Rolling, sliding and pushing
I enjoy to be on the floor as being on the floor is where I feel most comfortable during improvisation. I prefer to have as much of my body in contact with the floor as possible as I feel less exposed.
Although the skin forms the material boundary of our bodies, it is through it that we connect with the outer world, that we touch and experience our environment (Heitkamp, D. CQ/CI 2, 2003, 257).
I found it difficult to isolate my movements so I was only rolling and I found whilst rolling I would be pushing or whilst I was pushing I was also sliding. Trying to make it so I was only doing one of these was something that I enjoyed doing during this class.
Partner rolling, sliding and pushing
Whilst we were in partners one of us would roll, slide and push and the other would place their hands on different areas of the body, I found this task made me more aware of what I was doing with my body. Being more aware of my body helped me to not slip back into the same familiar movements. Subconsciously when my partner placed their hand on a body part I would try to push, roll and slide from this body part. I didn’t realise that this was what I was doing until I was doing this to my partner.
We then played around with tone, to me tone meant how much pressure I put against my partner. Having a greater tone meant that my partner would naturally move faster, after using a greater tone me and my partner struggled to bring the tone back down to a softer tone.
Heitkemp, D. (2003). Moving from the Skin: An Exploratorium. Contact Quarterly/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II, Vol. 28:2. 256-264.