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.