I was a lot more confident walking into this weeks session than the week before. Knowing that I had learnt the basis of a few lifts and balances has made me more confident when trying more challenging ones which I knew was the agenda for todays lesson.
We started the session by watching two videos ‘The play of Weight’ by Martin Leogh and Neige Christenson and ‘Contact Improvisation’ by Mirva Makinen and Otto Akkaen. After watching these videos it become clear to me that they both showed gender equality in opposite way’s through dominance. For example in ‘The play of weight’ (Christenson, 2009) the woman shows dominance by being the over dancer more frequently than the man. They both showed interesting types of lifts mainly always being the woman being lifted. The dynamics were sustained and slow. However the quality flowed nicely which consequently meant the movements looked effortless to them. This is one of my aims in my own contact improvisation duet with Zoe to make our movements look sustained and effortless to the audience. The next video we saw ‘Contact Improvisation’ (Omegabranch, 2011) showed faster dynamics with quicker movements and lifts. In this dance they did not use stillness and rarely slowed down. However in this video the gender roles showed equal dominance, which was different to the last video. They both performed the same amount of movements over and under which showed the strength of the dancers particularly when the women lifted the man.
We started the lesson with an exercise that we have never tried before. Instead of doing specific rolls or movements across the floor we were asked to improvise but with idea of basing our movements on spirals and rolls. This was interesting to explore, as I was improvising however still having to think of stemming the movements from the basis of rolls and spirals. It then occurred to me if I was ever stuck in a jam of what movements to do next I could think about different ideas to explore like spirals and use that as my incentive.
We then moved onto rolling and surfing. Previously I have been more confident rolling on my own rather than with a partner so I was keen to learn how to surf efficiently with a partner. Kirsty explained that momentum was key to keep and sustain the connection with your partner whilst rolling. I was keen to crasp this concept as rolls are an effective way of travelling with a partner in jams. My partner was Charlotte and from the first roll we travelled together I could feel like we both had a strong connection. I had never felt as comfortable with giving my weight to someone whilst doing rolls and constantly keeping the connection at all times. After the phrase ended Charlotte and I both had the same reaction which was excitement and ended with the saying ‘that felt so good’. I felt really happy with the rolls I did and was proud of myself and charlotte for achieving our intention of always having connection with each other. I feel this linked so a quote from our reading this week ‘any movement, they all have possibilities’. This relates to the rolls, as there are so many different ways we could move together and the many possibilities for new movements we can create.
I then challenged myself to do another type of roll called an aikido roll. My first initial thought was it looked tricky. I was paired with Zoe and I was nervous to try it. After trying it a few times it occurred to me it was not working as well as I was trying roll over my head instead of rolling over onto the side of my shoulder. Even after trying on my shoulder it still didn’t look as smooth as it could do. As Zoe is my partner I think we will continue to practise this roll so we could possibly include it into our contact duet. When Zoe was doing this roll on me I felt it easy to pull her around to finish the phrase. I think this was because Zoe had more momentum when she was doing the roll so that meant the momentum made it easier for us both to roll again to finish the phrase. This roll and situation linked to our reading ‘using the momentum of my partner as the force that moved me’ (Curtis and Ptashek, 1988, 158) I feel this relates well with my own practise because I am having to use Zoe’s momentum from her body to enable me to roll around. This also links into us working together and combining both forces from our body to be able to perform the roll successfully.
On the other hand I found the next section of the session rather frustrating. It was a certain counterbalance which involved standing back to back with a partner and one person would lean all the weight on the other which would mean their feet would rise off the ground. The hardest part of this lift for me was the scoping motion. I found it hard to stay stable because I had to bend down more to pick Zoe up the correct way. The main reason for this was the height difference. It is easier for two people to perform this lift if they were similar height but because I am quite a few inches taller than Zoe I found it hard to pick her up. This therefore frustrated me as I was trying to do it correctly but initially thought it was my fault it was not working. It was only after Kirsty told me it is normal for me to struggle on this because of the height difference between me and Zoe. I then tried this lift with Millie and performed it successfully first time. This gave me confidence as it made me realise I was able to take someone’s weight in this position and perform the lift.
Throughout this session Kirsty told us to focus on releasing muscular tension when performing lifts or counter balances. Through out the session I tried to relate this to my own practise by being aware of the muscular tension. I tried my best to eliminate it by moving my joints to initiate the movements instead of straining the muscles to perform the movements. This will not be an easy adjustment to my movements so I will need to work on this throughout the jams and sessions.
Curtis, B. and Ptashek, A. (1988) Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quaterly/Improvisation Sourcebook. 13(2) 156-162.
Omegabranch (2011) Contact Improvisation Mirva Mäkinen & Otto Akkanen. [Online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw [Accessed 16 November 2015].
Neige Christenson (2009) the play of weight. [Online Video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltq6y06E8ew [Accessed 16 November 2015].