Month: December 2015

Stepping into the room with the realisation that this was the last lesson of this module hit me. Not only this, but it was duet assessment day, which is why I was nervous as the hard work that Zoe and I had put in was being shown as a mini performance, in front of Kirsty and the rest of my classmates.

At the beginning we started off by showcasing our contact improvisation duets. I was looking forward to seeing how other partners choreographed their duets and what material and techniques they incorporated into them. Zoe and myself specifically asked to go first to perform our duet. In previous years I sometimes found myself panicking when watching other people’s performances before my own, because I start to compare and doubt my decisions within the choreography. So I felt asking to go first would eliminate this worry, which would mean when I was performing I would have a clear state of mind and hopefully perform it better.

When performing my duet I felt very confident and safe with Zoe. After all the practices I have developed a lot of trust with Zoe and feel like our connection when dancing has grown stronger. I feel like the duet went well and nothing in particular went wrong. This was a great feeling as one of the lifts we performed had not been always a consistent success in rehearsals. This involved me balancing on Zoe’s back and lifting both my legs up into the air whilst the only point of contact were the back and the hands. This lift required a lot of balance for Zoe, as she had to stay completely still to support me and I had to remain balanced to keep my legs straight and still. In the performance the energy made up perform the lift successfully. Throughout the duet I feel our connection remained strong as we always tried to keep in contact with each other. This was one of the aspects we practised a lot in our rehearsals, because this was one of our points from Kirsty after our first section of feedback a couple of weeks ago. Kitsty said we needed to have more connection and choreograph some different movements that allow that to happen. We then took this feedback on board and changed our duet by adding more techniques with more connection such as surfing and rolling, using different anchor points and weight bearing lifts.

Throughout the rehearsal process the routine kept changing. I felt this reflected our knowledge of contact improvisation and how it improved over the course of this module. I believe this was because every week we learn new techniques and then wanting them to incorporate them into our duet. For example our routine was more complex on performance day than from what it was at the beginning of the rehearsal process.

The second half of the session involved us taking part in the Underscore by Nancy Stark Smith. This was the first time we all as a class we have participated in a structured score together. This experience for me was too restricted, as my movements felt trapped within the stages of the score. After each stage of the score I felt like I wanted to explore it more but then we were told to move on to the next section of the score. However I did enjoy working through the different stages of the score as this made me more of the different starting points in which I could initiate movements and the many different dynamics I could move with. From looking back at the first lesson of this module I didn’t improvise with many dynamics, as I didn’t even believe this would make a big change to my movements. I am not ashamed to say this, as my previous training has been very classically based and I had a fixed fluid dynamic throughout all my movements, so I didn’t know any different. After this module I have learnt how very wrong I was from my initial perceptions on dynamics. I can now see how dynamics can impact movements and how they internally can make you feel when dancing. I am beginning to rely on dynamics to initiate my movements when improvising. For example, when I am bored of the movements I’m performing I sometimes think to myself I am now going to dance with a sharp and fast dynamic. This enables me to experiment and let my body have a purpose with the movements I’m doing. Restricting my movements makes my body move in a less habitual way and discover new movements I would never have done if I had not restricted myself to these dynamics.

Looking back to the modules we completed in the first year and in this semester, I believe this is the module in which I have made the biggest improvement within myself from the very first to the last session. At the start I was very nervous and had no self-confidence dancing to something that has not been choreographed. Not only this, but I was nervous to make contact with others, as this is a concept I had never been trained in. Looking back at the first videos that Kirsty recorded in the first session, it was obvious to me I looked very unsure on the movements I was doing and therefore tended to switch to habitual movements. However, in the more recent lessons the videos have proven to me that I have become more confident in my movements as they look stronger and more purposeful.

A quote I referenced in my blog post after week one was by Steve Paxton ‘Improvising can not be taught, though it can be learnt’ (Paxton, 2003) I feel this quote sums up my practice through this module. Even though we have been taught many different techniques of contact improvisation, my experience in the jams has been the biggest learning curve for me. I feel like the jams have made me more open to the idea of contacting with others and have made me more confident in doing so. After every jam I felt like my movement showed more maturity as I was becoming more aware of the movement possibilities my body could do. For example as the weeks went on I started using different dynamics, exploring different kinesphere’s and playing with what initiates my movements.

I never thought I’d say the sentence that I actually can see and feel the improvement I have achieved since the beginning of the module. The techniques and movements I have learnt have not only made me improve in this module but I feel like my body is a lot stronger and more aware in technique and other practical modules. I am pleased that I challenged myself in this module and overcame the fear that I had at the beginning.

 

Paxton, S. (2003) Drafting Interior Techniques. In: Nancy Stark-Smith (ed) A Subjective History of Contact Improvisation. In: Ann Cooper Albright and David Gere (eds) Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 175-184.

 

 

In this weeks session the main theme was scores. We looked into the basics structures of scores and how scores are used within contact improvisation. There are so many possibilities on the scores you can create, as there are so many different rules you could apply to the score to make it as interesting as possible for the audience. This is the first session that we have incorporated scores through improvisation since last year so I was keen to get back into dancing with a score. I particularity enjoy dancing with a score as it keeps me as the dancer challenged when improvising because of the restrictions and rules the score could include.

 

In the beginning of the session we started with standing in a space with closed eyes. I find this very useful for me, because being aware of my internal self leaves me with a more focussed attitude towards the session ahead. We then started to warm up by walking around in the space but then experimenting with different concepts of contact improvisation. For example making different points of contact with others, anchor points, weight-baring positions, manipulating someone’s movements and experiment contacting with different speeds and dynamics. Personally, I felt this exercise really helped me to be aware of my own body and get used to being in contact with others again. As the warm up concentrated on the specific elements I stated above, it made me have freedom in how I could contact with others. Instead of only concentrating on one way of contacting I was free to challenge myself with the many different options. This related to a section in the exercise where I had just come out of a weight baring position with Lauren, but instead of going into contact with someone else I wanted to be in control so I decided to manipulate phoebes movements by holding onto the back of her head. The freedom of this exercise made it more interesting to me and made me realise the many different ways I can make contact with someone which I was not aware with at the beginning of this module. This links into the jams and the many different options I now have the knowledge of doing with other people.

We then participated in some travelling exercises. The travelling movements we practised were the ones we got taught in our workshop in which we participated in and was delivered by Feet Off The Ground Dance Company. The travelling movements included movements I had never tried before the workshop, which involved headstands and walkovers. It was useful to practise these movements again so I begin to improve them so I can involve them in jams more often. Millie was my partner for this section and as a pair we worked well together. I think one of the main reasons that lifts and weight baring balances work well with Millie is because we are both the same height. This is an advantage as our backs are in the same angle and height when doing lift baring movements which makes it easier to me the over and under dancer. We then tried to incorporate all of these movements together by improvising a travelling sequence across the room. One of the main concepts Millie and I were concentrating on was always trying to keep connection throughout. The first couple of times we disconnected however the more times we travelled together the better our connection has got. I felt more and more confident that more times we did it even though every single time we did something new and that excited me. By keeping in contact I hope that the movement looked more seamless as I personally felt like I was very connected to Millie.

 

In this weeks reading Some considerations when structuring an improvisation by Jamie Stover informed me of different questions and ideas I should consider when making a score. ‘How does my dance fulfil or not fulfil existing contextual aesthetic expectations and parameters for dance? (Stover, 1989,185) This reading then linked in with the task we were asked to do which was to prepare a score for our classmates and to trail it in this weeks session. In my group we created a score ‘The mouse Trap’ which focused on spatial awareness and awareness of others. The space was divided into four squares and the dancers had to travel around the squares clockwise. The rules were that everyone had to enter from the top left hand corner and only dance in the first square until the fifth dancer entered the space meaning the next square was unlocked and free to dance in. This rule carried on so when the ninth dancer entered the space the third square was unlocked and so on until all the dancers were dancing in all four squares and then finally left the space through the top right hand corner. This rule made sure that all dancers had to work their way through the space to exit it. Not only this but also this score made dancers be aware of others as they had to be aware of the exact number of dancers in the space. We had to pick one member of our group to observe and the rest of the group including me had to participate in the score. It was fun to take part in a score that I had partly created as it was putting our creations into practise. Millie who was the observer of this score noticed a few key points by watching. Firstly she noticed that dancers were hesitant to enter the space. This might be because of the nature of the score as they were familiar with the rules but because they had never tried it before were nervous to take part. Secondly Millie observed that even when everyone was present in the four squares she could still the divide very clearly within the sections. This linked to how I felt in the space as when I was in a certain square I felt like it was my home for a while and wanted to explore movements in that particular square before I moved onto the next one.

We also participated in our classmates scores as well which was interesting to see what they decided to base their scores on and what rules they wanted to include in their scores. Each of our scores was very different from each other’s and that made them more exciting to take part in. Some scores involved dancing in different parts of the room for example ‘The half way score’ involved the spectators standing in a straight line in the middle and having each side of the line performance space. This meant you could pick which side of the line to perform in. This also felt unusual to have the audience in a different position rather than in a circle in which I am used to.

Throughout this session I started to reflect on my practise of contact improvisation and how I feel like my dancing as changed and improved throughout this module. Even though I still feel quite vulnerable doing this practise I feel like I have learnt how to trust myself more. This is not only in lifting people and being lifted but trusting myself to be more confident.

Stover, J., 1989. Some Considerations When Structuring an Improvisation (to be seen by an audience). In: V. 14, ed. Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook. Northampton : Contact Editions , p. 185