Contact Improvisation

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].

 

In class we watched Steve Paxton’s small dance. This is where when you are standing still, your body is never fully still as gravity is trying to push you down therefore you are constantly moving as a reaction to gravity although this is not a conscious thought. We tried this but made it a conscious thought so being

“Directed by gravity working on the body” (Ravn, 2010, p21-34)

To force your body to go with gravity and create a run. I found that during this I generally went forwards or on a diagonal. Once we were comfortable going with gravity we then developed this into a fall to the floor, at first I was scared to do this as I didn’t want to cause injury but after a short while of doing the exercise I felt comfortable throwing my body around and going with gravity instead of going against gravity as I realised that it is when you go against gravity that you would cause injury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44

After this we did an exercise where we were then taking and receiving weight, one person would be the ‘cat’ and the other would be the ‘cat owner.’ The cat owner would give surfaces of their body for the cat to give their weight into. At first me and my partner, Abbie, really struggled to give each other weight and so we stayed close to the ground until we felt completely comfortable then we explored more whilst being stood up. At first Abbie was the cat and I was the cat owner, we then swapped so I was the cat and Abbie the cat owner but eventually we just naturally flowed so that we were both cats and cat owners. This made the movement more flowing and easier to do, whilst having someone set as the cat and someone set as the cat owner I found myself thinking about what I would do. Whilst both being the cat and cat owner I found that I didn’t think about the movement at all and that the movement just flowed naturally.

Ravn, Susanne (2010) Sensing weight in movement. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 2, 21-34

Steve Paxton (2009) steve paxton. smalldance. [online video] Available from, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44 [Accessed 13/10/2014].

 

I found keeping my head on the floor quite a difficult task as I struggle to release my head and always have tension in my neck and shoulders. When expanding on this to join heads with my partner I also struggled, but this time I struggled as I didn’t feel as though I could explore many movements whilst keeping my head attached to my partners head.

We then did an exercise holding the head of our partner, I found that my partner didn’t give me the full weight of her head and that she didn’t trust me as much as she could have done. She also said this about me when feeding back to each other after the exercise. She also said that as the exercise went on that I became more trusting in her and I also closed my eyes after a while and I think that this definitely helping me in giving my weight to my partner.

This needed to be developed slowly, because when something happens “which is too fast for thought” (Turner, 2010, pages 123-135)

Although this quote is referencing spinning or rolling specifically, I found this to be useful during the heavy head exercise as there was no way that you would be able to support your partner with them moving quickly.

After this we did the ‘pebble’ exercise which is where you would roll over our partners back but making sure to release the head and neck and to activate the eyes, so whilst rolling I would think about seeing the entire of the room before reaching the floor.

 

Turner, Robert. Contact improvisation and political power (2010) Vol. 54, Issue 3, pages 123-135

“in class each person is equally spaced from all the others in floor work, or sequentially isolated when moving across the floor […] That each person must stay within his isolated space allot- ment […] is typical of our culture” (Bannon et al, 2012, 215-227)

Contact improvisation is pushing the boundaries of where you would put yourself in a class, and is saying that you don’t have to have an isolated space allotment and that you can use any part of the space, and if you come into contact with someone then it’s alright to have a moment of duet with them.

I want to go on record as being pro-physical-sensation in the teaching of this material. The symbolism, mysticism, psychology, spiritualism are horse-drivel. In actually teaching the stand or discussing momentum or gravity, I think each teacher should stick to sensational facts. (Bannon et al, 2012, 215-227)

I take this to mean that I would want to come into contact with as many people/objects as I can. And to really feel the sensation of being manipulated by this person, to see what happens if you push the boundaries. Trying to move in a way that you haven’t ever moved before to see if you can feel different sensations that you’ve not noticed before and making myself more aware of what I am doing.

Our reflexes move us, and this causes our partner to move. (Bannon et al, 2012, 215-227)

If, for example, your partner pushes against you then you would naturally roll and this would have a knock on effect onto your partner and vice versa.

 

Bannon, Fiona; Holt, Duncan. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices (2012) Vol. 3 Issue 1/2, p215-227