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.