Month: October 2016

Awareness, Disorientation and Letting Go

Contact Research Labs – structuring, investigating, performing and reflecting

Are we ever actually still? Is there any such thing as being still? Steve Paxton’s idea of ‘Small Dance’ makes me consider that in fact, we are never actually stable. Even when stood in parallel preparing one’s self to dance, part of our body is never actually still. Sometimes we rock side to side, or back and forth without consciously knowing. A video of Paxton’s ‘Small Dance’ shows a Skelton, standing in parallel, stood ‘still’. From watching this video, you can see that even though this person is trying to be still, he isn’t still. Throughout the 10-minute video you see various angles of the body and at times within the video you see the body slightly rock forwards and then back to neutral position, arms slightly moving and obviously the movement of breath; we always breathe so surely that means we are never still, even when trying to be. Byron Brown once said, “awareness of the small dance implies the opening of freer communication within the body” (Brown, 1980-81, 75). Relating this back to my practice I noticed that this idea of ‘Small Dance’ is relatable. Whilst standing on the spot, with my eyes shut, I focused on my inner self and felt a slight motion of movement within my body, but this is not something I notice whilst standing ‘still’ all the time, only did I notice it when I paid additional attention to my body.

Sensing the weight of your body is something that is very important when it comes to contact improvisation. Is it important as a dancer to identify those inner sensations of feeling their weight because it brings to attention to the fact that the weight of the body forms part of shared and socializing processes. What the movement should be like influences how the relationship between mass and gravity is interpreted in practice and how the weight feels (Ravn, 2010). Whilst experimenting with the concept of small dance we had to feel grounded and not give into reflexes, whereas in the next exercise we had to do the complete opposite. We could give in to our reflexes, causing our bodies to feel more relaxed, allowing our movement to feel more comfortable and let our bodies move with more intention. Falling back into the arms of other dancers wasn’t as ‘scary’ as I thought. On my first try I found it difficult to physically let myself go, to allow my entire body to relax and fall into the arms of another. Eventually, I found it effortless. I would count 3, 2, 1 and not even check if people were behind me, I trusted my peers, I knew that somebody would be there. I wasn’t even conscious of my weight on other people, because over the past few weeks I have learnt that it isn’t about your size, or you weight… it’s about trust. I found it was the same when I had 7 other people lift me high into the air, something I had never experienced before, but something that was a lot less scary than I thought and a lot more trustworthy. Both of these exercises are really going to help me improve in the art of contact improvisation, because by learning that people can take my weight and that its ok to give people my weight, means that when contacting with another partner, I can make it a lot more interesting and inventive than I think.

For our research lab we decided to focus on the idea of ‘How do you manage constant dialogue with your partner?’. We explored the concept of communication through the means of sight, touch and sound. As a group we discovered that there are many ways to keep that conversation, whilst improvising, that we had not yet explored thoroughly. The idea of our research lab was to show these concepts and for individuals to bring them into their own practice. The exercises that we chose for our group to explore were all completely different ways of maintaining that conversation between you and your partner, so for our bodies in the space, it was just a case of identifying which one worked the best for themselves, as everyone is going to find one way easier and more effective than another. Some people said they found it really difficult to concentrate and focus whilst keeping constant eye contact between themselves and their partner, because you show a lot of expression and emotion through your face / eyes without even knowing. Others said they found it helpful, helpful in the sense that it connects you to your partner, that you wouldn’t be able to connect with your partner without eye contact; “Although touch is “the mother of all sense” your eyes create just as much contact and dialogue that movement and touch do” (Bannon and Holt, 2012). Whilst improvising movement some people found a strong connection with their eyes closed; “we can close our eyes or cover our ears but we cannot “turn off our skin” ” (Heitkamp, 2003, 261). They also found that in some cases it was easy to ‘loose’ their partner’s body whilst having their eyes closed. Giving our dancer’s body parts to play with, such as connecting your knee and elbow to your partner’s body, was a successful challenge. Our feedback showed us that it was challenging and more successful when we gave them a body part, but when asked to pick one themselves, they found it easy because they just took the easy root out and picked an easy body part like hands and fingers. Experimenting with sound was something new for our dancers, something we are yet to explore. Some enjoyed the experimentation, some found it awkward and uncomfortable. People said it gave them ‘too much to think about’, improvising movement and having to think of a sound to go with it to keep that dialogue flowing seemed to be a lot to come up with on the spot. Other people were amused by the spontaneous play of it, they liked exploring something new, but would’ve preferred it if we gave them longer and specific sounds and dynamics to experiment with.

Overall, our research lab was successful. The aim of our research was to create and find new ways that aided people to maintain that constant dialogue during contact improvisation, and our dancers thought that our exercises did just that. It also informed us that during a jam you need to learn to let go, be functioning, use all kinds of ways to keep contact, keep that dialogue; it doesn’t always have to be touch all the time. There are many ways to have that contact, don’t worry about getting stuck, or feeling like something went wrong, because it’s ok. Think about all the ways of contact and dialogue, touch, sound, sight and offer your partner anything you have to give and eventually, you will realize… it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

 

Bannon, Fiona; Holt, Duncan. (2012) Touch: Experience and knowledge, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices Vol. 3.

Brown, B. Is Contact a Small Dance? Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I. Vol. 6

Heitkamp, D. (2003). Moving from the Skin: An Exploratorium. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II, Vol. 28:2. Pp.

Paxton, S. (2009) Small Dance. Available from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44 (Accessed 23^th October 2016)

‘Sensing weight in movement’. Full text available By: Ravn, SusanneJournal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 2010, Vol. 2 Issue 1

It has been said by Daniel Lepkoff “that a certain fundamental understanding or approach to dancing that used to be common knowledge and that once surrounded me is absent” (Lepkoff, 2005, 1), that improvisation now is completely different to what it used to be. Younger dancers who are exploring improvisation or spontaneous composition nowadays are unaware of a wealth of inspired research and developed knowledge that used to be apparent (Lepkoff, 2005, 2). Years ago, dancing and improvisation involved “exploring various interests, and performance was the medium in which we would explore them” (Lepkoff, 2005, 2). Now, dance is considered as a way of expressing your feelings, thoughts and interests (Lepkoff, 2005, 2), a big different as to what both Lepkoff and Simone Forti once saw within the art of dance and improvisation.

Although dance has changed, (some may say developed) throughout the years, dance still continues to have this fundamental impact on our lives and I think Improvisation is one of these considerable factors. Contact Improvisation has advanced into something substantial since Steve Paxton first introduced the idea. The idea of contact improvisation was first experienced and identified in Paxton’s performance Magnesium (1972). Paxton’s initial description of contact improvisation was “to discover, through spontaneous movement (typically duets) with others, human movement (and human behavior in general) that is “pleasant, highly stimulation and elemental” to us as interactive human organisms. There is no set choreography, no specific instruction.” (Paxton, 2010, 123). This definition still stands, (evidently) but the art of contact improvisation has developed drastically. The change in style progresses as culture, community, civilization and society grow, finding new and improved ways of contact improvisation; “the new versions of CI emerging in the discourse and practice, instead of exploring “all the possibilities” seemed to limit them, narrowly defining CI in terms more amenable to (or even as a variation of) Americal liberal cultural practice in general.” (Paxton, 2010, 130). It has taught a vast amount of individuals that when improvising, there is no right or wrong, that it is important to keep going and to never give up. It has found a certain determination in young dancers, me included, to keep progressing on and to learn and develop new ways of dancing, so they can confidently determine their own lives, make their own decisions and be in charge (Paxton, 2010, 129).

This week’s session was completely focused on the idea of releasing your head and activating the eyes. Trusting my entire head weight with someone’s hands is something I felt apprehensive about, but that was the whole point of the exercise; to give my weight to another being. I found that having someone hold my head weight limited my movement, I wasn’t sure where to go nor was I sure where my body was able to go due to feeling very restricted by my partner’s hands. Trust is something that doesn’t come easily, over a period of time us dancers will get to know each other very well, and work extremely closely with one another, developing trust and awareness of ourselves and dance partners (Paxton, 2010, 127). This is something that I feel I am beginning to become more aware off, I am slowly becoming comfortable with giving my weight to someone else, whether that’s just my head, or my entire body. This exercise really helped me understand, although it is difficult, that weight bearing exercises can challenge you (in a good way), and distance you from habitual movement whilst in contact with another being. “The spontaneous physical interaction of contact usually compounds this basic improvisational fear.” (Paxton, 2010, 132).

Using your eyes within contact improvisation is a lot more important and effective than people think. You point of view is a connection to movement and performance, not only does it help you keep that constant conversation between you and your partner, it creates a sense of tension and powerfulness. “To keep the eyes still is a strain”, “You can keep your eyes still, but eventually, when they relax, they move” (Lepkoff, 2005, 4), your eyes follow you, they dance with you. It is important to try you hardest to not look down whilst dancing because you then trap that connection between your fellow dancers and your audience, “I have learnt to feel the movement of eyes while I am dancing” (Lepkoff, 2005, 5). Lepkoff describes the use of sight within improvisation just like a book; imagine when you walk into the space that there is a “reading” that you take. “You cannot get any information from the page of the book if you just blankly stare at the page. You have to place each letter in the center of your vision and move your eyes from letter to letter, only then does the meaning come to you.” (Lepkoff, 2005, 5), you need to use your vision whilst in the dancing space, to create that sense of space you are in, to find where you are in that space, you need to take in that ‘reading’. Use your visual attention to explore your partner, and keep that connection, even if you are not touching. If you then learn to use your eyes in an effective way, that has then also become movement exploration. Using my eyes is something I found benefitted my performance, dancing with another body and keeping eye contact as much as I could really helped my focus, I never found myself distracted or my eyes wondering to see what anyone else in the room was doing, I let go and turned all my attention to my partner.

“She walked into the performing space and began by taking time to tune herself to her physical state; how she felt in the first moment she entered the space, standing before the eyes of the audience” (Lepkoff, 2005, 3), this is something I do before an improvisation jam, I take note of how my body is feeling, I notice the movement in my initial stillness, I don’t hide how I’m currently feeling, I am completely in my own body, I’m “being present” (Lepkoff, 2005, 3). This week’s contact improvisation jam felt a lot different to last weeks, everyone was a lot more relaxed and comfortable now that we all had an idea of what was expected of us. The importance to stay connected during contact improvisation is crucial, as difficult as it may be. This is something I found most difficult in our jam on Thursday. When that connection was broken I turned my attention to back to Tuesday class and returned to my ‘safe place’ and tried again from there. But to challenge myself I also returned back to some fundamental contact exercises we had experimented with during class. These exercises slightly touched on some basic weight bearing exercises that could be used within contact. During the jam, if I found myself stuck or in an awkward position I would roll onto their back, or hand stand over them; things I found difficult during class but very useful to this jam situation. I realized that the more comfortable I get with these trust and weight bearing mechanisms, the more I can encourage them into a jam session and the more I can help myself out of a sticky situation. It also encourages non-habitual movement and removes me from my comfort zone, which is something I am aiming towards. “Taking weight from and giving weight to a partner was to be “slowly developed over months”.” (Paxton, 2010, 126).

This session has taught me a lot about how important contact improvisation genuinely is. I am completely determined to push myself as far as I can go to improve my weaknesses. I want to have confidence in my choices, and learn to have complete and utter freedom within my movement. I am, as a dancer and improviser, experiencing my own brand new experiences that are strengthening me as a dancer.

 

Steve Paxton’s “Interior Techniques”: Contact Improvisation and Political Power. Full Text Available By: Turner, Robert. TDR: The Drama Review, Fall2010, Vol. 54 Issue 3, p123-135, 13p, 5 Black and White Photographs

 

Lepkoff, D. (2005) The Movement of Attention. Available at:

http://www.daniellepkoff.com/Writings/Daniel%20Simone%20Interview.php(Accessed 12^th October 2016)

 

Paxton, S. (1972) Magnesium. Available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FeSDsmIeHA (Accessed 12th October 2016)

 

 

Touch is a very important aspect when it comes to contact improvisation. It’s not just about being touched, it’s about how we are touched and how that affects us. Touch gives us our sense of reality, it’s what connects us and the rest world and establishes the environment around us. Touching through the means of contact improvisation brings awareness to our bodies, it creates that trust between you and another person. Touch allows you to not only gain someone’s trust, but get to know someone and grow not only a physical connection, but an emotional one, this could be through the means of eye contact. Touch is very much connected with emotion. Touching someone and the way they react tells you a lot about that person, “Touch, is more than the makings of contact, it concerns qualitative variations in the degrees of attention.” (Bannon and Holt, 219, 2012).

The first touch exercise we experimented with made me realize that the concept of not physically touching someone can be just as powerful as touching someone. We played with an exercise that involved a partner placing their hands on my upper and lower back, slowly applying pressure, pushing their hands away from each other, lengthening my spine. This was done for a good length of time, meaning that when my partner removed her hands, I could still feel a connection, it was as if her hands never left my back. Her hands had been pressing into my back for a quite some time, resulting in my body getting used to that feeling and the sensation of heat her hands gave me, taking my back a while to get used to the pressure not being there. Experiencing this touch feeling, whist the physical touch wasn’t physically there, made me realize that you don’t have to do a lot for that connection to be there, it could be the smallest movement and there is still that slight connection between you and your partner. “Touch is the parent of our eyes, ears, nose and mouth” (Bannon and Holt, 218, 2012).

Sensory knowledge was essential to this exercise; when my partner placed her body over mine it took me a minute to adjust to the weight that was now laid on mine. We took a minute to attempt to connect our breathing, to move as one rather than two individuals, again, to help identify that connection. It took a while for us to fully concentrate and not laugh. Laughing resulted into both of you laughing due to the forced movement from your partner’s chest. As this exercise went on my attention turned to the over and under dancer, and how the two can connect. The trusting weight and frame exercise also involved us to turn our attention to sensory knowledge. One partner had to create a strong frame on a low, middle or high kinsephere, where the other partner could comfortably put their weight onto. Sensory knowledge was a fundamental part of this exercise as it allowed us to find interesting, stable position’s where we could easily hold our balance and gave our partner challenges in finding an interesting way to put all their weight onto ours; “It is the early and ongoing affect of touch that still presents a challenge to the long standing,” (Bannon and Holt, 221, 2012).

“We must ask ourselves what body it is urgent to produce, what theoretical discourse could invent a body that is both conscious and unconscious, a body that can act and resist, a flexible body and an unshakeable body and an unshakeable body” (Bannon and Holt, 223, 2012). Remaking that contact once it is broken is something I found very difficult in this next exercise. This exercise involved me and a partner sitting back to back and exploring movement whilst always being connected. I found it very difficult to keep in contact and know what / where my partner was going to go next. This came with time, after experimenting with movement for a little bit with my partner, I started get to know their body and how they moved, allowing me to slightly know where they were heading with certain movements. How do we remake contact once it’s broken? During the exercise once contact was broken I found it hard to concentrate and get back to the movement. But shortly after, I learnt to think ‘what have you got to offer your partner?’ offer them anything you can, you never know how it might turn out. Or, in doubt, return to your starting point, the original position, your safe place. It is ok to go back to this safe place, but eventually we want to be able to keep going, once the contact has been broken, pick it up by starting again, from the position you are ‘stuck’ in.

Touch is “’the mother of all senses’” (Bannon and Holt, 218, 2012), and as we have established an important sense in contact improvisation, but something I think is just as important is the use of your eyes. We use our eyes to look closely, to take in appearances and our surroundings, it is also something that can be very strong when connecting with something or someone. The sense of looking is something that people take for granted, it provides us with a lot more information than touch can, in my opinion. Eye contact can make contact improvisation so much more meaningful. It is a way of keeping that contact throughout the exercise, I found it also helps you really connect with your partner, follow their eyes, take in their movement and gain their experiences.

The idea of our contact improvisation jam at first frightened me a tiny bit. But as soon as I entered the space and we did a few warm up contact exercises I was raring to go. Excited was the last thing I thought I would be, but that I was, very excited. For the first time I actually didn’t care what anybody thought, I truly realized there is no wrong or right and I felt comfortable with myself and with the people around me and the environment that was surrounding me. We formed our own circle of trust, with the room dimly lit and the glow of the cathedral. Darkness is something that made me feel comfortable, something that I never thought I would say. For me, the fact we were in the dark set the mood, I felt excited to dance in the dark. I found it easier than I thought to improvise and move with members of my class, I found my body moving in ways I didn’t know it could. It really helped me find and realize the range of my body. I found it more comforting improvising with a partner than I did on my own, I found it easier and it really boosted my confidence whilst in the space. I standing back and observing the circle just interesting as I did being involved in it. It was intriguing watching other people move and improvise, it gave me little hints and tips in how to let my body go and move freely.

Bannon and Holt once said “we can think of the skin as animated, as a lively border crossing of social interaction” (Bannon and Holt, 220, 2012). Create a journey in how you move, don’t just move for the sake of moving, try to create a conversation between you and your partner throughout the time you are improvising together, this is something I used to challenge myself a bit more. ALWAYS offer something to your partner whether it be a full movement, or just a gesture or a body part! The more comfortable you are in your own body, the more comfortable you will be working with others.

 

Bannon, Fiona; Holt, Duncan. (2012) Touch: Experience and knowledge,Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices Vol. 3.

Before this session I had an image of contact improvisation; bodies supporting one another, a lot of touching, always touching, lifting, and a vast amount of trust. This interpretation isn’t based on anything I have seen, purely on what I gather from the title ‘contact improvisation’. I most definitely know that there is a lot more to it than those small points, which is why I am excited, but apprehensive, to get involved in contact improvisation.

Towards the start of the first session I quickly learnt that there is two types of contact improvisation; choreographed contact improvisation and improvised contact. From watching various videos, HumanSex and Angela Donny and Athos: Contact Improvisation being two examples, I learnt the difference between the two. Improvised contact seems to be a lot slower and fragile, whereas choreographed contact tends to be fast paced, a lot more structured and complex. HumanSex, is a choreographed piece of improvisation and this is quite easy to establish. Complex moves which clearly need to be rehearsed are performed, such as the girl launching herself at a high speed through the air, with the man catching her in the perfect position, something that you wouldn’t be able to do simplistically and between two people, on the spot, with no verbal communication. From watching Angela Donny and Athos: Contact Improvisation, an improvisation contact piece, I notice a point of contact and a relationship between two people that I don’t see in choreographed contact improvisation. The two dancers clearly have a connection and are really concentrating on each other in order to perform a successful improvisation task. Something I also learned from watching Angela Donny and Athos: Contact Improvisation, is that it isn’t just about you as an individual dancer, you now have a responsibility to look out for your partner, ensuring that what you do doesn’t put them in an awkward or physically uncomfortable position, nor hurting them. If you are working together through weight and momentum, don’t just loose that strength because you think you can’t hold it any longer, pursue it, or slowly work your way into a more comfortable position for both you and your partner.

We then went on to experiment with a responsive task. Having the idea of momentum, weight and touch in our minds we got into partners and experimented with another person initiating our movement and controlling where the body goes. Heitkamp quotes, “A way of touching can suggest direction – high, low, right, left, straight ahead, maybe even diagonally-back up” (Heitkamp, 2003, 263) and this is exactly what we experimented with. It wasn’t just about performing the movement, it was about where that movement came from and letting someone else control that. As the task went on I realized that it wasn’t just about prodding your partner, it was about sticking with them, that connection between your hand and their body always being there, making the movement they were performing a lot more non-habitual and creative, but at some points difficult and limited. I found this task quite difficult, as easy as it sounds, I found it difficult to stick with my partner, and touching their bodies in the same places, making the movement they could perform confined. “We do not begin to move from zero, that first we have a desire or image to launch the system into action.” (Paxton, 2003, 176).

Having my eyes closed whilst moving is something I found quite difficult to grasp, mainly because I find it uncomfortable. This meant that this next task became quite challenging for me. Walking around the space with our eyes closed, using our arms, our hearing and sense to slowly guide us. Eventually we came into contact with one another, not knowing who they were, and greeting them with a hand shake and a hug. “One of the most important elements of contact improvisation is communication by touch, both by touching and by being touched,” (Heitkamp, 2003, 256) and this was an important element of this task, to touch, to hug tightly and be close to people in order for us to get comfortable with one another. Surprisingly I found this rather comfortable. The first thought of it found me feeling quite worried and apprehensive, the idea of not knowing who I was hugging / touching made me feel very uncomfortable. But as soon as we started doing it I started to realize how comfortable I actually felt with the majority of my class. Walking around the space with my eyes close is something I still found challenging, but it was a good exercise to get me comfortable with my peers, which was the idea of it.

So far we have experimented with touch, trusting our own senses and attempting to become comfortable with one another, the next task involved trusting each other. During various trust exercises it was important that you weren’t just looking out for yourself, your partner was also your responsibility. Meanwhile, I learnt that during the partner trust work it is important to find that balance and control with you partner, which also involved putting your weight onto one another. Something I found useful was to imagine you are moving as one body, not two individual bodies, work together in order to find the perfect balance of weight. An example being that one exercise involved in leaning towards the complete opposite direction of your partner, but your shoulder and arm still touching and then walking forward. This required team work, and an evenly distributed amount weight. Some exercises were more difficult than others, but overall I found the trust was there, I trusted my partner and discovered that you don’t have to be the same height and weight for this to be successful, it’s about that even amount of teamwork, weight and effort.

Overall, I found my first experience of contact improvisation very interesting. Paxton says that “contact improvisation constantly challenges one’s orientation: visual, directional, balance and where in the body the consciousness is positioned” (Paxton, 2003, 178), mental attitude is just as important as the movement in this art, as you are working very closely with others it is crucial to remain that focus and concentration.

 

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

Heitkamp, D. (2003). Moving from the Skin: An Exploratorium. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II, Vol. 28:2. Pp.

La La La Humansteps. (1980) Lala Humansex. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRt5Y439dv

Angela Donny and Athos. (2009) Contact Improvisation. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Angela+Donny+and+Athos.+%282009%29+Contact+Improvisation.