Coming into our first Contact Improvisation class I was excited yet anxious. Having done improvisation last year I had established that I enjoyed partner work more than solo work, so I was excited to experiment with this further however, I was still anxious as it was a new practice which I would be learning. Studying Steve Paxton for one of my modules last year gave me more excitement for this module as I became intrigued about it when studying him. Our first class was to help to introduce us into the module and get our bodies comfortable with the floor again after our summer break.
The main ideas for this class was to look at pressing, sliding and rolling movement and to play with the tonal qualities of our movement. After exploring these ideas individually we worked in pairs to start tracking each others movements. I found that I was more conscious about my movement when there was somebody else following my my body in the space, rather than us all moving individually. After tracking each another we had to both move but still try and track each other which I found began a little awkward but as my partner and I got more engrossed in our movement duet, the movement became much more natural and I found myself at my most comfortable since the start of class.
Whilst in our pairs we were then reminded to really explore our use of tone and to range it from 0-10, ten being a very heavy tone and zero being a very soft tone. When exploring this we noticed that as a class the pace of our movement increased the higher up the scale we went and decreased when coming back down to a lower tone however, my partner and I tried to keep the tone light and remain fast and keep the movement slower with a heavier tone. We found that it was quite easy to do a heavy tone slow yet it was very difficult to do a softer tone fast as usually you need force in order for your movements to be fast. Having done this class I had noticed things about tone which I had perhaps never thought about, it also made me excited for future classes where we will be looking even deeper into partner work.
Alongside our class we also have a Contact Improvisation jam once a week, this being my first jam I wasn’t sure what to expect but I went in with an open mind. We began using the floor as out partner and using the sense of touch to awaken not only that sense but the others too. Touch is a vital part of Contact Improvisation, as explained in this quote. ‘One of the most important elements of Contact Improvisation is communication by touch, both by touching and by being touched, in the course of which a wide range of information is exchanged through the skin.’ (Heitkamp, 2003, 256) we moved on from the floor and began to work on a more kinetic way, this lead to grazing and finally pair relationships began to form. We worked with the lights off so that the space was dark and peoples features were less visible. As a group we all found that we felt much more relaxed and felt less exposed, especially with solo work as our bodies weren’t as visible. Moreover personally I tend to work with particular people as I know how their bodies work so I feel more comfortable with them however, doing the jam in the dark meant that you couldn’t easily define every person and I moved from person to person not caring who I was working with. This opened my perspective as I allowed myself the chance to dance with different bodies, all with their own unique take on Contact Improvisation.
This first week has been exciting and an eye opening. I am excited for my future classes and jams to see what new experiences I encounter!
Heitkamp, D. (2003). Moving from the Skin: An Exploratorium. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II, Vol. 28:2.