Due to personal circumstances I didn’t attend today’s lesson. Further on from this we had two readings prior to read in preparation for this class. Although I didn’t attend the class I still did the readings for this session.
One reading, Exposed to Gravity by Bruce Curtis and Alan Ptashek and then the second reading, Dancer- Dance – Spirituality: A phenomenological exploration of Bharatha Natyam ad contact improvisation by Aparana Ramaswamy and Daniel Deslauriers.
Exposed to Gravity really seemed to click for me and was the one reading I really understood because we have had a reading previously about Gravity, Centre of Gravity by Ann Woodhull in week 6.
Bruce Curtis a man in a wheelchair talking about his experiences and own bodily movement whilst sitting down. He talks about how his body moving and dancing in his wheelchair is just the same as anybody else’s movements that they can do stood up using everything in their body. ” this micro-movement was just as much dancing as what everyone else did with their whole body”. (Curtis, B. 1998. 156) his body is just as able as anybody else’s even though he is in a wheelchair his moves are just as much dance as for example mine are who is able to walk.
Curtis talks greatly about how it does not matter how his body is your just as able as anybody else and it’s how you use your disability to your advantage and how you explore your body being disabled. He states ” what is most important to remember is that each body, disabled or not, is unique and presents another opportunity to explore what movement is possible”. (Curtis, B. 1998. 157) this is really inspirational and Curtis hasn’t let his disability stop him from doing anything that anybody else can do.
Although he cannot feel the gravity under his feet his “chair has become a part of my body”(Curtis, B. 1998. 156) he states. Therefor in order to feel the sensations of gravity his chair does this for him. ” gravity is very noticeable to me since my muscles cannot stand in opposition to it.”(Curtis, B. 1998. 157).
Contact improvisation has a great sensation feeling to it when creating contact with a different person, whether it’s just hand to hand or whether its other body parts touching one another. I know this due to my own experiences throughout the past 7 weeks in contact improvisation. The sensations I feel when somebody touches a body part and what movement follows on from the sensation I was feeling. This is exactly the same with Bruce Curtis. He feels sensations the same way as we do he still leads from movement to movement from the sensations he gets. He says ” through the point of contact, I would feel the potential for movement waiting to be released” (Curtis, B. 1998. 158).
Music has a huge impact on our improvisation I know from past experiences in jams me as an individual definitely move to the rhythm of the music. Curtis talks how Alan discourages this, ” the body tends to move to the rhythm of the music, instead of the internal rhythm of shifting weight, sensations and the communication that goes back and forth.” (Curtis, B. 1998. 158).
Although Bruce Curtis has that form of disability Alan Ptashek talks about how he uses the chair and still contacts Curtis by jumping and throwing himself on top him and his chair without any complications just like it’s somebody out of a wheelchair. Ptashek suggests that he’s found a safe way of doing this without injuring each other. ” I have learned and thrown my weight on Bruce and his chair from many angles and impulses”. (Curtis, B. 1998. 161). Like before they have to have their sense of gravity in the correct place just like anybody else in order to do these contact moves.
This reading was so interesting so see the difference in Bruce Curtis but also the similarities in mine and his body because there is no different sometimes.
Curtis, B. (1988). Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, Vol. 13. Pp.156-162.