During this week’s session we explored different platforms for weight baring and contact between the two bodies, this was very inspiring and I feel like this lesson has been a turning point for me within contact improvisation. We looked at leading from the pelvis, using a front to front connection and exploring the torso and pelvis as a platform, I started to think as to why I hadn’t explored this before within my improvisation and contact improvisation, and then it dawned on me… its very difficult! I felt limited within my own improvisation as I struggled as to embody myself within my pelvis and really let myself take the lead of my body, which lead to me using a lot of habitual movement. However, when we brought the attention of the lesson to using the pelvis and torso has a platform with another body, it started to make sense, I noticed my movement started to flow a lot more, I felt new and creative movement was explored. I also noticed myself starting to release more into the other body.
We moved this session on by experimenting with different parts of balance within the body, using one body as a base and the other body finding balances to create creative movements. I was unsure about placing my weight upon something so fragile and seemingly unstable as body part such as the knee or shoulder, however I really started to understand the ability of something so small, as I felt stable as the body being lifter and the body being base. We started to experiment with having the bodies move in and out of the balances we had explored, this is something I really had only experimented within table top, so finding the release and confidence to do it from kneeling was unnerving, I hadn’t fully realised how important it was to keep the connection and breath to ensure a safe landing ensuring momentum and flow. As the lifter, I started to notice when my partner had gotten tense and managed to work myself around them to help and create a stable base for my partner’s body.
During the session we entered a jam situation, however unlike previous weeks where it was an open jam, we started with a score of minimum of 2 people and maximum 4 people within the space at one given time. This was something that scared me and I began to worry that it would knock my confidence within the space, creating my body to tense and my movement to become habitual, I originally thought I’d be exposed with some much space compared to what we are used to and with everyone’s eyes on me. My mind was completely changed as soon as I entered the jam, forcing myself in I began to work with another body and my fears just went away, I started to forget that I was in a jam and become completely embodied within my partner’s movement which is something I had never experience before in my dance training. The only part of the score that I really struggled with was the feeling of needing to come out the space to give the other bodies a chance within the jam, as I started to embody my partner’s movement I felt like there was so much more to explore, but just not enough time to get the full amount out of my partner. “Using an understanding of structured improvisation, we can move beyond the familiar frame of dance and consider the embodiment of other improvisational practice” (Keefe, 237, 2003) This is something I started to realize during the jam part of this weeks session, as we were limited to 4 people in the space maximum I started to pick up the pace a little bit more than I would normally, which enabled me to explored more of partners body and movement as I knew I had to leave the space to able to let others explore movement for themselves.
Jam
This week’s jam felt different to all the other jams we had, had before. I felt a new confidence within my movement, movement bank and my creative skills. I think going into the jam session with a positive mental attitude made a really big difference to how experimental and creative my movements are. This is something I plan to do for the next couple of jams we have left in this semester. I have also started to notice not only in this weeks jam but in the sessions we have had this week that I am starting to release a lot more and having a lot more trust within my peers and my peers body, which is enhancing my movement and helping me to stray away from habitual movement.
Bibliography
Keefe, M. What’s the score? Improvisation in Everyday Life. In Albright, A. C., & Gere, D. (2003). Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Conneticut: Wesleyan University Press.