Month: November 2014

‘Is it possible to do lifts with the same intention and fluidity in trios that it is in duets?’

This is the question my group proposed for our research lab. We decided to go with this question because whilst in a jam we don’t feel comfortable in lifting as a trio as

“Contact Improvisation is a duet movement form.” (Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, 1997, 16)

and because of this it is difficult to turn duet lifts into trio lifts.

For our research lab we started by trying out each lift that we had done as a duet and trying to make them into a three. We experimented with the back to back/see saw style lift, supporting the shoulder blades lift and the hip to hip lift with variation to hip to shoulder.

With the back to back lift we really struggled to start with as we had two under dancers and one over dancer and found that the over dancer struggled to get their pelvis over both of the under dancers and also the under dancers struggled to keep their pelvis’ at the same height. Here you can see the dancer preparing themselves for the lift however the lift didn’t work therefore there isn’t an image of the lift in action.

Because the lift didn’t work we then tried it the same way as we originally learnt it but with somebody under the original under dancer and found that this worked a lot better however the new under dancer has to be strong enough to take the weight of two people.

After this we went on to explore the supported shoulder blades lift with somebody extra supporting the legs, this felt like a completely different lift and worked really well but again only with certain people supporting certain areas.

Three of the members in my group then went on to do a mini jam and we found that the third person in the group would just be supporting the legs and this hindered where the movement would go.

After this research lab I still think that it contact improvisation is a duet and cannot be changed into a duet. More questions that came up from this jam are:

• Is there a way to change the person being lifted into the lifter smoothly in a trio?
• How can you pass the lift on without using arms/hands?
• How can you explore lifts in a trio without supporting the legs?
• How can trio lifts start from the floor and move upwards and/or travel and vice versa?

 

 

Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook. (1997) Massachusetts: Contact Editions.

At the start of this class we watched a couple of videos of people doing contact improvisation and a video I really enjoyed was of Mirva and Otto. I particularly enjoyed this because they were both so in tune with one another and they stayed connected and in contact literally all of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw

This video inspires me to want to be able to become in tune with my partner in a similar way to these two.

After watching this video we did a few lifts, my favourite lift to do was where the under dancer would lean forward until the over dancer was balanced on their back and then we would swap so that the over dancer became the under dancer.

I found that this lift made me feel the strongest connection with my partner. Other lifts that we did included the ‘paper clip’ which is where the over dancer would put their arm over the shoulder of the under dancer and would lift the over dancer. A development of this was the try and get the over dancer onto the over dancers shoulder, for this I was the under dancer and I really struggled to lift my over dancer however I think that this is due to the over dancer being hesitant and scared and I think that after a few practices then we would be able to do the lift as the confidence will be there.

Something that I struggle with is putting the lifts into action in a jam as I know that my partner isn’t thinking the same as me and doesn’t know my intention.

What is most important to remember is that each body, disabled or not, is unique and presents another opportunity to explore what movement is possible. (Curtis B. 1988)

I think that this quote will help me in unlocking movements as although in my head I know what I want to do perhaps if I go with the movement more then I would be able to ease into different lifts and explore different movement.

 

 

Omegabranch (2011) Contact Improvisation Mirva Mäkinen and Otto Akkanen. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw [Accessed 10 November 2014].

Curtis, B. (1988) Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook 1, 13 156-162.

When you are standing and you allow your center of gravity to wander until it’s not over your feet any more, then you start to fall in that direction (Woodhull A. CQ/CI)

This is something that I should think about whilst doing my small dance as I think that it would help me to relax into the fall more and it will help me to not overthink the movement. Whilst in my small dance I find that I pre-empt what I am about to do. Thinking about putting my centre over my feet will definitely help me to think less about the movement and to let my body go with my centre.

The center of gravity can move around 6 or 8 inches from its standard position in the body (Woodhull A. CQ/CI)

I found this to be rather interesting, I didn’t realise that our centre of gravity could move at all and I think that this will help me to be able to centre myself whilst giving and receiving weight. Whilst receiving weight I always struggle to centre myself as I am usually off balance and my centre is not over my feet, because of this I have found myself struggling to take peoples weight in a safe manner. However, knowing that my centre of gravity can move such a large amount I think that this will help me in being able to receive another person’s weight as I will be able to trust that my centre will have moved with me and that I will be able to balance whilst supporting the other person’s weight.

 

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

How can we explore momentum alongside not using hands? And how does this change when working with new and old partners?

 

“In order to change habitual movement patterns one needed to address the functioning of the whole organism, the mind as well as the body.” (Lepkoff, 1999)

I found that having my hands clasped and not using my hands helped me to stop using my habitual movements and to use my mind more to unlock movements that I haven’t used before or to change my usual movements into something different.

 

The exercises that we used to explore this idea was ‘gravitational pull,’ ‘inhalation and exhalation,’ ‘cat exercise’ and ‘small dancing with support.’ We did each exercise with hands clasped and hands unclasped to see what was easier for us and to see if having our arms free would help the movement even without placing them on the floor to help us to move.

Using the ‘gravitational pull’ to get ourselves from one side of the space to the other, whilst doing this I asked myself the question ‘how do you use the momentum of a roll to get you onto your feet?’

 

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Having hands clasped whilst doing movements made me feel more free as I knew that I couldn’t use my hands and didn’t have the temptation to use my hands however as you can see in the video it looks extremely awkward and restricted.

 

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Whilst having my hands unclasped at the start of the clip I found this extremely difficult to be able to use the momentum to get myself onto my feet ready to roll whereas after being told to relax my arms I felt that the movement became easier however it was still a lot harder and more restricted and I wanted to put my hands down a lot more however to look at it looks a lot more free and easier to do. Having my hands relaxed and unclasped was definitely the easiest of the three different hands.

After this we did the inhalation and exhalation task where we laid on the floor and relaxed our bodies before doing the task again. After the inhalation and exhalation task I realised that I could use my arms and just not use my hands therefore this helped as I felt a lot less tension in my body.

In the cat exercise I found that having my hands clasped was extremely awkward and I couldn’t take the weight of my partner easily whilst having my hands clasped whereas with my hands unclasped I felt a lot freer and easier to do, I felt as though I could have more movement with my partner and support them better.

The small dance with support was extremely scary whilst I had my eyes open, I think that this is because I was more aware of where people are and where I was in relation to the floor. Whereas with my eyes closed I felt a lot more relaxed and I think that this is because I am not too aware of where the people who were supporting me were in relation to where I was and for some strange reason I found this made me a lot more relaxed.

During the enter class because of not using my hands I felt as though I used my back a lot more than I usually would.

 

Lepkoff, D. (1999) What is release technique? [online] Available from http://www.daniellepkoff.com/Writings/What%20is%20Release.php [Accessed 20 October 2014].