Our research lab was based around eye contact with in contact improvisation. Our question as a group decided on…
How does eye contact effect movement within improvisation?
Inspiration for our question
the inspiration for our question was because of one of the exercises that we did in class that Kirsty set which was in partners on the floor rolling and lifting the chest, we were asked to do this not looking at each other and then in partners looking at them in constant eye contact which felt different to use as a group. There for by doing this exercise it inspired us to think how different movements would feel when using and avoiding eye contact.
We then set two tasks for the rest of the class
Task 1 – Improvise while avoiding eye contact
Task 2 – Improvise while keeping eye contact at all times
We encourage the class to use contact as much as they could as well to see the differences in improvising alone and together.
Task 1
We asked the class to improves in pairs when the pairs where improvising in the first task we asked them to keep their eyes open but completely looking in different directions to their partners, almost as if they were to look through them. (through their partners legs, in little holes between their body, anything than looking at each other).
We asked the class question on the first task that we set them
Questions:
How tempting was it to disobey the rules and use eye contact?
The dancer felt that they found it difficult when we spoke during the exercise t not look at us but other than that they felt that they didn’t want to disobeying the rules.
If you used contact in your partners how did you feel avoiding eye contact?
They felt that no giving each other any contact was really hard to connect and make relationships with somebody to then use contact with their bodies. They felt that when they touched each other the instant reaction was to look at the person touching you because when you make the contact with each other you make the eye contact to make the relationship with somebody to get past the boundaries of working with somebody, but after they made contact a few times and got passed that boundary they felt that they managed to do this.
Task 2
The second task we didn’t want the dancers to lose eye contact at all with anybody, you could make eye contact with one person but with anybody in the room not necessarily a partner but we id encourage the dancers again to make contact whilst doing this again.
Questions:
Was it easier to use contact when giving your eye contact to each other?
People thought this was easy but when they lost their eye contact they felt like they were just stood there trying to find someone else to connect with which then they found difficult as everyone was so intense in their pairs trying to keep contact that sometimes they found them self not looking at anybody which they found difficult.
Did you feel like you this pushed your movements boundaries?
They didn’t feel like it pushed their boundaries because when they lost that eye contact with their partners they felt that the relationship had disappeared and like I said before they felt them self just stood there.
How did the tasks feel?
What were the differences between each task?
They felt that in task 1 they were more focused on what they were doing themselves than to what other dancers were doing but then in the second task they were more focused on the partners and using contact with each other because they had that eye contact to make relationships and to also synchronize and copying movements from partners when keeping the eye contact.
How did the movement changes? Did you feel that it was more difficult during either of the tasks?
They felt that when they were avoiding eye contact from each other it was difficult because they found it hard to communicate and to make relationships to make contact with another body in the space. They felt they couldn’t do a surf and role without looking at each other, they found it hard to do previous task that we had done in lesson with Kirsty without communication and contact with the eyes. Therefor movement changed and the way they used contact with each other changed and that also when they were giving eye contact they were constantly looking at each other which restricted movements in their bodies.
What we found out from the tasks:
We found out that making eye contact is such an important part of contact improvisation when it comes to contact with different bodies. Eye contact builds that relationship with your partner and the introduction between both bodies before then improvising and making contact with each other is really important to have. They also felt that having the break from eye contact aloud the movements to be explored more and less restricted you can do exercises like the pebble role and surf and roles which use they back to back contact with of course you can’t do when staying in constant contact with each other.
In class before the research lab we did about small dance by Steve Paxton, we talked about how there’s no such thing as stillness and we are in constant motion. The task standing still was so hard for me, the sensations and reflexes from my body was making me move, but I allowed my body to feel the impulse off small intricate movements to gradually make the bigger movements.
We also expanded the surfing and rolling exercise and pebble exercise and did these together. I found this really easy as I worked with Chloe at first who the relationship we have is so trusted, this exercise was hard to blend the task together but when we got over the boundary of it being hard and we understood how to do the exercise properly and safe it became natural and I really enjoyed it. I also worked with Charlie who’s contact relationship isn’t as strong as mine as Chloe’s so we just stayed in constant communication with each other.
Did she feel comfortable with me taking her weight?
I know that she didn’t feel that comfortable with me doing this as I haven’t taken her weight before but she was fine with taking mine.
Did I feel confident with Charlie taking my weight?
I did and when I rolled over Charlie the task worked really well.