrase. Using weight in my shoulders and engaging my core to lift my legs up and over my partner’s torso was something I had never tried before and caused confusion when it came to standing up as I didn’t know where to place my feet whilst the under dancer was still rolling. It proved to be easier to find my feet when thinking about finding the connection with my partner with the left side of my body instead of connecting her torso with my back. This then allowed me to bend both legs and land kneeling on my left leg, aiding me to stand up easily and end the phrase properly. However, because this was difficult for us as a pair, it didn’t work every time that we practised it which unfortunately resulted in no documentation of the progress we made in this section of the phrase.

The video above shows the contact duet rep from the Feet off the Ground Workshop. We accomplished all of the lifts that we attempted and together choreographed where we would inhale/ exhale which made it easier for our bodies to work together and to stay released.

Revisiting the duet phrase we learnt during this workshop proved that we still have a lot to practise in terms of being safe, efficient and staying released when working with/ lifting and partner, but it was refreshing to reconsider this before entering a contact jam to be able to put these new skills into practise.

RESEARCH LABS

We decided to base our research lab on the reading from the previous week by exploring the question ‘How can we change our centre of gravity?’.

 

To explore our chosen question we devised four different exercises and devised questions to ask through out for them to think about what was happening in their bodies, which would later help when asking question and collecting data at the end.

We asked five questions at the end of the lab:

1- Which exercise did you enjoy the most?

Results

Exercise	Number of People
Warm up	3
Flying angel	7
Spinning (donut)	0
Wheel barrow	7

 

2- Did you feel safe in your own body despite having a constant change in your center of gravity?

Results

Yes	No
15	2

 

3- Could you feel the change in your centre of gravity from one exercise to another?

Results

Yes	No
16	1

 

4- Did you feel more stable being grounded to the floor or in the air?

The results we collected from this particular question were different to the rest as some people didn’t feel they could contribute in choosing yes or no. We still recorded the results from every one else but recorded the feedback from the individuals who could not answer documenting their opinion. “Usually I would feel more stable being grounded to the floor but being grounded in these exercises today did not make me feel stable. This remained the same whilst being in the air, therefore there was no difference in stability from one to the other.

5- Do you think you will recognize your centre of gravity in your contact improvisation practices because of exploring this today?

Results

Yes	No
15	2

After the research labs this week we briefly revisited the duet phrase from the workshop the previous weekend, then transitioned into a contact jam. Nothing worked. My energy levels were low because of being so involved in the research labs before, however I was still engaged and determined to be present in the jam and try new things. However I found the more things didn’t work, the harder it was to stay focused and it was more beneficial, for me and the body I initially made contact with, to switch to a new partner to regain focus and try to continue experiment with the different bodies in the space. Unfortunately none of the movement produced in any of the improvisations I was involved in, but I remained in the space and made an effort to move as much as possible. Despite a slight frustration building from things not working, by staying in the space I proved to myself that my confidence is growing and that I am capable of finding new ways to create a connection between my body and another and that I was willing to move even though I had already hit many obstacles during this jam.

Cont Jam

With a shorter jam due to a performance occurring subsequently we warmed up our own bodies then started the jam. However it began in my preferable way of sinking into the floor, exploring the space and movement in our own bodies whilst staying relaxed, and leading into making conversation with a body that we accidentally make contact with. I find this way of starting allows me to be fearless and presents the opportunity to be more experimental as it is inevitable who you are going to interact with or how that interaction is going to be initiated, which is an efficient way of making new discoveries. I found that during this jam I left the space twice but found a way to re-enter almost immediately and that I only moved with new bodies and not anyone that I usually work with. There was an absence of weight baring in my contribution to this jam as, although I am becoming more confident in leaving the floor, working with new people made me apprehensive about lifting people as the movement that we were creating suggested they were more comfortable staying on a lower kinesphere, manipulating my movement and playing with skinesphere rather than going up. However it was nice to explore what could be done here and to work with new people as that, in itself, presented new discoveries.

After a break from movement for reading week the apprehension of making contact with other people and starting to be lifted off the floor was daunting, however other people’s excitement encouraged me to try to contribute more in jam situations and be more confident in lifting and being lifted.

We started off this class by watching two contact improvisation videos; the first one was “The Play of Weight” (Neige Christenson, 2009)  the second “Contact Improvisation- Mirva Makinen & Otto Akkanen” (omegabranch, 2011). Initially I expected the two videos to be very similar, but from analysing I found more differences as first video was just two bodies in the space on their own and seemed more like a production rather than an experiment of movement whereas the second video looked to have been recorded during a class/ jam. Overall, the movement in the first video was slow, fluent and continuous. Both bodies listened well to one another and any ‘mistakes’ or falls were recovered by rolling and both bodies quickly and smoothly carried on, embracing what had happened and using it to continue. The effortlessness in the movement of these bodies suggested to me that they may have been partners for a long time and have a lot of experience in working together from the way they move, listen to, and protect each other’s bodies. From my own experience in contact improvisation, I know that keeping a connects with a partner, whilst also keeping to movement fluent and precise, is often made more difficult if you don’t have a good relationship, or don’t trust the other person that you are making contact with. The second video seemed more raw and experimental. Both bodies found anchor and lever points and the role of the under and over dancer changed frequently throughout the video and there was no clear leader, each body initiated the movement or took the weight of the other body, which goes against the traditional stereotype people often think of in other genres of dance, such as ballet, when the male dancer lifts the female dancer. Similarly to the first video, both bodies keep a solid connection whilst improvising and were always aware of their rolling points, making it more interesting watch as they were discovering new ways to move which I had never seen or experienced before. The use of shared momentum in this clip alarmed an awareness to me that both bodies need to listen to each other in terms of pace during contact improvisation, not just listening to the movement content and this seemed to be important whilst taking each other’s weight, which is something I kept thinking of throughout the rest of the class.

We experimented with walking around the space then releasing our bodies and letting other members of the class catch us from behind and giving a warning of “one, two, three” before falling, similar to a trust falling exercise. Catching other bodies and safely placing them flat on the floor was something I felt more comfortable with because I was aware of how safe I had to be to protect the body I was catching. The more released their body was, the easier and quicker it was to safely get them to the floor. Throughout the exercise I discovered that I didn’t need to help everyone who released back, that it was more efficient to only catch the people I was near and let other people do the same, instead of running across the room every time I heard “one, two, three!”. Releasing my own body to fall backwards proved to be a struggle as not knowing the group of people who were behind me made it hard to trust that someone was going to catch me and that I wouldn’t fall to the floor. The first time that I tried this exercise the panic made me forget that I had to bend my knees whilst falling back which made it awkward for the people behind me to place me on the floor which then caused me to hold a lot of tension throughout my body. I started to understand how fluent this could be when I tried this again and I used my breath, releasing on an exhale to get rid of all tension which took me all the way down to the floor and still had the momentum to roll on to my side and bring myself back up to standing to continue walking and engage back in with the space.

The more I try to experiment with body surfing, the more I lose connection with the other body. Travelling down the room body surfing, using a table top position and exploring ways to roll together, I tried to work with new people to build my confidence and help to find new and more interesting ways to travel and stay connected. I found that trying to increase the pace of body surfing didn’t work with my partner in this situation as I wanted to speed up the transition of changing the over and under dancer to see what would happen but my partner wanted to take it slower than me and stay at a pace that we usually practice. Therefore I did not find anything new in this instance however I could try this again with a different partner and see if the same thing happens to suggest that increasing the pace not be something that works effectively during body surfing. After this it was difficult to try new things as I found a new partner and I was subconsciously planning ahead to try and ‘keep up’ with a new body, who I don’t usually work with, even though in hindsight I know that it is unnecessary to think in that way.

Taking this to table top it is easier to find different ways of going over someone’s back however changing the direction of facing when I release on to the other body causes me to get stuck loose connection before falling out of what I am doing. This reoccurring problem could possibly be solved by practicing this more outside of class which will increase my confidence and improve the results of these experiments. Moving to standing also proved to be difficult, however it became more fun and experimental the more times I travelled across the space and swapping partners. I felt confident in counterbalancing and taking and giving weight to others once on a high kinesphere however I find the only way I can reach that level is by standing up as I am unsure of how to incorporate going from a low kinesphere to a higher kinsephere whilst travelling.

Working in partners we played with the idea of going up to go down in a number of different ways.

We jumped in the air with our partners behind us as they found a comfortable position to place their hands just under the shoulder blades and pushing them up and forwards as they come back down to the floor. Whilst jumping it felt like I was getting much higher when my partner pushed me, although she wasn’t gripped on to me or lifting me properly. When I was helping to elevate my partner into the air I often found it difficult to recognise if my hands were in the right place or if I was applying enough or too much pressure to make this effective.

This exercise helped to recognise that I need to stay released in contact improvisation and practise keeping a softness in my knees to release tension but stay grounded to make my movement more fluent and ensure that anything I do is safe for me or the other bodies around me.

During this class we included an improv jam as the previous one didn’t take place due to reading week. I felt I was more involved in this jam, working with four different people but starting to transition from one body to another rather than leaving the space and attempting to re-enter. This made it easier to experiment with new ways to interact with other bodies and be included in keeping up the pace in the jam. Whilst moving I found that if I stayed in the space other people would join as there is collective apprehension about being the only two bodies in the space.

Bibliography

Neige Christenson (2009) the play of weight. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltq6y06E8ew [accessed 12th November 2016]

omegabranch (2011) Contact Improvisation Mirva Makinen & Otto Akkanen . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw&t=2s [accessed 12th November 2016]

With a week off from contact improvisation classes and jams, as expected the rescheduled class included more content in this session containing a high energy from the group at the beginning of the class, which developed from a group warm up. By starting with a body surfing, which we had done before, we were given the opportunity to explore different ways to move over each other’s bodies whilst keeping a connection. With this came the chance for the under dancer to experiment with creating different levels for the over dancers to move over, whilst keeping the connection and staying on a low kinesphere. Using rolling as the under dancer presents itself as the easiest and most comfortable option as it has been practiced several times within our sessions, which also means there is always something to go back to if we get stuck in something during a contact jam. However this allows the opportunity for this to become habitual movement, making the movement I create in a jam boring with limited room for exploration. Without exploring different bases and levels as the under dancer, it creates further problems between the two bodies and effects the conversation as the over dancer isn’t given the platform they need to try new things; facings, landings, where the weight is in relation to their under dancer. This also highlights the importance of the keeping a constant connection between the two bodies (as much as physically possible) and staying alert in order to listen to the conversation that allows the bodies to help and create new ways of exploring for one another. Each action has a consequence, whether that be positively creating opportunities and discovering new ways to move with in an exploration, or it be losing connection if things are not working smoothly or safely.

 

The first session playing with lifting people and completely releasing onto another body caused me to feel anxious before we had even started, however I found working with the right people was calming and made me feel more confident. Enjoying some of the lifts, including laying over someone’s back sideways or backwards, made me realise the difference between the physical and mental blocks, helping me to acknowledge that the problem is being scared to try things, not that I am unable or uncappable of doing so. On the other hand it is disheartening to bounce back and continue when lifts don’t work in the learning process as it causes frustration and creates belief that it would never work in a jam situation. Personally, this week I found it difficult to master finding the anchor point and swinging each other down the room. the problem I found was being able to do this slowly but the connection would break, leading to a problem trying this with other people as we were at different levels and I felt as though I couldn’t keep up.

 

This reflected in the jam at the end of this class. We started on the floor, warming up our own bodies, finding contact with someone and starting a conversation with them. I initially made contact with another body fluently but as things were not working and I was becoming frustrated, we moved away to find new partners however I found the same problem with any body that I chose to work with. Coming to the conclusion that I should take myself out of the jam for a while, I felt an immense pressure to go back in but the more I thought about it, the more attempts I made and the more I noticed the absence of bodies in the space compared to other jams we have been a part of, the more it became difficult to want back in. Once exiting the jam this week, unfortunately i did not re-enter, out of fear and resistance, not unwillingly.

As the weeks progress, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to enjoy a session, or feel confident within a contact jam, which I believe to be an unfortunate outcome of a fear of failure. The more I think about what would be expected of me during a jam, the more I panic that what I do won’t be good enough and that I will let my partner down either by breaking our connection, not following what their body wanted to do, or even worse hurting another dancer or causing an injury. My determination to get everything right puts me at a disadvantage as I start to tell my things I can’t do things, even when I successfully attempt something but is at a different standard to other people in the class. 

We started this class by exploring ‘small dance’, understanding the theory, what it looked like in a body and how it felt in our own bodies. As a obscure concept, and one I had never thought of before with in contact improvisation, I found it difficult to understand ‘small dance’ just from watching Paxton’s video, as it proved hard to see movement in a ‘still’ body in the for of the skeleton. Proving a big difference in the body, mind and aesthetics, I found the feeling of trying to stay still very different to what I expected. From the absence of movement that could be seen in the skeleton video, or from observing other bodies, I didn’t expect to feel a large amount of movement. Although my engagement with the space made me aware that my body wasn’t creating a lot of movement, I could feel an overwhelming difference between what I would usually consider a ‘still’ body and what I was experience. I particularly felt this movement in my hip and ankle joints as a rocked to the side and tried to control my balance to prevent falling.

 

This was the first Research Lab task that we had to run which proved challenging.

Our question was “How can we change our habits of defense during contact improvisation?”.

To collects the results to these question we decided to change the vision of the dancers to see if how comfortable they felt in the space effected the way they move and how they use their habits of defense in new or unfamiliar situations. We also created a series of questions to help collect the data which we planned to makes notes on by collecting feedback of the answers.

 

My role in the group was to observe the participating dancers and make notes.

Immediately I noticed that there was a lot of confusion by the meaning of our question and what we were asking them to do. There was also a lot of apprehension right at the beginning, which I believe to be a result of the uncertainty of the task, as the bodies became, noticeably, more relaxed towards the end of each task. When the option of starting back to back or weight baring someone’s head in your hands, every pair started back to back and went back to that as a starting position if they lost contact with their partner or if what they were trying didn’t work. The majority of people stayed on a low kinesphere and there was an absence of counterbalances or taking each other’s weight, which collectively we had been comfortable with in previous classes.

The feedback we received from asking the questions were reciprocal of the observations I had already made, in most areas.

We found that the dancers felt most uncomfortable with their eyes closed rather than with the lights off, due to uncertainty of where they were, trusting the people around them and that it was something that we haven’t practiced as much as some of the other tasks that we presented.  Interestingly we found that some people had their eyes closed in task one when they had freedom to do anything, however they began to feel uncomfortable when we took the choice away from them because they then had to find a partner first and interact before starting a conversation, rather than having the ability to consciously choose a partner then close their eyes when they started to feel more comfortable.

As a group, task 3 proved to be the favourite as they found it more comforting that they could at least see the outlines of other bodies to allow them to be spatially aware of who they were moving with, which is what they said made them feel apprehensive in task 2. Again they found themselves in the safety net of starting back to back because they are familiar with that from previous contact classes. They found it easier with a change in vision rather than no vision at all because they could experiment with movement more if they knew who they were making contact with.

They decided that in order for them to be able to work well in the second task that they had to allow their trust to grow from one task to the other, which is what we expected when we were designing our research lab. They also found that they learnt throughout that there was no fluidity in their movement or they couldn’t experiment much if they didn’t learn to trust the other body that they were in contact with.