Reflecting on the course of this module I’m surprised at how quickly it’s gone. I remember the first week worrying about having to dance in such close proximity with another body whereas now it feels like second nature. I no longer walk into contact class expecting the worst and feeling apprehensive. Contact improvisation made me realise how meaningful touch is and the importance of it as a form of communication. I remember in week 1 saying my way of feeling comfortable while improvising was to shut off the outside world, but contact improvisation has opened my eyes to the many possibilities available while improvising if you take in and are aware of your environment. We normally began class by walking around the room as a way of becoming aware of the space and the people around you. This would gradually develop into initiating contact whether it be physically or through the eyes. Developing an awareness for others was definitely something I experienced during this module. We learnt to perceive people and our environment while having one of our most vital senses removed (sight). If we think about the idea of removing sight, it puts the individual in a very vulnerable position. To think all the way back to week 1, where we all had a distinct lack of trust in each other, to now when we are happy to improvise with another person or be led by another person with our eye sight removed.
For me the hardest thing to come to terms with during contact improvisation was that you couldn’t just rely on yourself. I struggled when it came to giving another person my weight and believed they wouldn’t be able to take my weight. At the time this worry caused me to feel very tense and actually made it harder for another person to lift me. As time went on I became less and less cautious of giving my weight to someone as it happened more frequently. When we were introduced to going up and started trying out some of the lifts my initial worry was falling or being dropped, however once you’ve made a mistake one or two times you begin to worry about it less and just thrown yourself into the movement. This dislike of giving my weight to someone else was something I overcame and now feel quite happy with doing, that being said I still prefer being the under dancer.
When I used to think about improvisation I very much cared about how it looked. I would always think about the aesthetics of a movement rather than the internal kinaesthetic sensation. As the module went on I began to think a lot more about how it felt and this diverted me away from my habitual movement. I realised just because you weren’t thinking about how it looked didn’t mean it looked bad. One thing that did make improvisation a struggle was when you were having an off day. Certain days the movement just didn’t seem to flow and this made me very tense. I felt as if my partner could pick up on my feelings or even worse an external viewer. This caused me to avoid contact with other people as I felt more comfortable (when in this mind set) dancing on my own. We would often discuss how we felt after exercises and jam sessions and people would often voice if they felt this way. I couldn’t usually tell if anyone was feeling this way unless they said and this made me realise that just because I felt like this it didn’t necessarily mean it looked that way.
One thing as a group we struggled with was entering. We would normally say after a jam how we found it difficult to re-enter the space after exiting and how we struggled to establish a connection with someone when you just entered the space. During the course of this semester we conducted research labs where we could run exercises on particular topics we found interesting. Many groups decided to focus on this idea of entering and gave us tasks where we had to think about entering the space in any way we wanted other than walking/ running or entering the space with another body. By walking or running we made entering the space a lot harder for ourselves as ‘we do not begin to move from zero’ (Paxton, 2003, 176). Entering the space already moving or with another body means we already have an intention and then you can adapt and change depending on what’s happening in the space around you.
During my mid-term feedback it was noted that I didn’t include much dynamic variety while improvising. Usually, I improvise at a slow and steady pace and I would generally opt for a slower, softer dynamic, especially at the beginning of the term when I was cautious of people around me. This is something I feel I’ve improved on especially as more aspects of contact improvisation have been introduced. This conversational side to contact improvisation, which we were introduced to in week 7, caused me to produced movement at a quicker speed with a faster, sharper dynamic. I also found by changing my dynamics I would produce new innovative movement. If I stuck to my habitual speed, I was more likely to produce habitual movement. By changing my movement quality I not only challenged myself dynamically but also in terms of my habitual tendencies.
In general I’ve become a lot more aware of my body; the way it moves, what it’s capable of and limitations or weakness I wasn’t particularly mindful of. It also makes you think about how others move and brings awareness to other people’s bodies and how you might interact with them. I particularly liked experiencing being a part of a choreographed duet. This, along with scores, made me aware of the more structured side to contact improvisation and I think it’ll affect the way I choose to choreograph in the future.