I cannot believe this was the final lesson of such a hard yet creative and enjoyable module, as I mentioned in my first blog I thought I was going to struggle and not make the most of my time in this class. There were many ups and downs during the whole process, but most of all I feel like I have become a more confident dancer, with lots of tools and devices to use when it comes to dancing and choreographing, I also bought the skills that I learnt from last year’s Improvisation module to expand my knowledge. It has been a difficult ten weeks to understand that the movements I have been doing since the age of three years old at a private dance school were classed as habitual movements and I had to move away from them and do things I had not experienced before. I had to learn how to place my weight on someone and were to change my weight to, to work with different people in the class and to also find resistance, momentum and fluidity, to keep the contact I had already created. We also had to learn how to keep, not just our own bodies safe in the space, but the people who we work with, this was difficult at the start of this module as we were not able to read peoples bodies, so we were unable to know what was going to happen, unfortunately until I became confident with the class I stayed with playing it safe, but when you do this the movements become habitual as that is what I know.

For this lesson, we had ten photography students and our second marker in the space with us, we normally struggle for space with twenty-six of us, but it felt no different. The first half of this lesson was thinking about becoming aware of our bodies and the other bodies in the space, starting to create relationships using eye contact then moving onto small movements with the people we make eye contact with. The next exercise we did was 1, 2, 3 fall, when we first did the exercise everyone was apprehensive of letting their weight go and trusting the class. This week we were told to shout ‘1, 2, 3’ when we liked and everyone in the class was so brave, I wish I had done it however I was in a lot of pain with my back and struggled to move properly. I am unable to comment on the second half of the lesson as I cannot reflect on how it affected me and my body as I was told to sit out, as much as I did not want to I had to as I had other assessments to do that week, which were only based on that one lesson, whereas this module we have been assessed every week.

The whole process of Contact Improvisation has changed my attitude to try new things and experience movements or lifts that I am not comfortable doing. I learnt that CI is a good way to let out all your internal aches and pains, as you can experiment by twisting, turning, pulling and pushing, into each other and even the floor. Everything I have learnt throughout this module will definitely stay with me for the whole of my dance life, they are all tools well learnt.

The lesson started off by watching two videos, whilst watching these we were asked to think about things that we do and what we do not do whilst in contact improvisation jams, the thing I noticed that I did not do were;

• Keep the contact flowing
• Connect with different/harder parts of my body
• Explore movements/ contact in detail
• Move in at different paces, I always move at a slow pace
• Trust people as much as I should do

The difference between us and the people in the videos is that:

• They were all smooth and flowing
• They all listen to each other’s bodies
• It shows that when you fall out of something, you can find and create new movement from it
• Their focus was on the connection of the side of the body and the torso (RoehamptonDance, 2011)
• They were always offering someone something

There was always Fluidity and momentum, which as a collective we do not have.

This weeks’ lesson was all about Nancy Stark Smith’s Underscore. To introduce this to us we watched a video GLOBAL UNDERSCORE with Nancy Stark Smith, the difference between a Contact improvisation jam and the Underscore is that with the score there are rules to follow and these will normally be spoken and everyone moves as a collective. There are many parts to this score, unlike when we learnt about scores last year in improvisation.

 

I was very surprised with this score, as I did not think I would enjoy doing it! To start off with it felt too structured but once you get into the flow of moving with the bodies in the space it becomes natural too you, as you do not think of the score as a set of rules, it becomes a list of tools that you use to help you when you get stuck with people or when you get stuck on the edge of the ‘Open Score’. During this score, I worked in a trio twice, and personally I felt like it flowed a lot better in comparison to when I have tried to work with others in previous jams. I also l achieved the things that I do not normally do and it was interesting to feel how using different parts of the body, like the side to connect. When doing, weight bearing movements I was not just the lifter, Casey lifted me off the ground and it felt nice to be able to trust someone with your weight, when doing this I did not pre-empt the movement with my partner of trio. They one thing I did struggle to do whilst in the open score was to explore pace, I worked slowly and steady, but I have not dared to move fast, as I am scared to fall, however I have discovered that falling is a way of finding new movements, another thing was we did the Underscore for over half an hour and it was so challenging to keep up the energy without having a break for a drink, or a quick breather, like we do in ‘normal’ jams.

Thursday nights jam, was not very successful for me as once it turned into the ‘Open Score’. As soon as I came out I could feel the pain from my back and it was irritating me, so I struggled to get back in, I found that this knocked my confidence as on Tuesdays session I did not want to come out of the circle.

 

Bibliography:

PERFORM fundacja artystyczna (2014) GLOBAL UNDERSCORE with Nancy Stark Smith

Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOGLMZdm2uA [accessed 29 November 2016].

Kanał użytkownika szimi82 (2012) Poland Contact Improvisation Festival – Warsaw Flow 2012 – Jam. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyaHk7KN9bY [accessed 29 November 2016].

RoehamptonDance (2011) Contact Improvisation Jam 20^th May 2011

Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdKZlryJ4HY [accessed 29 November 2016].

 

 

We are nearing the end of our CI module and I was unable to join in due to an injury, however observing the class is just as impactful as joining in. Our main focus of this week’s lesson was using our pelvis’ to make contact with people; as a collective we have neglected this part of our bodies. The first exercise was connecting with partners by the pelvis using the bridge and kneeling position, during this investigation I noticed that many people did not investigate the whole range of movements available to them. The base is there to support but to also offer new ideas and ways of moving for the person being lifted.

Individual exploration started by either sitting or laying on the floor and focusing the mind to the task set and in their own time they had to move the body leading with the pelvis. They then had to move in and out of contact with the people in the room, still thinking about leading with the pelvis and creating contact with that neglected area of the body, when observing I noticed that the class need to work more as a collective and people need to give their weight more to others, I know everyone can do it, because we have all done the ‘1,2,3 fall’ exercise, which is giving your weight to our peers. When I was watching it looked like everyone was reluctant to change partners, but when we got feedback a lot of the class said that they felt like they had more to explore with their partners which is why they didn’t change as much as we expected. Once they finished this, they learnt how to pour their weight into people, so the movements flowed better, people seemed to move with others for a lot longer after learning this as they started to try new things and explore more.

The next part was ‘finding platforms’, when doing this one person had to be in a stable position and the other partner to explore new ways of being in contact with them, but I feel like people could explore more levels when being a base. They then had to do the same, but find ways of getting in and out of the positions smoothly and effectively. The partners had to find a point of balance and let your partner exit out of the platform with you, as a collective they all found that it was difficult to keep on contact with their partners when trying to get out of the half kneeling position, as everyone tried to roll out of it and the connection then gets lost.

Tuesday evening’s jam, was used like a score –minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 in the centre of the space, some of the class said they really embraced the space they had as they did not have to worry about crashing into others. ”The strict use of space is a fundamental aspect…”(Keefe, 2003, 229). As I was watching I noticed that Kayleigh was one of the only people to move fast into the circle when there was a slow piece of music on in the background and it looked really effective and contrasted it perfectly. In the first 5 minutes of this task when there were three people in the space, there was always a solo and a duet happening never a trio, this is because the class do not know how to tackle working with more than one body.

 

Bibliography:

Keefe, M. What’s the score? Improvisation in Everyday Life. In Albright, A. C., & Gere, D. (2003). Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Conneticut: Wesleyan University Press. Pp.229-238

 

The workshop at Dance4 with two members of Feet off the Ground Dance was the best thing for me especially coming off the back of last weeks’ jam, which I was not comfortable with at all. This workshop was so inspiring and made me more aware of my body and other bodies, because working with some people in the group just was not working for me and the movements were really hard to do, however when I found the right partner we clicked instantly and worked really well especially when learning the repertory from a Feet off the Ground Dance work. I know this was not CI however, it has built my confidence back up as I now know that I can do lifts and people can lift me, I am now not as afraid to give others my weight. So I really do thank Sophie and Lu from Feet off the Ground Dance for bringing back my confidence in dance and performance.

This week was research lab week. The idea behind our group’s lab was ‘How does movement enhance small dance?’. We got everyone to answer closed questions after most of our exercises to find out some statistical data and we found out that there is a mixture of opinions about Steve Paxton’s idea of small dance. In each of our sections we asked our participants to do and feel different things such as half sitting and half laying down, to see if there was a difference between the two positions, but overall it was almost equal.

Overall I feel that we could have done more to find out if people believe small dance is a thing or not, personally I agree with Paxton as even when you think you are standing still there are always movements within the body that you do not realise are happening.

We backed up some of our exercises with some research that we did, such as “the creative interplay arises from mutual awareness of weight, rhythm, momentum, environment, attitude and feeling.” (Brown, 74) we asked them to think about the weight in their feet and how that affected small dance or if it affected small dance. We also mentioned that “personal responsiveness becomes the basis for creative play.” (Brown, 74) we used this to help people understand that it was their own bodies that could help to create the small dance and make it visible to use observing them.

The question we asked:

1a) Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye?

1b) Was there any movement whilst you were sitting or lying down?

2) Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye?

3) Did you give into the subconscious movement?

4) Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye?

5) NO QUESTIONS

6a) Do you feel the movement within your inner self was visual to the outside eye?

6b) Was the sensation of small dance stronger after moving?

6c) Could you feel the small dance of your partner when in contact side by side?

6d) Could you feel the small dance of your partner when in contact back to back?

6e) Could you block out any sensations after moving around the space and returning to standing still?

I was excited to do this weeks’ jam; however, I was really upset at the end of it as I felt like I had not been in as much as I had hoped to, due to the fact that I did not know how to communicate with more than one body, so when someone joined me and my partner I felt like I had been pushed out, so I returned to the edge of the room and from that I really struggled to get back in as it knocked my confidence right down. As I was about to enter the jam, we finished the lesson as we had to get ready for the Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company’s performance of Pinocchio, I really enjoyed watching a professional company, in a style that I would like to pursue perform and then do a workshop the next day.

The workshop was the most amazing experience I have ever had, normally when I have a class or workshop with professionals I go to the back, but because I was so keen to learn repertory from a performance that I watched the night before and that I loved, I was right at the front. We had one-and-a-half-hour workshop and the whole class were so tired yet still full of energy, I did not want it to end! I cannot wait to go into the world of performing arts and to hopefully get into such a well-established company like that.

 

Bibliography:

Brown, B. Is Contact a Small Dance? Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I. Vol. 6 Pp. 72-75

ZayacZhe (2009) Steve Paxton. SmallDance. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44 [accessed 10 November 2016].

Your centre of gravity does not have to be within the centre of the body “(inside the pelvis, a little below the belly button)” (Woodhull, Vol.4, 45). For example, when you lift someone their centre of gravity will change slightly depending on how that person is being lifted.

Again this week we looked at the interchangeable role of the over under dancer, to see if we understood this correctly, we watched two videos and were asked about the similarities and differences between them. The first on was ‘the play of weight – Martin Keogh and Neige Christenson’, I will be referring to this as ‘1’ and the second video ‘Contact improvisation – Mirva Mäkinen and Otto Akkanen’, I will be calling this ‘2’.

Similarities:

• Both used the role of over under dancer
• Both used momentum
• Both used the lever and anchor system

Differences:

• In 1 the male dancer in the video was the under dancer most of the time, whereas in 2 the roles were interchangeable.
• The dancers in 2 both bounced off each other and the flow was consistent and looked a lot rawer.
• In 1 there was tracing used. By this I mean a lot of contact without touching.
• In 1 there were moments of stillness.

In this lesson we played with the ‘1, 2, 3 falling’ exercise but this time it was different as we had to give our peers the full weight of our body, supporting our necks and heads, to lower to the floor, the feeling and sensation I heard from someone in the class was that it feels like you are falling with control, also from watching you could see as a collective people became more confident and began to let themselves relax more so everyone had more weight to support.

When watching from the side of the room you get such a different perspective of when you are joining in with the class, however it is a good thing that we are able to sit and watch if we are injured or unwell as you think about things differently. I noticed that many people in the group do not release their body to its full potential and this can be quite dangerous for not only the person who is not released but the other as well.

Entering the jam during Tuesdays class, everyone looked so full of energy they all worked so well together, even when people do struggle to respond to the other person, they try to carry on, however if it did not work, they broke away and found someone else to create a connection with. Another thing I liked about this jam is you got to see how everyone worked with people they may not have worked with before and to see that new connection was really nice and it pushed people to the limits.

Thursday nights jam class was my best so far, even though the class felt really low going into the lesson! I did not manage to get feedback off my tutor however, I knew that it would be what she had been saying that a lot of the class had to do, which was ‘to enter the jam more’ and this week I believe I did. I really enjoyed this jam as we now know how to communicate whilst lifting and where the best place is to put your weight and how to recover if you fall. Normally in the jams I struggle to get back into them once I come out however this week, I felt like I struggled to come out as we all took on-board the comments from our tutor.

Going back to how we communicate in jams, I struggle to work with more than one person as most of the stuff we have covered in the classes is partner work, so when someone tried to work with Kayleigh and I, we did not pay much attention to her as we were so focused on what we were doing together and inviting someone else in was strange. But overall I loved this weeks’ jam.

 

Bibliography:

Neige Christenson (2009) The play of weight. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltq6y06E8ew [accessed 11 November 2016].

Omegabranch (2011) Contact Improvisation Mirva Mäkinen & Otto Akkanen. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw [accessed 11 November 2016].

Woodhull A. Center of Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I Vol. 4. Pp. 43-48