‘In other words we learn to use our bodies in necessary and efficient ways in order to relate to our environment and a moving partner.’ (Brown, 1997, 73)
This week we began the session by standing still with our eyes closed. We were told to stand as still as possible to ‘Sense the weight of your body’ (Ravn, 2010, 21) and experience the presence of our body in the space. This exercise made me really aware of my shifts in weight and how much I move even when I try to be still. This whole task was influenced by Steve Paxton’s Small Dance (ZayacZhe, 2009). Whilst I was watching the video for the first time I was a bit confused as to what it was trying to show. However once I did this task I gained understanding on the matter and what it was trying illustrate. Your body is constantly moving, even if you are unaware of it, the body is constantly re-aligning itself. This movement isn’t necessarily visible to an external observer, however I became aware of the ‘internal kinaesthetic sensations’ (Ravn, 2010, 21) when taking part in this exercise.
We then went into our warm up where we travelled around the room walking, taking in our surroundings and bringing our awareness back into the space. After a while we began to incorporate a roll down into our walking where we’d roll down, go out into plank and then walk our hands back to our feet and roll back up to continue walking with purpose and intent. This developed into downward dog where we’d walk through the feet, walk the feet to our hands and roll back up. Next we travelled across the space using this idea of ‘grounding’ our bodies, a concept which was spoken about in the reading Sensing Weight in Movement (Ravn, 2010). We started with moving across the space on our hands and feet as our four points of contact, we were told to keep our pelvis low and the movement fluid. This then progressed into bent leg cartwheels and handstands with straight legs and legs in second. The last few exercises all possessed an aspect of upper body strength, which is something I lack.
We began improvising in partners where we brought back an aspect of a task visited in week 2 where we’d shout stop and our partner had to pause so we could find a point of balance. This time however we both were moving and partner A (the person who would pause) wouldn’t announce their moments of stillness. Instead person B had to sense their pause and react to it. This is another task involving this idea of non-verbal communication. Instead I’d have to keep an external awareness where I’d use ‘the other dancers’ way of moving […] as information for my own movements.’ (Ravn, 2010, 22). In other words, I’d use the tactile sensory input as my invitation for support. As usual I preferred being the under dancer and found when I was paired with someone who was comfortable to put their weight on me and be the over dancer the improvisation seemed to flow more freely as they were less hesitant or conscious. This is something I think many people struggle with when it comes to contact improvisation. The reluctance to put your full weight on someone else, means you hold back and therefore inhibit the movement being produced but also the experience you have. I remember in the second week when we we’re introduced to this idea of under and over dancer and how I was heavier if I was tense and if I didn’t fully relax my weight onto the under dancer. Personally this is what I think holds me back, ‘how the weight of the body is perceived from within’ (Ravn, 2010, 23), how I internally sense my weight on someone else and how I comprehend my weight to feel. Even from my experience as being the under dancer I know I’m not the only person who feels this way, even if it hasn’t been said.
The next task was more of a trust exercise more than anything else. We all stood in a circle and one person would move into the centre of the circle to then begin a count down from three to one. In this time the individuals standing on the outside would move to stand behind them. The central dancer would begin to fall backwards and the others were there to help support the fall. You’d gently place the dancer on the ground supporting every bit of their body and then return to your original position. I was more than happy to help support another dancer, but I did not have a go at being the actual centre dancer. This developed into two groups where one dancer was lifted up by the remaining bodies (in my group there was 7 supporting dancers). One dancer would stand in neutral as the rest of us placed our hands on various bits of the body and as the individual dancer fell backwards we would gradually lift her up above us and carry them around the space. We also took turns holding various bits of the body and some areas require more strength (upper legs) whilst others require more care (head). It really made you think about how you’d apply your points of contact and how much force or pressure you’d exert to form a connection but to not cause harm. We all had the opportunity to experience being the dancer who was lifted and for me this was a nerve wracking experience. However, as stated in one of the readings, it is possible for anyone to lift anyone, it’s to do with ‘the body’s construction more than the body’s strength’ (Ravn, 2010, 24), and in this case I had 7 other people lifting me.
After this we split into research groups and in this group we began mind mapping questions we individually had asked ourselves over the previous weeks in contact and points we had risen in our blogs. This made me realise a lot of my worries other people shared and put my mind at ease a little. Some of our questions and points linked. I think it became clear as a collective we were all still interested in our movement being produced, whether this was habitual or not, the ‘questions of aesthetics and creativity still remain’ (Brown, 1997, 74). However, when we began expanding on our questions and points we found two stood out. We brought up the importance of the senses and whether we rely on some more than the others and what would happen if we took one or multiple away. The second point was focusing on this idea of consciousness, which was brought up in one of the previous readings, and whether it benefits improvisation or not.
Brown, B. (1997) Is Contact a Small Dance? Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, 6, 72-75.
Ravn, S. (2010) Sensing weight in movement. Journal of Dance & Somatics, 2 (1) 21-34.
ZayacZhe (2009) steve paxton. Smalldance
. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44&feature=youtu.be [accessed 13 October 2015].