Month: December 2017

This week was our last ever contact improvisation lesson. What journey this semester has been in this module. One of the hardest modules practically I have ever done so far. But from this I have gained so much and taken so much away from this which I will take into modules in the next semester and level 3 and even into my career with me so I really feel this module has helped me greatly. 

I’ve definitely had my ups and downs in this module as it is so unpredictable it’s unbelievable. I’ve learnt that you are not always going to have a great lesson every time I walk into the studio to study this module its very hit and miss and you have to take the good days and the bad days on the chin and when you walk into the studio again for the next session you come in with a new attitude. 

When I first started contact improvisation its really daunted me, I was so excited to start it and actually get into it but it was very hard. Everything we learnt in the first lesson we have taken through to every session with me developing how I do this. I really loved the first few weeks after the first session was over when we started the roll and surf and table top exercises. I really feel like I have masters these now and feel very comfortable doing these with different people. 

When it came to the week after reading week which was going up week well that sent me into a lot of panic as I thought for 1. Are people able to take me up? 2. Am I going to be able to take people up? When it came to these sessions I really enjoyed being the over dancer and I felt really comfortable with specific people.  As the weeks progressed just when I thought I wasn’t good at taking people up and being the under dancer I really surprised myself by taking a lot of people’s weight and even Kye’s who is a lot taller than me so from this I feel a great deal of pleasure as I have accomplished something I didn’t think I was able to do at the start of going up week or at all for that matter. This gave me the confidence to trust more people being the over dancer so I started trying going up moves with more people being the over dancer and really started to trust them in the last few weeks of the semester. 

Throughout the semester like I’ve said in previous blogs we were encouraged to work with everyone with in our group and this I did as much as I could. I worked with lots of different people by the end of the module but at the start I had a great deal of anxiety which hit me a lot as I thought I only felt comfortable with certain people and them being my closest friends but as a result of being constantly told to work with different dancers I had to do this so the anxiety did ease off and I came more and more open to working with everyone in the class. When it came to lead and follow with our eyes closed which we had done in more than one lesson this is what hit me the most if am honest as I had all my trust in one person’s hands. I worked with Sarah, Chloe, Jess and Laura. The hardest would have been Laura as we were in a trio for this but when we started like I had said previously she wrapped her arms round us both and made us feel safe. Sarah’s was somebody else who I hadn’t worked with a lot and I didn’t trust as all but from working with her again in different classes I feel a lot more comfortable with her. This was the hardest part of contact improvisation for me. 

This year’s reading was hard there was a lot and it was very heavy and at first, I dint think I would get through them but being in reading groups really helped me when it came to the theory as I struggled. At the start of the semester I really struggled to understand some of the readings even when we put them into my practices but as contact improvisation as developed I’ve gone back and gone over them again and everything has become a lot clearer to me. 

I think at first the hardest outcome to achieve was using and working with others safely and confidently until the last few weeks when I felt confident to do this. This was definitely a problem for me at the beginning but seeing other people work with others gave me the confidence to work with others. I did this a lot in lessons but I found it hard to do this confidently so now I feel like I can finally say that I feel comfortable with working with the different participants in my class. This was one of the only outcomes I felt was really hard and achieving this I would have hoped to of achieved all of the outcomes given for this module. 

Over all I have taken so much away with me during this full semester and I’ve enjoyed every part of the semester even when times did get tough and hard because I couldn’t do certain movements but I feel like I have really achieved a lot through my time and can say that I am pleased with myself with how I’ve performed in every single lesson putting in all I had to each session. There wasn’t one lesson that I didn’t enjoy so overall I have really enjoyed every part of the module even though it has been one of my hardest. 

This week’s contact improvisation was so enjoyable but also at the same time very hard. I really enjoyed the first half of this session which was the underscore which is a structure for contact improvisation. The session consisted of individual and partner work throughout the first half off of the session. I worked with many different people in this part. As we walked around the room our teacher would should out different underscores (structures) in order to create dialogue and movement with one another. Because of there being an odd number people were sometimes forced to create movement on their own for example, skineshpere was called out due to people being in partnerships already I used this to explore the limitations on my own. Trying to find the different sensations I could give my own body and how I could counteract movement from this.
I manage to remember a lot of what I had learnt throughout the past 6 weeks in this session, I was tested a lot by the limitations that were given and then also the explorations of the structure when in partnerships, in the sense of trying to stop my habitual movements and to try explore different ways of going up and the different movements that could be created when coming down and out of the going up lifts.
I became the under dancer a lot in this session, I really enjoyed exploring the different ways of taking people up and out of the floor. I made some great connections with Chloe, Kye and Jess and this was all in very different ways. All of these connections consisted of the same whether I was being the under or over dancer, on the floor or standing. Creating a sense of dialogue with in our bodies to create good under and over dancer moves and lifts, having an equal sense of gravity in order to be safe when we were taking each other’s weight and lifting one another high, for example Kye took me very high off the ground and tipped me so my head was facing the ground we had to distribute our weights in order to be safe when doing this. Although it didn’t feel like I was doing this I wasn’t holding muscular tension in my body therefor it was easier for Kye to take me up above the ground safely.  Me and jess created great connection at the begging when it was to explore the lower kinesphere we remembered a lot of what we had done in previous lessons but also explored a lot coming out of these movements and the sensations we had given one another in order to move into something else with a sense of flow. Me and Chloe work together a lot outside of lesson time rehearsing and also together a lot in contact improvisation throughout the semester, there for our relationship and trust is so complete we feel at ease working with each other and don’t mind both being either the under or over dancer so our duet felt really good and complete. 

In the second half of our session we brought it into a jam. I feel a great deal of anxiety when it comes to jamming. I don’t really like the thought of one and even going in, but when I finally get into the space and create relationships I feel more at ease. This jam I really enjoyed, I made some great connections with people I hadn’t made connections with in a jam before. For example, Laura Carey and I for a great deal of the time during the jam. I instigating working with Laura by her before position which was Kye holding her in the air, I thought it would be great to catch Laura to put her down and from this the connections built and our constant connection of touch and sensations formed really well together. We were both negotiating being the under and over dance, so there wasn’t a clear over and a clear under dancers. The movements felt really at ease and complete they didn’t feel odd or out of the ordinary which was really nice to feel. The movements just flowed from one to another so there wasn’t any significant pauses in the movement which I felt was really good.
I also worked a little bit with Hannah in the jam and again both taking each other’s weight were as in previous lesson I haven’t trusted Hannah enough to take my weight but I finally felt ready to do so. Our sense of gravity was in the complete right place and was centred correctly therefore, when Hannah did take my weight I felt safe and comfortable.  

Overall I really feel like I explored as much as I could during this lesson and learnt a lot throughout the session.