We began today’s session by watching back clips from our on-going assessment during Week 7, which included participating and performing in the round-robin formation. I often feel during contact improvisation that the movement feels clumpy, as non-verbally communicating to my partner that she can give me more of her weight or that I can lift her in a certain position is difficult to do. However watching the recording, I found it surprising that the majority of the movement and the way I transitioned between certain lifts or levels with my partner was not only dynamically fluid but also the movement continually developed and grew. I found myself taking my partner’s weight more and becoming the under dancer, which is something I shied away from at the beginning of the semester as I trusted my partner to take my weight more than I trusted myself to take someone else’s weight. I was also surprised at how the lifts were executed and transitioned into our improvisation and although there was diversity between who was being lifted, I want to develop the idea of a continuous weight exchange between my partner and I further in later scores or jam sessions. In terms of improving, I found myself using my arms to direct movement and lean on my partner when transitioning between levels, which is something I had no conscious awareness of doing until watching the recording. I also want to develop new and original surfaces to offer my partner instead of habitually using my back to lift and support my partner’s weight.

After watching the video, we investigated ways to move our pelvis up and through the space rather than across it. To do this, we began lying on the floor and initiating our movement solely by lifting the pelvis, which in turn moved the rest of the body in a different direction. In order to shift through the space, I relied on my feet at first to find a new direction as leading with my pelvis felt awkward and heavy. However thinking about the idea of lifting the pelvis to initiate the movement instead of wanting to move through the space quickly allowed me to explore and become comfortable with this way of moving. In partners, this exercise was then developed further by moving our pelvis on and off another body as they changed positions and levels. At first I struggled to execute my pelvis on and off my partner quickly and fluently as I wasn’t used to leading with this body part when becoming the over dancer. However once I relaxed into solely letting my pelvis take control of the movement, I found it easier to transition on and off of my partner, especially when she was on a lower level. Developing on from this, we began to use our legs to quickly transition on and off of our partner, as they constantly changed positions. I felt more comfortable leading with my legs and landing on my partner was lighter than initiating the movement from my pelvis. However when my partner was on a higher level, I found I utilised my pelvis a lot more in order to reach the desired height with my feet, which in turn made me realise that by using the pelvis I could achieve better contact with my partner and find new ways to transition on and off a surface instead of delicately placing body parts onto it.

Next we experimented with moving along the floor without hooking onto our partner to change direction or to move them across the space, which, although I tend not to do on a lower level, is something I habitually do on a higher level to maintain contact with my partner. During this exercise, I realised that hooking onto my partner can actually stop the natural flow of the movement producing a duet that seems and looks awkward and clumpy. However when it became a conversation between the two, we were able to really listen and feel one another’s movements, finding new ways to initiate this and subsequently fall into transitions. The fluidity of the duet without hooking drastically contrasted against the movement that was initiated by only one person dominantly moving her partner around the space.

The next task focused on pouring our pelvis onto our partner’s back exploring ways to utilise the pelvis more frequently as well as to gain a better understanding of how using the pelvis can provide better support when being lifted. To do this partner A leant over placing her hands on her knees and providing her back as a surface for partner B to pour her pelvis onto in order to lift both her arms and legs away from the floor. Once in this position partner B either rolled up her partner’s back and onto the floor in front of her or continued to pour her weight over her partner in order to reach a handstand position before sliding off her partners back. When providing a surface for my partner, I discovered I needed to get lower in order for her to easily place her pelvis onto my back, which also made it easier for me to support her weight as she lifted her legs off the floor. However when I was being lifted, I found I could pour my pelvis further in order to support my weight independently rather than fully relying on my partner’s support. This also made it easier to transition off my partner without just habitually standing and moving away from her, which is something I tend to do during duet exercises or jam sessions.

Our final task was to devise a contact score in groups to be performed at an open studio event in a week’s time. In order to create our score, we referred to Jamie Stover’s Some Considerations When Structuring an Improvisation, which identified the two ways that a score could differ. Firstly a score could either follow a strong structure that the dancers religiously keep to or the dance itself could influence and change the original score depending on the dancer’s performing. Secondly a score can either be formal enough for the audience to follow and understand the action or completely invisible with no particular purpose or ending. In relation to Stover’s considerations, we also had to decide whether the score include visual markers, how much the dancers needed to rely on the rules and what spatial rhythm structure the score would follow. Following on from our research labs, we wanted to primarily focus on a way to transition between levels fluently and diversely as well as experiment with using different tones and speeds within our score.

So far our score follows these rules, however these will be developed further before our performance:

• To start, each dancer asks an audience member to pick a number between 1 and 10 – if the number is even you start on the floor, and if odd you begin on a higher level
• If you are on a lower level, the movement must be slow, sustained and controlled
• If you are on a high level, the movement must be faster
• Whenever transitioning between levels you have to find the most complicated route
• Everyone brings their own rule to the score which is applied throughout the score but no other member of the group knows
• You must exit the space after dancing with 2 dancers
• You can only enter the space after seeing 3 lifts performed
• If a duet is left in the space, the others create a corridor for them to travel down

Citations

Stover, J. (1989). Some Considerations When Structuring an Improvisation (to be seen by an audience). Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II, (14)185.