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.