How would you feel walking into your first contact improvisation class? Excited or nervous? I felt both. Excited to learning a new skill, which I will use in the future; yet I was nervous of being thrown in at the deep end.
What is the difference between contact work and contact improvisation? Contact work is choreographed movements which involve contact such as weight bearing, whereas contact improvisation is not set, however you have to be prepared to support each other and yourself, the movements are also very controlled when done correctly. Contact improvisation “has shifted: away from an experimental dance phenomenon and toward a physical practice…”. (Paxton, 2003, 175)
We watched four videos; two which helped us to understand what contact improvisation is and how professionals look when in a jam or performance and two which showed us what contact work looks like. Watching the video ‘Angela Donny & Athos – CONTACT IMPROVISATION 2009 IBIZA’ (two professionals) was really interesting as every move was performed with no communication and ease yet they were always there to support themselves and each other throughout all the controlled movements they did. The second contact improvisation video was ‘Contact Improv Jam – Berlin K77’ (non-professionals), during this jam you could hear the communication happening between the partners, which is good however you do not want to be talking about the next move as then it is planned and that is not how improvisation works. Another point from this video was that all the moves performed looked experimental. Once I had seen these two videos it made me realise how excited and ready I am to get stuck in and take away some of the fear I have when being lifted and lifting others as we will learn how to do this.
Impulse touch is a partner task, using the impulse of touching a certain body part to move using non habitual movements. This time round because we are now doing CONTACT improvisation, the touch had to be more powerful and meaningful than previous explorations, as now it was to guide your partner onto their next move, not them move their own body. Everyone tried their hardest to guide their partner into the next movement, but sometimes it can be hard as you do not know where they are going. Some more than others, went down to their partner’s level when they were on the floor and then moved with them, and when this happened it looked more like the contact improvisation from the videos.
How would you overcome contact improvisation, if you got dropped or dropped someone else whilst performing new experimental moves? For me it is easy! I would start from where I felt comfortable and build it all up slowly, and because I would have already done it before I would understand what the correct way to do it is and the wrong way to do it, once I had become more confident with them I would be able to perform more complex moves and I would also have my confidence back.
Bibliography:
Paxton, S. Drafting Interior Techniques. In Stark-Smith, N. A Subjective History of Contact Improvisation. In Albright, A. C., & Gere, D. (2003). Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan. University Press. Pp.175-18
Angela Donny and Athos. (2009) Angela Donny and Athos – Contact Improvisation 2009 Ibiza. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0OmQaLaj6c. [accessed 2 October 2016].
Juri Schmidt. (2010). Contact Improvisation Jam – Berlin K77. [Online Video]. 8 March 2010. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDhhKmCVVdo. [accessed 2 October 2016].