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]