This week we began the session by reflecting on this week’s reading Steve Paxton’s “Interior Techniques” by Robert Turner (2010). We all said how it spoke very much about the importance of touch when it comes to improvisation and also the reluctance to use it in everyday life and how this is what causes apprehension when it comes to contact improvisation.
Afterwards we watched some video examples of contact improvisation. Magnesium (Paxton, 2006) was one. I found there was minimal movement when the dancers moved by themselves however when they met another body it became quite high speed. I felt like there were underlying themes of pushing, pulling, rolling and spinning. One particular move stood out to me and it occurred a couple of times during the improvisation. While in contact with each other (using the arms or hands as a point of contact) a dancer would rotate and swing round another, causing them to descend to the floor and spin around on their back. The standing dancer, still rotating, would then pull the dancer back up lifting them form the floor to standing. This move was always executed with a strong, meaningful connection between both dancers.
The next improvisation we looked at was by Blake Nellis and Brando (Aaron Brando, 2010). I found this improvisation to look weightless and effortless as if they were moving without thinking. One move seemed to flow into the other as if it was choreographed. You could see the incorporation of under and over dancer and the transitions between the two changing between the under and over dancer was seamless. While watching it I asked myself how can I make my movement flow like that?
Personally I preferred the look of Blake Nellis’ and Brando’s (Aaron Brando, 2010) steady and relaxed approach to improvisation in comparison to Magnesium (Paxton, 2006). One thing I noticed in both pieces, was something we are told to focus on and that’s our intention behind our contact. Whilst watching, I could see they initiated their movement and points of contact with purpose and force. Even if in the second improvisation it looked delicate, they were certain with their movement and I think this is what made it so effective. The fact that they were so sure in their movement and what they were going to do made me feel at ease, they performed their movement with confidence. In the reading it was said ‘dancers learned to have confidence in their “choices”’ (Turner, 2010, 131), is this something I will learn? Will I ever be able to move as freely and as relaxed as that?
Our warm up task was a challenging one. We began in neutral to bring attention to our bodies and then were asked to roll onto one side to lie in foetal position. We did this and sped it up until a point came when we were told to begin moving without taking your head off the floor. How could I move without taking my head of the floor? It took me a while to get into the flow of this. I struggled to move into higher levels and mainly kept the movement minimal, however, I asked myself ‘what were the unexplored possibilities of movement’ (Turner, 2010, 126)? The more I thought about it the more I made sure every single surface of my skull had made contact with the floor and therefore I could happily say I exhausted the movement possibilities.
Our first hands on task involved us cradling another person’s head in our hands. Person A would lie on the floor and person B would sit behind them. Starting at the shoulders, person B would stroke their hands up the neck of person A to the side of the head and gently, without assistance lift their head off the floor. As person A, I found this very relaxing although I did struggle with letting go of my head, not because I didn’t have trust in my partner, just because I found the process of fully relaxing a body part quite challenging. However, as person B I felt I held some kind of responsibility, the head is a very precious part of the body. I was very nervous about moving my partners head and whether I wasn’t being gentle enough or I was holding it at an awkward angle. It really did make you think about how you apply your touch. From this, Person A was asked to begin moving, starting slowly with minimal movement and then developing to bigger movement travelling around the space. Person B was told to keep contact with person A’s head. When I took on the role of person A, I found it really brought my awareness to the head, a part of the body which might usually be forgotten. This meant there was a major reduction in my habitual tendencies. This especially was the case when person B was told to give a little guidance and somewhat persuade your direction, this also meant I would initiate and lead movement with my head. From my experience of being person B and guiding I found this rather therapeutic. It meant, from an external perspective, you could cause the dancer to create interesting movement patterns they wouldn’t have necessarily thought of. Was this a duet in itself? A point we drew upon from the reading was this idea of control in improvisation, ‘assuming authority or submitting to it’ (Turner, 2010, 124), suggests this idea that when you’re improvising as a duet one person takes lead and controls the direction of the improvisation. It doesn’t necessarily mean that person is always in control, more of the fact that someone will be leading while the other is surrendering to it. In this exercise even though person B wasn’t dancing as such, they manipulated person A’s direction of movement and therefore contributed to the movement being produced.
For our next exercise we were asked to get into pairs and create a point of contact between our heads. Without losing this connection we were told to start improvising. In the reading is say’s ‘The understanding of personal space is social/habitual and since the habit is defensive, having that space invaded can be shocking’ (Turner, 2012, 125). During this task I could definitely relate. Having to keep such a tight proximity with someone for an elongated amount of time was quite daunting especially as it was the head/ face, which is quite an intimate body party. This being said, it definitely pushed us to the limit of our movement boundaries and allowed us to produce really unique movement. After a while we were asked to switch body parts, my partner and I decided to go for the elbow. I think this was quite a safe choice in comparison to the head or the back/ thigh lets say, especially as it meant I could still move my lower half in isolation to my partner. We were then asked to change partners. This threw me as it meant you then had to once again form that connection with someone and begin to create this flow of movement, which for me takes a little bit of time to get used to. However, the change did mean you could experience different bodies and the way different people move which opened my eyes to more material. As the exercise progressed the exercise developed into changing the points of contact rather than just holding one. This is the first time I’ve properly felt like I was taking part in a contact improvisation because of the freedom we had and from the sort of movement being produced.
Following this we did an exercise which focused on how we use our focus and eye contact as a tool for communication. We were instructed to walk around the space and make eye contact with who we passed. This progressed into us holding the eye contact for an elongated amount of time, almost so you felt uncomfortable doing so. Once this had been established we started involving movement. On your own accord you’d make eye contact with someone, follow them and then copy the movement they produced before separating and continuing with your different paths. This exercise made me realise how much can be said through just the eyes.
The last exercise was a weight-baring exercise, where one person would make a base by being on four points, where by the knees and the hands were parallel and touching the floor. Another person would line themselves up, in the same position, next to the first individual. They would then lift the arm and leg which was furthest from the other person and rotate themselves round so they were facing the ceiling. They would at this point be making contact with each other’s back. The person doing the rolling would take a moment here and fully rest themselves on the other person. They would then continue moving to roll off on the other side in preparation for them to then be the support. I found this quite easy because I have quite a tall back so I could easily roll onto and off my partner, however, my partner even said how she struggled because of the height difference. is this something I need to consider when improvising?
Aaron Brando (2010) Contact Improvisation: Blake Nellis & Brando @ Earthdance. [online Video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQRF2sLK1vY [Accessed 7 October 2015].
Nelson, L. (dir.) (2006) Contact Improvisation Archive DVD #2: Magnesium, Peripheral Vision, Soft Pallet. [DVD] East Charleston: VIDEODA.
Turner, R. (2010) Steve Paxton’s “Interior Techniques”: Contact Improvisation and the Political Power. TDR: The Drama Review, 54 (3) 123-135.